Author Topic: Share your best advice for moving  (Read 3535 times)

WootWoot

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Share your best advice for moving
« on: December 07, 2016, 11:39:05 AM »
DH and I will most likely be moving in the New Year. We haven't moved in nearly 20 years, and have accumulated quite a bit more stuff than we had before. I'm trying to slowly declutter...and it is going quite slowly.

If you've got any good moving advice, I would love to hear it. I especially need some encouragement as my motivation is flagging, and I've only been doing this about a month. :)

bobechs

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Re: Share your best advice for moving
« Reply #1 on: December 07, 2016, 12:06:05 PM »
1. Burn the house down

2. Collect the insurance

3. Buy new stuff for the new house.

WootWoot

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Re: Share your best advice for moving
« Reply #2 on: December 07, 2016, 12:31:29 PM »
Well, there's a novel approach, but I do not wish to do time for arson and insurance fraud. tee hee

1. Burn the house down

2. Collect the insurance

3. Buy new stuff for the new house.

Lanthiriel

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Re: Share your best advice for moving
« Reply #3 on: December 07, 2016, 12:51:27 PM »
How far are you moving? When I moved 2500 miles, the most important thing to me was organization. Well packed and labeled boxes stacked in the UHaul with other boxes that went in the same room. On the final leg of our trip, we drove six hours, then showed up and unpacked the UHaul in an hour because everything was organized.

For my move across town, I threw everything in the truck and said screw it, life is short.

Good luck!

WootWoot

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Re: Share your best advice for moving
« Reply #4 on: December 07, 2016, 01:04:17 PM »
Just a move across town. Sorry--should have said that to begin with!

.22guy

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Re: Share your best advice for moving
« Reply #5 on: December 07, 2016, 01:09:04 PM »
It's a small tip but this helped me a lot in my last move.

I packed a backpack with soap, shampoo, clean bath towel, fresh clothes, toothbrush, toothpaste, etc and kept close track of it.  I was able to take a hot shower and have clean clothes readily available at the end of the day.  Since it was 108 degrees the day I moved, that was really nice.

Also, I did this partly because in my previous move, the (then) wife and I couldn't find soap or toothbrushes at night.  So guess who got to drive to Walmart with an aching back to purchase that stuff for the kids and us?

birdman2003

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Re: Share your best advice for moving
« Reply #6 on: December 07, 2016, 01:12:37 PM »
When I transferred locations, my employer paid for a moving company.  That was a nice luxury and I didn't have to tire out my family and friends in 100 degree heat.

Sibley

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Re: Share your best advice for moving
« Reply #7 on: December 07, 2016, 01:25:49 PM »
I purge, clean, and pack all together. That way, everything that gets moved is clean. But purging really is the key. Especially after 20 years in one place, you have a massive amount of stuff that you can get rid of.

Depending on your time line, pack a bunch of stuff up. Then stack the boxes out of the way for a while. Write down anything you're looking for. Those are the items that you know to keep. The rest is much more likely to be unneeded.

sonjak

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Re: Share your best advice for moving
« Reply #8 on: December 07, 2016, 01:33:23 PM »

I packed a backpack with soap, shampoo, clean bath towel, fresh clothes, toothbrush, toothpaste, etc and kept close track of it.  I was able to take a hot shower and have clean clothes readily available at the end of the day.  Since it was 108 degrees the day I moved, that was really nice.


This.  Plus add a shower curtain and hooks, roll of toilet paper and some snacks and water bottles.

And when you get to your new place, make sure to set up your bed and put the sheets/bedding on it first.  Then whenever you get tired, you can take a shower and crawl into bed.  Instead of weeping from exhaustion and hunger while you're cutting open random boxes looking for these items or waiting for the pizza guy.

I've moved many times and this is as important for an across town move as a long-distance move.

WootWoot

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Re: Share your best advice for moving
« Reply #9 on: December 07, 2016, 01:37:02 PM »
I like these suggestions! I can use our luggage as easy transporters, too.


I packed a backpack with soap, shampoo, clean bath towel, fresh clothes, toothbrush, toothpaste, etc and kept close track of it.  I was able to take a hot shower and have clean clothes readily available at the end of the day.  Since it was 108 degrees the day I moved, that was really nice.


This.  Plus add a shower curtain and hooks, roll of toilet paper and some snacks and water bottles.

And when you get to your new place, make sure to set up your bed and put the sheets/bedding on it first.  Then whenever you get tired, you can take a shower and crawl into bed.  Instead of weeping from exhaustion and hunger while you're cutting open random boxes looking for these items or waiting for the pizza guy.

I've moved many times and this is as important for an across town move as a long-distance move.

ketchup

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Re: Share your best advice for moving
« Reply #10 on: December 07, 2016, 01:47:22 PM »
If you're strapping a giant couch to the top of a 1992 Buick Roadmaster station wagon, don't trust the hook on the front-left.  Secure everything twice.

catccc

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Re: Share your best advice for moving
« Reply #11 on: December 07, 2016, 01:48:15 PM »
Throw away anything from your last move that you never unpacked.  I'm pretty sure I have boxes from end of year college move outs that are still in my parents' basement.  I graduated in 2003.  That stuff should be thrown away... 

Be ruthless about getting rid of stuff- if you haven't used it in the last 6-12 months, it goes bye-bye.  If you have a hard time parting with stuff, try to find a friend that can use it.  It was way easy to give a friend the ice cream maker my MIL gave to me for Christmas a couple years ago than to hand it over to goodwill or ebay it.

Play the minimalist game - get rid of 7 things today, 8 tomorrow, 9 the next day, etc.

Label your boxes very specifically - not just the room, but what is in them.  If you can handle the extra record keeping, list contents and record in excel for easy searching.  I used to live in a very tiny apartment, and we had to use offsite (landlord provided) storage for some of our stuff.  I would open up my excel file and search "camping equipment" and know that I was looking for the Blue Tote #2 for my stuff or Brown Tote #3 for DH's stuff.  So much better than guessing!!!  Suggested columns are container, location, item, owner.  Maybe this isn't as helpful for a move where you are quickly unpacking it, but if you might take a while to unload everything, it is a nice resource.  Also, I'm a big excel nerd and this is my kinda thing.


Frugal Lizard

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Re: Share your best advice for moving
« Reply #12 on: December 07, 2016, 07:13:38 PM »
I like these suggestions! I can use our luggage as easy transporters, too.


I packed a backpack with soap, shampoo, clean bath towel, fresh clothes, toothbrush, toothpaste, etc and kept close track of it.  I was able to take a hot shower and have clean clothes readily available at the end of the day.  Since it was 108 degrees the day I moved, that was really nice.


This.  Plus add a shower curtain and hooks, roll of toilet paper and some snacks and water bottles.

And when you get to your new place, make sure to set up your bed and put the sheets/bedding on it first.  Then whenever you get tired, you can take a shower and crawl into bed.  Instead of weeping from exhaustion and hunger while you're cutting open random boxes looking for these items or waiting for the pizza guy.

I've moved many times and this is as important for an across town move as a long-distance move.

+1  - I had one large suitcase that was the personal items/bedding for the first night for the whole family too.  Second bag was first morning essentials.  Each contained all the fixings to effectively camp in the new house - for those two critical points.  It was nice to make up the beds with a set of clean sheets and fall into it in clean pjs after a hot shower.  And then wake up knowing everyone could have their special breakfast routine without sorting through a pile of boxes

Friends asked what they could do to help and I asked if they could make us dinner and then let us dash.  We showed up at their place at 6 to a hot meal and left at 7:15 with enough of a break/rest to come home make up the beds and do another couple of hours of sorting locations.  Another friend just moved the contents of the old fridge to our new fridge and then left.  It took her about two hours to pack up and then unload total and it was amazing.  I had ruthlessly culled it so it wasn't embarrassing the week before.

My mom stayed behind in the old house and cleaned each room as it emptied.  She wiped out every cupboard and vac'd up all the dust bunnies.  The new owners were so thrilled that we left the house spotless that they have spread the word about how great we are to the neighbourhood - and considering we only moved 6 blocks, it got back to us. 

I also had put post it notes on the walls where the big items of furniture were going.  If you have a piano, that baby stays where it lands on moving day.  So I had big post its on the floor or walls for the large items.

Cannot Wait!

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Re: Share your best advice for moving
« Reply #13 on: December 07, 2016, 07:47:54 PM »
As you pack up a box, move it into the garage.  It's easier to move a few boxes a day into the garage than emptying the whole house on moving day.  This is also very motivating  - as time counts down, there is less and less stuff in your house and the boxes in the garage are organized and ready to be loaded. 

Not Mustachian, but one of our best moves was when we loaded everything into one of those storage containers that the trucking company leaves on your lawn, then jumped on a plane and went to Hawaii for two weeks.   We arrived at our new place and proceeded to unpack all refreshed and happy. 
We had a gap between taking possession, and cut the work in half with a great break in between.