Tuesday 21 June 2022

The nitty gritty fun of moving aka you thought you knew it all

Let me tell you, just in case you ever plan to move, have an unplanned move, are forced to move, decide to do something spontaneous or such. 

You. Are. Never. Prepared. For. What. Lies. Ahead. 

Unless you are a serial mover.  Or have a minimalistic home décor lifestyle.

We were neither of the above.  We had last moved in 1996. That's a long time till 2019. 

We didn't have the minimalistic thing.  We had the maxi-malistic thing going. 

So, in the interest of the common good, let me give you these snippets of wisdom:

  • Buy double walled boxes. You'll thank me later. There is nothing worse then packing a box, picking it up and having the entire content spill all over the floor.  
  • When you think about packaging tape, think large, think "out of the box" (get it?) - don't get those shrink-wrapped packs of 10 or 20 rolls.  Don't buy a box full.  Rather book one of those shipping containers and buy that amount of rolls. Buy one of those little gadgets that you can roll the tape from one side of the box to the other, because by box 50 you are sick of the manual method.  And NEVER lose the open piece of the roll - never, because it will take you longer to find that place to pull the tape, than the move itself. 
  • When booking your box estimate with the movers, calculate an estimate based on what you have already packed. Then multiply that by 632. 
  • Buy bubble wrap. A lot. See packaging tape rule. Remember you are going to need a lot extra for all the times you walk on it or pinch it between your fingers to hear it pop, just for fun. 
  • Mark boxes. I found the Pinterest method of writing on each box e.g. Kitchen or Dining Room or whatever.  I said I found the Pinterest method.  I never said I used it.  I tried. I really did. But then I got the "mixed" items boxes, a bit like making a mixed tape (in the 1950's) so what did I mark it then? Kitchen/Garage and a bit of Bedroom? 
  • Number boxes. Make a list of 1 to 100 and each time you mark a box, cross off that number.  Focus. Else as in my case when the mover arrived, my son asked why we had 3 x number 16.  2 x number 44.  No numbers 7, 23 or 70.  OK, I got a bit distracted.  
  • When the boxes are delivered to your new address, cross off the numbers as the boxes are carried in. Due to the issues around the numbering above, and despite the movers having numbered as well, we seem to have lost 2 boxes. Part of the problem was that I was still hyperventilating whenever I thought of the packing up of the garage and "that" room at previous address (to be enlightened about "that room", read my previous blog post). In addition, the movers arrived at our new address whilst I was fetching my daughter's boyfriend at the airport, to surprise her.  Naturally we arrived home to 4 rather sulky adults who had found it stressful to handle this event without me. Imagine. They couldn't manage the movers arrival without the person who couldn't number the boxes correctly in the first place. 
I do have dozens of more moments of wisdom, but let me leave you with a final snippet.  We have 2 large dogs and 2 small dogs. A husky sheds tons of fur. If you open the window for her head to be a out a smidge, the car interior looks like New York in December. Snow baby. Our Alsatian was 10. She just wanted to get the 1600km move done. With whimpering for the first 362kms. Our Jack Russell found it necessary to swop sitting in the front and then in the back, 493 times over the 1600km. That was after double the dose of Calm Eeze for dogs. Our Piebald Daschund only wanted to sleep under the seats. They were not seasoned car travellers. In fact they were not car travellers. Full stop. Little ones in one car and big ones in the other car, we did this. We will not do it again. Trying to get them to pee at the allocated stops, was difficult.  As was getting them to stand together, or stop growling at each other, or drink their water. It caused squabbling and irritation amongst the 4 of us. On three separate stops on the journey my husband considered divorce :) we ended up yelling at each other at more than one fuel station. You are warned. 

Moving is not for sissies. Thousands do it. The next place I go will hopefully be heaven. You don't need luggage. But not now. 

Till soon 

K xox









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