Moving.

Everything else
1

So I am moving on Thursday this week. I have only moved once before 22 years ago when I moved out of home in to this house with my now wife.

We do have a removal company moving us but not packing up for us, been doing that ourselves.

Anyone got any tips, things I may have forgotten or any other advice?

2

Padding, padding, padding. When I last moved we packed our own breakables. Some were not padded enough. We lost a few dishes and glasses.

3

Those tall wardrobe boxes where you’re meant to put clothes are great for EVERYTHING. You can put smaller boxes in them and then have uniform boxes for the actual move. Our last moving company did that and we were amazed at how well it worked.

4

Have a lot of packing tape. You can never have enough.

Mark on all sides of box what room it goes into. This way the movers do most of the shuffling around. You can use numbers instead of words and tape the numbers on doors and walls so the movers know where to put the boxes.

Probably half the stuff you are packing you do not need. I mean it throw some stuff away. You will wish you had when you are unpacking.

Separate the items that are sentimental or valuable and move those yourself. For example my gaming computer was in the car not the truck.

If you are using any type of pods make sure where you are going they can fit etc. I have read horror stories that certain pods could not always fit due to size or local government regulations etc.

We always try to feed the movers on top of a tip.It is a nice gesture and the movers always were grateful.

Measure the doorways to make certain you can get things through it. It helps you to prepare. For example do we need to take the legs off the desk to get it through the door? This can save a lot of time on moving day.

Some things will break it is going to happen. Some things will get lost, it is going to happen.

It can help to put the things you will need right away specially marked. Like a pot to cook in so you do not have to try to figure out where oh where is a pot on you first couple days. Kind of like first day boxes so we have our essentials out whatever it might be.

5

Heh, yeah, this. I suspect it’s something that gets easier if you do it a lot—I’ve only moved a handful of times in my life. But each time I’ve unpacked and thought “Why the hell did I pay actual money so I could put this thing in the back of another closet?!”

A older friend in grad school, who had been moving every two years since she was a teenager, used to call it “the jettison spirit.”

6

On the other hand I’ve lived in 12 different apartments over the last 22 years and I’ve gotten rid of a number of things that I said, “I probably don’t need this” and then later wished I still had for one reason or another. Moving sucks so bad.

7

You can get moving insurance from a third party and it is probably a better deal than getting it from your movers.

8

Well we were Garage and Loft Hoarders, 40 trips to my local tip later I have thrown out everything so all in we are taking a lot less.

In the UK we have a lockdown so moving is a little more difficult. We have to be ready by 9am on moving day and leave the house before movers come in and pack it in the lorry. We are then allowed back in once they have finished to give a quick hoover round. then at our new place we have to wait until they unloaded everything until we can go in the house.

Good point on the good stuff, we have 2 estate cars, so the TV’s, laptops, consoles and other valuables are coming with us.

I like number the rooms and boxes, sounds a lot easier.

We are planning takeaways for the first 3 days Thursday (Moving Day),Friday and Saturday just to relieve the pressure.

We have Broadband coming in Friday and TV on Saturday so a couple of days with no TV but we can stream once broadband is in. Main focus was to be ready for work from home for all of us on Monday.

I am an insurance broker, cover is good :)

9

LOL you sound like a pro. We should be asking you for advice!

10

I used to be a professional mover, so I have some advice.

  • When you figure out how much tape you need, and go “there is no way I will need THAT much”, buy 3 times that amount. I recently helped a friend get ready for a move and went through like 10 rolls mattress-padding* her bedroom set.
  • Buy the mattress pads, and about a “too many?” amount as the tape.
  • The same with the craft-paper stuff you wrap your dishes in
  • The movers quite literally do not give as shit about your stuff.
  • Since you won’t be there for the movers, as mentioned label all sided, including the top. I’d say make a map, but they won’t give a fuck about that either. It is likely all boxes will go in one room.
  • Since you won’t be there, and the movers have ZERO accountability, take pictures of EVERYTHING with a date stamp on the image. You won’t be there to see the dresser take a flyer down the stairs.
  • For residential moves, the movers also do not give a crap about repeat business. They likely will treat your stuff accordingly.
  • Number the boxes, and before you unpack anything make sure you have, say, 45 boxes. Do not label what is in the box. Again, you will not be there. Keep a list on you that prints out a legend/
  • Sentimental stuff, as mentioned, move yourself.
  • Also have an overnight bag packed with what you need for a first full day. On the worst case, if something horrible happens you are covered. The best case is you know where a change of clothes and soap is.
  • Have a high bar something need to clear to be packed. This, as mentioned, is a good time to purge.
  • There is probably a term Home Depot uses for this, but we called them mattress pads
11

Pro tip: put on your shoes.

When we moved ten years ago, we thought of everything and I prepped really well in advance and then when the movers came, they packed my shoes in a box and loaded it on the truck. So I had to sit outside in my socks like in idiot and all the movers had to wait in the truck while my wife ran off to buy me a new pair of sneakers.

12

Thanks for this, few more things to think of on those ideas.

We are using a local company and moving 5 minutes up the road, they are all about reputation but even with that we are not taking any chances, anything that means anything is coming in the cars.

We do have one advantage, My mother in Law and Sister in Law live in the same street, so we have stuff in their garages already and anything we are worried about has either gone or is going to theirs, for example the glass TV stand is going there on Wednesday.

Having spent the weekend packing up it still feels like there is so much to do, luckily we are all off Wed, Thurs and Fri which should help

13

One advantage to this time of year, your movers are likely people for whom this is their jobby-job. Summers you get the kids who really don’t give a crap.

14

I am always fascinated by people who have not moved often. I moved 26 times by the time I was 18. Army brat will do that. Between then and when I moved into the house I’m in now, I moved, um, 11 more times I think.

I’ve been in my current home though for over 20 years, so I kind of settled down some.

15

One other thing: tip them.

16

Yeah, I counted one: I am 60 years old and have moved between 35 and 40 times. Admittedly most of those were undergrad or grad moves, so mostly single rooms, but still, moving is grueling and frustrating and just not fun. Good luck!

17

Man, you folks have moved a lot. I’m 45 (as of this Friday) and I’ve moved a grand total of 7 times in my adult life. Plus 4 times as a child. I only remember the last of those child moves as I was 12 for that one. And honestly most of my adult moves were in my college years for really obvious reasons. One move to college dorms, two moves to shared apartment space with roommates, one last college relocation to move in with my girlfriend, etc. Since college I’m moved a grand total of two times, both times due to purchasing houses.

Back to the topic at hand, I honestly advocate for packing your personal cars like you were going on a three day trip. Sometimes movers have bizarre failures or accidents and if things get delayed they are not going to care a bit if your stuff is tied up for an extra day or two. They don’t plan on this happening, but dumb random stuff happens. A guy quits with no notice, or a moving vehicle gets in a traffic accident, or some random crap. If that happens, it’s nice have enough clothes and personal items to survive a few days.

I think others have given good packing advice, so the only thing I’d add there is to set a schedule that calls for being completed packing a day before necessary. That way you can finish it up and even take a little extra time if needed without it being a major stressfest.

18

We are only moving a 3 minute drive away, literally 6 turns to our new road from where we live now so not too worried about movers getting lost or not bothering too much outside completing on time. Being out of the house at 9am and not getting in to the new one until 16.00pm with a full lockdown in place and nowhere to go and having a 10 and 14 year old is stressful. However being in by 13.00pm which is more than possible would be great.

If it wasn’t for Covid I would have moved us myself, having 4 brother in laws and 1 brother it would have been easy but it’s not allowed.

My Dad was a Royal Marine and up to 11 years old, I lived in loads of places and other countries but since then I moved out of home to this house at 27 and now am moving to a bigger place at 49 (50 in 8 days).

My wife has a big family, 4 brother and sisters as well as her parents all live within 10 minutes of each other as well as her parents and 12 grandkids. All very close so never going to be many moves in our futures, we have been together 28 years :)

19

Don’t be afraid to throw out stuff before you move. We moved from the house we had lived in for over 20 years and we dutifully had the movers haul boxes of books I had stored when I got out of college. Nine months later we moved from our new house back to the old house (because we couldn’t sell it). Before that happened I finally threw out all those boxes because I admitted to myself that I was never going to look at them again.

20

My wife and I are both academics. When we moved from Michigan to New York (via Massachusetts briefly) we finally admitted we didn’t need so many books any more. We gave away and donated over 4000 books lol. Probably saved myself a thousand bucks in moving cost!