Moving…A Cautionary Tale

It has been just a little over six months since we moved into our current home. And while I am loving being here and the neighborhood we have moved into, I will share my cautionary tale of moving with you. Preparing for your next move by heeding my warnings may be just what you need.

By now one would think I should have moving down to an art form. In our nearly 19 years of marriage, this move was our ninth move. While there were several aspects of this move I would change, experience is what gives us the opportunity to collect nuggets of wisdom for the future. So, sit back, drink a cup of coffee, and possibly take notes from my cautionary tale 😉

What Not to Do When Moving

Today’s real estate market may be just as crazy as it was six months ago. Six months ago, we were able to list the house, show it, and have it under contract all within four days. That is crazy fast! The other portion of the move that was crazy fast was the new owners wanted full possession within 48 hours. Closing took place within 30 days and we were to be moved out completely within 48 hours of closing. While everything was fast paced, I enjoyed not dragging our feet on how long it would be before we moved. Now that I am able to look back at the situation, here are a few things I would not do when moving:

1. I would not give myself a tight packing schedule. Thirty-two days is not a lot of time to move anyway; however, I still told myself I had plenty of time. For any future moves, I will start collecting moving materials and begin packing various sections of my home immediately. For a look back at our previous home, you can catch some snapshots here.
2. I would not schedule any other events the weekend of the move. We moved during the Christmas holiday season and my husband had a business function that we had to attend. For a portion of our moving day, we were not physically able to stay with our movers. One of my parents stayed at the old house and the other parent stayed at the new house to observe the movers; however, there is only so much my 72 year old parents can do to help in such a big move. Our time away from the movers proved to be detrimental to the condition of our items moved.
3. I would not have used the moving company we used. This last tip is a difficult one because I am not sure we could have done anything differently. We had used this company on our last move and they did great. For this move, something was off from the get go. I noticed some of the employees were different – same manager, different employees. I thought that was not going to be a big deal, but as I was talking to them at the beginning of the move, I felt like one of them could have been under the influence of drugs. At the time, I felt like we were trapped due to our deadline for being off the property. The tight deadline in addition to us not being able to physically oversee how the movers treated our items upon arrival at our new home due to our business function, really left us with some big regrets. Boxes were just thrown into a room. Furniture was broken and damaged. Ugh! It was extremely frustrating to discover.

Now that the painful tips are over, utilize these tips when preparing for your next move.

What to Do When Moving

1. Collect the tools/materials needed for your move. Tools/materials that I would recommend would be: plenty of black Sharpies, clear packing tape, a tape gun, a variety of sizes of boxes, packing paper, and a hand truck. In our area, we have several community Facebook groups. Asking on these sites for moving boxes or simply reading daily posts to see who was getting rid of some boxes, proved very beneficial. I will add, get WAY more boxes then you think you need. We ended up having to run and buy (and that nearly killed me) extra boxes to finish the move. A hand truck will help you move boxes out of your way while you wait for your actual moving day.

1. Hire professional cleaners. At first, I baulked at this. I had never hired professional cleaners for my move out. We had always cleaned the house ourselves before we left. However, our agent and the buyers agent had it listed for a professional clean of the home we were selling and of the home we were buying. We paid for the cleaners to clean the home we sold and the seller we purchased our home from paid to have our current house cleaned. Do it! Nothing is better than having your home deep cleaned before you move in. It just created a better mental space for me as we moved.
2. Oversee your movers or have a contract that will hold them responsible for any damage done to your property. Personally, I believe our outcome would have been different had my husband and I been physically present to give guidance to the movers as they unloaded our items into our new home. This doozy is no one’s fault but our own. And while it was a painful lesson, I still am not sure how we could have done it differently due to our business function. Overall, there were only a couple of items damaged but it makes me cringe whenever I think of the poor job the movers did when they got to our current house. We were with them as they loaded all of our items from our previous home. You live and learn, right?

Hopefully, you use this post as a cautionary tale if you are planning a future move. Don’t worry, you can be sure ANY move will have some bumps in the road but this blog post can give you some helpful guidance. Happy moving!