Moving! Pointers appreciated...

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

If there is a wine or liquor store near you, or if grocery stores in your state can sell wine, this is a good source of boxes. The size of boxes that hold a case of wine is a good size for packing with books, as long as you don’t pack it completely full. Put the books in as if you were putting them on a shelf, in a single row. When you run out of room on that first row, that’s it. Yes, there’s space for more books in there, but don’t do it. If you put any more books in there, it will be too heavy to handle.

This is a good time to cull your spice rack. I’ve heard that you should pitch anything you can’t identify by smell, or anything older than 6 months. Also make sure you don’t pack any expired food from your pantry. It makes no sense to pack it up (or pay the movers to pack it), pay to move it, unpack it, then throw it out at your new place.

Jewelry, important papers, keys, garage door openers, credit and debit cards, driver’s licenses, passports, prescription medications, and anything you can’t replace (like the afghan your grandmother gave you for your wedding) travel with you, not in the moving van.

The “open first” box should include pet dishes and enough pet food for a few days.

Pets should not be wandering around free when the movers are working, even if the pets don’t have a problem with strangers. The pets can escape, or they could even be injured. A bathroom is a good place to keep pets while the movers are there, but do be sure there’s another bathroom that you and the movers can use. Also make sure you pack up everything in the pet bathroom before you shut the pets in there, other than the stuff the pets will need while they’re in there (food and water dishes, a litter box for cats, that sort of thing).

You can fly on some airlines with cats or small dogs in a carrier. The airline might need a certificate saying your pet has had its rabies shots if you do this. Talk to your vet a few weeks before the move.

Moving is very hard physical work. Be sure to drink lots of water while you’re doing it. It’s nice to have some bottled water on hand for the movers, too.

22

Is this some sort of a joke? Web-based mail servers don’t need to be “forwarded” anywhere. I’ve had the same yahoo address since 1997, and never had to “forward” my email, and I’ve lived in three states since then. Is there anyone out there NOT using gmail or yahoo mail?? ? Why in the world do people feel the need to “download email to their computer” ?? boggles

Maybe its a Canadian thing?

23

I am restraining myself so hard from making a pointer joke.

It sounds foolish because it *is *foolish, IMO. Books shouldn’t be packed *too *many to a box, but restricting it to *five *is completely unnecessary (and unrealistic if you have any decent number of them).

I think I have something like 300 books just in my living room, not counting what I have in storage. That would be 60 boxes. Sixty. And I know people on this forum have collections that are an order of magnitude larger than mine.

Instead of picking an arbitrary number, let total weight be your guide: obviously, you can pack more small paperbacks than large hardcovers. You can try picking up the box to check the weight every few books–after just a couple of boxes, you should get pretty good at eyeballing it. If you’re using larger boxes, you can top them off with lightweight items like pillows.

24

Fair enough. I still have flashbacks to the 250 lb. box my idiot roommate created back in college. Either way, my point is basically “when you open a box, put a few books into it, and fill it with other stuff”. Or more simply “a book for every box, a box for every book”. That way, no one punches you in the face.

25

I buy those when I arrive (or close to it), generally it makes more sense than lugging it. Same for lots of cleaning stuff. Several other people have already mentioned it’s a good time to cull: that includes not only things like “do I really need to move that sofa, or will it make more sense to buy a new one?” but also smaller items like the bottle of Windex (which, if it opens or gets a slit, can do a number on whatever it touches).

26

Something else I forgot: when possible use bags as a repack. Say you’re moving a chest. Put stuff in it, bagged. Take the bags out when the chest gets moved on/off the truck/car, put them back in. I learned this one from a pro mover; makes the “box” lighter when it’s being moved but takes very little time to take the bags out and put them back in.

27

By coincidence I have just got home from dinner with a friend who once worked as a removalist (to get fit apparently). At dinner I mentioned to him that I had read recently that people today are so attached to their belongings that in the US the storage industry is bigger than the movie industry. He told me that he used to be regularly amazed by the crap that people paid a fortune to move interstate. Perfectly ordinary store bought furniture that could be found anywhere.

Once before he had told me how regularly he would find that people had packed all their books into the fewest, largest boxes. He would explain to them, “You know the paper in all those books started out as trees don’t you? Do you think I could pick up a block of wood the size of that box?”

28

When loading up your van - put the boxes in first and your furniture last. Nothing is more annoying to getting to your new place, having it full of boxes by the time you start bringing your furniture in…I can’t tell you how many people I have seen loading up vans whereby they put the furniture in first and then fill the van up with boxes

29

Buy yourself a couple of small gifts. (For yourself, for each other, whatever.) Toss them into the open boxes, randomly. You will, naturally, forget all about them. Just when you’re worn down with unpacking, look a surprise gift for you!

I always do this when I move. It helps. Moving sucks. Every little bit helps.

30

That’s an awesome idea, elbows.

31

Unfortunately I just had the opposite experience. I kept my book-boxes half full and the movers repacked and consolidated them into full boxes. I think they were insulted that I had so little respect for their strength.

I was pissed, though, because they weren’t very careful in the repacking and a lot of my books (especially the paperbacks) got bent or crinkled.

32

Here’s my tip for packing up the clothes in your closet: Lay a comforter on your bed, and then stack all the clothes on the comforter, leaving them on their hangers. When the stack is about a foot tall, wrap the comforter around and secure the whole thing with some twine or duct tape at the ends. Easy peasy to put your clothes into your new closet this way.

Make sure your “immediate access” box includes toilet paper. Do not ask how I know this.

Just grit your teeth and get ALL of it unpacked immediately when you get to the new place. Don’t take more than a day or two at the most, lest the project get put on the backburner in the midst of establishing a new routine, dealing with a new job, etc. Next thing you know, it’ll be two years later and you’ll still have a pile of moving boxes in one corner. Do not ask how I know this either.

I strongly agree with all the people who said to cull through your stuff before moving. If you haven’t used it in a year and don’t cherish it, toss it. If you’re planning on replacing that frying pan or faded old sleeper sofa soon, just toss it now and buy a new one when you get to the new place. If it’s old, tattered, falling apart, looks junky and Walmart or Ikea sells it for not very much, don’t drag it across the country. Just get another one.

33

We labelled our boxes not with what was in them but with numbers. We then had a list of numbers and what was in each box in a spreadsheet. Why, you say? In a written list you could be more specific about what was in it. Also, if the movers lose a box, it will be insured but how will you know which one(s) are missing and what is in them?

(It also made it easy when we were unpacking with friends. Some boxes of very personal items you do not need anyone else to see. Ours was box 44. It is now used as an inside joke amongst us.)

Also we put coloured stickers on each box. Green meant living room, red basement, etc. We also put stickers on the unboxable items (furniture, floor lamps). We then stickered the door to each room before the movers arrived.

Don’t forget to use this opportunity to purge!

34

This. We took a few days off to unpack and get settled in. There is nothing better than knowing that it is done.

I know far too many people who moved years ago and still have unpacked boxes. It would drive me insane!

35

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36

Pack everything into boxes, because the removal men will f**king hate you if you hand over each fork and knife individually.