Have you moved recently?

In My Humble Opinion
1

How did it go? What did you do wrong? What would you do differently? (Interpret “recently” loosely.)

I’m moving in a month from a 2,200 sq ft house I’ve lived in for 20 years to a 1,200 sq ft house. I plan to get rid of at least half my furniture. I’m particularly interested in hearing about moves that focused on downsizing, but welcome any peripherally related stories.

Did you use movers, and if so, how much did they do (packing, loading, unpacking, etc.). I do plan to use movers. I’m moving about 40 miles away, from the country to a city neighborhood.

Did you move with pets? What did you do with them on the day of the move?

Tips, advice sought.

2

Well, we recently <a few months ago> moved from a small condo to a much bigger house, with a yard and a back-house and everything. We did hire movers for the big stuff, because we were only moving a few blocks away and it was easy to just move a lot of the small stuff with car or pickup.

Then we hit the storage shed, tossed some stuff, brought out most of the stuff…

And…now we’re downsizing to just about nothing. I am right this minute throwing out as much as I can bear. Got a HUGE pile of stuff for Goodwill to come pick up, and it will get much bigger as we go on. We have at least two dump runs scheduled for later, and hubby is trying to sell what he can on Craigslist. (Lack of work in the area = separating for a while, to different states, while I try to pick up work elsewhere. So it’s temporary, until we get money together, bills paid off, and decide where to live, but for right now, and for quite a while, it’s going to suuuuuuuuuuck>

Right now all that’s going into storage will be the appliances <still haven’t even paid them off /facepalm> and stuff too personal to toss out.

I’d say movers are worth it for the big stuff, and if you have to hire them for any length of time, then you might as well let them take boxes of things you’ve packed up, too. We only had to hire them for a couple of hours, and the space that was leftover was goofy; we could have had them move a lot more :slight_smile:

We do have pets, and the cats are already glaring at me 'cause they remember what all the ‘boxes’ meant last time and they aren’t too happy. We just chose one room to close them off in, in the new place, and if you can, bring as much of ‘their stuff’ as you can into that room ahead of time. Then bring them over <ours cried the whole way; first time they’d been in a car since they were a few months old and got fixed> and put them in the room until the movers have done their thing. If it’s cats, and there’s a window, maybe put something in there they can sit on so they can see out it, and see what’s going on. If it’s dogs, then just go in there as often as you can to reassure them, or let them out into the rest of the house if you’re not worried about their escaping out the door.

3

Pack a suitcase for yourself, like you’re going on a trip. Include a day or two’s worth of clothes (extras if there’s a chance it’ll be raining and you’ll get wet while moving), personal care stuff, pet food, and critical stuff like your purse and any paperwork that may be needed. Take your suitcase with you on the first run of the day and personally put it in the room that will be your bedroom. That way you won’t have to dig through umpteen zillion boxes only to find out all your clean socks are at the other house.

It’s probably worth keeping a basic toolkit available all day as well. You’re going to need a screwdriver for something at some point. And duct tape. And paper towels.

4

Curious (and none of my beeswax…) how come moving again so soon? Do you just love pain, or what?

What you describe with the animals (I have 2 dogs and 3 cats) is helpful. I’ve moved with cats before and I’ve just put them in a room like you said and then moved them to the new house in carriers. I’ve never moved with dogs. At my current house, they just run loose in the country. The new house has a fenced back yard, but I imagine people will be coming and going all day, so I may leave all the animals inside the current house and go to pick them up later. I think I can fit three carriers and two dogs in my SUV.

I’ve hired the movers to do everything. This is my last move, as far as I’m concerned, and I’m going for the whole megillah.

FlyByNight-- packing a bag for the first few nights is good advice. I don’t think I’ve ever been smart enough to do that!

5

We moved a little over three years ago. We moved from one house to another of similar size, so we didn’t really downsize all that much. We hired movers with a truck and two guys - doing it again, we’ll hire movers with a truck and three guys - it took so much longer with two guys that we didn’t save any money after all, plus my husband and I had to help a lot too just to get finished in one day, and I’d be just as happy to never lift a box again.

We have two cats - we took them over to the new house first and shut them up in a room with their food and water and litter box, if I recall correctly. The last thing we needed was escaping kitties that day. They weren’t thrilled about it, but they survived.

The move went pretty well - other than hiring one more guy, I don’t think there is much we’d do differently. I had the house pretty much completely packed when they showed up - it would have taken forever if I was still packing while they were hauling. They did take the legs off of everything, which I had not anticipated, so that took longer.

ETA: OH yeah, packing a bag like you’re going on a trip is a FANTASTIC idea! Also, make sure you have a set of sheets and towels and a roll of toilet paper for the first night in the new house. I always pack in three levels - long-term storage, medium term, and get into right away because I’m going to need this stuff ASAP. Make sure your ASAP boxes are accessible when all is said and done.

6

Keep a couple of cups, a kettle and some coffee and sugar in the car.

Nothing worse than getting to your new digs without a coffee to begin the unloading drama.

Plus, what FlyByNight412 said.

You have my sympathies btw. Moving really sux dead dingo dongers.

PS: You WILL lose something in the move. You might not notice for a few months, but you will have a 2 am epiphany, “Hey, where’s that thingamagig??”

:stuck_out_tongue:

7

I wish! :stuck_out_tongue: No, we got all settled into the new place, and then multiple financial hits came at once. Tax notices, unemployment cut off, STILL no work for me after nearly a year…yeah. We would have hit this point even if we hadn’t moved, and I had reason to believe I’d be back at work by now, but…nope. We just got to where we realized that we couldn’t guarantee we’d even stay afloat, much less get anywhere, so…with no employment on the horizon, I’m going to another state to work, he’ll stay with his folks, and hopefully in 6 months or a year we will have enough cash to get the hell out of here completely. In the meantime, it’ll be living out of boxes, yay! Ugh. :stuck_out_tongue:

Oh, and congrats on your move! I hope it’s for good reasons, and I hope you really enjoy your new place. :slight_smile: In a year hopefully I’ll be moving again, in a positive way. :smiley:

8

Label the sides of the boxes, not just the tops. :o I moved 95% of everything I own into storage and can’t find anything!

All those plastic grocery bags I kept meaning to recycle made for great packing material. I tossed any liquid that had been opened (oil leaked everywhere the time before last) or sealed it in a Ziploc bag.

For my pets, I got all their records and made sure their shots were up to date. Just in case something whack-a-doodle happened. Also mild sedatives for the cats were sanity savers for all of us.

Check to see what method of payment is requested by the movers and make sure you can get your hands on it once you have the total. It’s no fun running around trying to find a bank open if they’re finished later than expected.

Try not to stress and good luck!

9

Pack dishes in dish boxes and books in book boxes. The movers will be very unhappy with you if you don’t. You can probably leave clothes in bureau drawers and not annoy anyone. Don’t try to move delicate things in the folds of those clothes, though.

We have a cat. Before the movers arrived we got her in her carrier and took her to a large storage closet in the new house. She stayed in there until they were all done.

I have always used United, and just to load and unload–I do all the packing myself. I label each box with a description of its contents and the room I want it left in in the new house. I’ve been very satisfied with the service and prices.

10

This! Absolutely this, lol.

11

Buy yourself (or each other, keeping it a surprise!) some little gifts. Chuck them into the boxes as you pack. You’ll very soon forget where they got to, I promise.

It will make doing the unpacking much more enticing, and lots more fun!

Someone gave me this tip, I tried it once, and am completely sold! Highly recommend!

12

Yup. If you’re lucky, it’s in a box that got shoved way under the stairs, and you find it three years later. If not, it’s gone forever. Now, does anyone know what I did with my bed table?

13

The corollary is that you’re going to find things you swear you didn’t pack, and, whilst packing, you will find stuff you swear you had lost forever.

14

use this time to cut back on all your stuff - the less you have, the easier the move is. you know this but, believe me, you will still move way too much stuff. :stuck_out_tongue:

good luck, it is a lot of work and stress but it’s worth it if you end up somewhere better.

take time off, pay people to pack and/or move (do as little as you have to by yourself) and just generally take care of yourself.

and good luck!

15

I’m maybe not a good person to give advice on this, as I moved continents a few years ago, and brought with me only 2 suitcases. But still, I will chime in with everyone else. Be ruthless.

If I were in your shoes, I would seriously consider getting rid of every single paper book I owned - only exception is things that aren’t available on Kindle, or, if you’re into that kind of thing, coffee table/picture books. But think about it - for $2-$8, you can have an electronic copy of the same thing, and not have to pack, move, unpack, sort and shelve it. Books are HELL to move, they’re heavy and bulky and slide around a lot.

The same for furniture. I’m the kind of person that isn’t too picky about if my sofa matches my dining chairs. If you have pieces that you LOVE, that you’d hate to think of never seeing again, then sure, move them. Otherwise, Craigslist and donate them, and do the reverse when you get to your new location. In this Ikea age (not knocking it, lots of our stuff is Ikea), a piece of furniture doesn’t have to hang around forever to be worth the money you paid for it. And new furniture might help your move feel more like a change to a new life, rather than just transporting your old stuff to a new place.

Stuff is just stuff. It weighs you down. It’s an albatross, yeah? And you can always get new stuff.

16

My house is not matchy-matchy at all. Most of my furniture is stuff people gave me and/or I’ve had for 20-30 years. I was “shabby chic” back when it was just shabby. But I have a gift for creating a comfortable, eclectic nest. I will think about the books.

Thanks for the ideas and moral support.