Just had to move quickly due to a family emergency*; it is the first time I’ve ever moved with someone else packing my stuff. Never again. Stuff has been lost, broken, and destroyed, including rare phonograph records, glassware, and antiques. The movers took it upon themselves to dump the contents of entire drawers into random boxes, meaning quite a few bits of paperwork and 100+ year old family photos have been mislaid or damaged (this is infuriating because I sealed up drawers, and asked that they move these small pieces of furniture intact.)
They really took the piss – I was there for part of the packing and shifting of my stuff, and had to listen to endless insults about my possessions – ‘Why do you have so many books? You don’t really read these books. You just have them for decor, don’t you?’ and ‘Why do you have a loom? I bet you don’t use it. It’s probably just a decoration.’
Inexplicably, they dismantled my good main-work spinning wheel, which cost over $1000 15 years ago – I do actually use my textile equipment on commissions, and was horrified this afternoon finally to find all of the pieces that they took apart – unprotected and unwrapped at the bottom of a box, a box also filled with heavy books and several metal guitar stands lying loose. The flier assembly to my wheel is now, of course, severely damaged. Yet in another box, I found a single, empty plastic water bottle, wrapped lovingly in several layers of paper, cradled in a large nest of wrapping paper.
I also did not appreciate their idea of ‘joke packing’ which meant, for example, that I opened a box of textbooks to find condoms and other items from my bathroom medicine chest scattered across the top layer of books.
These were professional movers, friends of the family as well, who were engaged to move my stuff; I would have packed, but I had literally about 12 hours’ notice that they were coming, that is, late the night before. I spent much of that time running around trying to pack up the stuff I knew I would need the most, since I’m teaching a class right now, and trying to put together two conference papers and meet a publishing deadline.
As for the fragile stuff – I went around and clearly marked what was fragile and antique, and spoke to the headman ahead of time that I would shift that stuff in my car, as it was fragile, but by the time I got back to my apartment after work, they had everything packed up, including food. As much as I appreciate how quickly they worked, I’m not happy with how much was destroyed or broken – if they could pack garbage (literally) with loving care, why on earth were they throwing fragile items at the bottom of heavy boxes? The endless commentary on my stuff also grates.
A close friend of mine noted in another thread here that sometimes the best way to talk to people is to punctuate every syllable with a cock-punch; I think I have an idea for how to tip these particular movers when I see them to pay them.
*My recently widowed mother, who lives alone, had emergency brain surgery a couple weeks ago and is pretty much a recovering invalid for the next few months. The plan was always for me to move in, but her accident and surgery created a certain amount of hurry-up to the original schedule.
