I'm in the process of getting ready for a cross country move and trying to make moving and packing the least stressful I can. What advice would you give?
I've been a full time driver/mover/furniture tech since 2012. If you're moving across country, sell as much as you can. People pay so much money to move useless stuff it's crazy.
-Don't pack books into non-book boxes. For the love of god
-The easiest way to break glass is to lay it flat. Keep it stood up. Its more structurally sound. That goes doubly so for inside boxes. Think of a wine glass. People do handstands on wine glasses, but if you lay it flat it'll just snap.
-Check your shelves on your furniture. Make sure that if they are loose, take them out.
-The backs on any (most) reclining chairs/sofas come off. Save yourself some headache.
-If you are moving your own couch, have fun. Always my favorite thing to watch non movers do. There is a whole wikipedia page for moving couches.
-When taking apart your bed start with the center slats. Everyone always seems to start with the side rails that run head to foot and end up breaking the center supports. Depending on the frame, usually, the slats are very cheap and break easily. Don't put stress on them
-If it's from IKEA, it's NOT made to bounce around in the back of a truck. It will die on the way no matter how slow or careful you are.
-Those orange lift straps and harness straps are dumb. Use them only on mattresses, or when moving on flat ground. You'll hurt someone when you hit an incline like stairs.
-Take a moving pad, fold it hotdog, lay it on the ground, tip your dressers on their side on top on one end of the pad, pull the other end while someone is on the backside of the dresser pushing. Save your back and your wall.
-Speaking of, clothes are fine to leave in drawers, but your loose stuff with move and fall behind the drawers inside the dresser/nightstand/upright whatever whenever you tip it on it's side.
-If you're loading your own truck, god speed. Tiered loads are better, don't do whatever uhaul tells you to do, it's dumb. Think perpendicular not parallel. Load mattresses stood up tight to the load, if it's a nice mattress you could shift the top layers and you'll need to fix it or it will deform over the years. Couches stand up, put a moving pad down and stand it up feet to the wall back to the load. Have straps.
If paying for movers understand that most of job time that it takes to do the move, which you would most likely pay hourly for, is boxes and loose bags and junk. All those little trips in and out are costly as all hell. Do that yourself. If you are renting a truck and you get to the unload location on say as an example June 22nd, book the truck until the 23rd or 24th and give yourself time to do stuff. That extra couple bucks will save you a lot of sanity.
Two Men and a Truck is not a reputable company just because it's Two Men and a Truck. It's a franchise. Might as well be a local buisness with how hands off the company is. Most every TMaaT locations I've seen are run by idiots that think moving is braindead and hire labor ready workers. Not to hate on labor ready, but most of the dudes that come to work are sneaking around taking those little one shot alcohol bottles in your bathroom when no ones looking and will damage some shit.
Uhaul has a service for hiring movers. The movers on there are generally more spendy, but it's usually a better bet and more reliable than Craigslist.
-Also, if you hire movers do not say "Must not need to go the gym after this". My god.
When you are wrapping items in paper, don't wrap it tightly and smoothly! You want to crumple the paper up around the item. The crumpling is what protects it; a piece of newspaper wrapped flat and tight around a glass doesn't protect it from bumps and shocks.
BEWARE of your MOVER! I don't know how to beat this, but some moving companies play fast and loose with timing, especially if you don't have enough stuff to fill the truck and the mover decides to combine trips. GET YOUR LOAD AND UNLOAD DATE IN WRITING and with no exceptions. Also, and it sucks to say this, but don't trust reviews because some movers PAY people to take down negative reviews. I'm screaming because my daughter and her husband were royally f'd over by a mover when going from Morgantown to Philadelphia.
-Pack the boxes yourselves. Label everything. If your using a moving service (recommended!) keep the essentials you need in your car with you.
-Garage sales, donation runs for things you are “meh” on… anything you can get rid of now is something you don’t have to move later. Especially that ginormous five piece sofa/chase/recliner set that probably won’t fit anywhere. Consider the cost of bringing stuff over buying new again.
-you can use towels as packing material. Unless they’re “special” towels. In any case, if it’s not in a box, (taped and labeled,) it should be padded with a moving blanket and wrapped.
-don’t over-fill boxes. If it’s too heavy to lift, you’ve over filled it. Over full boxes cause breakage. Moving is annoying and painful enough. More trips with lighter boxes is better for your back.
-Get help. Even if you have to feed/pay them, even if the help is kinda idiotic… getting boxes inside let’s you start settling in. Especially if you have everything you need where they’re not unloading it…
-a lot of time, the issues with help can be resolved with organization, they don’t know where most stuff is going. You can use colored post-it’s or something to label boxes for “bedroom”, “kitchen”, etc. down to individual people.
-this is a great opportunity to get rid of those decorative pillows that absolutely have to be moved on and off the beds…. If they’re you’re pillows? Be warned, if they’re not…well… an accidental knifing or two is in order…
Label your boxes with the room they should go in! Ideally all the boxes go straight to the correct room as soon as they arrive at the new place.
This makes things much easier for everyone involved in the labour. When I help my friends move, I don't know what "Nice Plates" vs "Mom's Plates" means, but this box says Kitchen, and that box says Dining Room and that's all I really care about lol.
And it really helps you get reestablished too, because everything is already pre-sorted for you. No need for you to find, sort, move everything all over again. All the kitchen stuff is already in the kitchen, all the bathroom stuff is already in the bathroom.
To add, to the labeling and sorting… definitely have one person managing where boxes are going. The help won’t know.
I’ve seen a handful of comercial moves. Everyone’s desk is usually their own crate/stack of crates. Generally labeled with post it’s or color coded tape.
Post it’s tend to come off when moving, but if you label everting (or tape the post it down,) you can then place color-coded post it’s up.(or slap them on as they come off the truck- as long as everything is labeled)
In addition to this, make sure to keep a "First Night" box/bag somewhere you can be sure to find it easily. Sheets, pillows, towels, toiletries, a change of clothes, tools to put furniture back together... Basically anything you'll need to settle in on your first night in the new place and get yourself ready the next morning before you really start getting the real unpacking done.
Fuck your dishes right to hell. Pack exactly one box worth of fun coffee mugs, shot glasses, your kid’s favorite cereal bowls, etc. Then donate or chuck every other glass and ceramic plate, mug, tumbler, bowl, etc. Do not move them. They’re heavy AF, fragile AF, and when they get packed properly they create enough newsprint, bubble wrap, and cardboard to shame a 19th century robber baron, all to avoid “wasting” your 12 year old Target plates.
I’ve packed myself, overseen others packing, and even had a couple of corporate relos where someone else packed with minimal oversight. The combination of time, aggravation, breakage, and money is just not worth it. Then it almost all happens again when you unpack.
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