A four bedroom house with a garage and basement means you have a lot of places to put stuff and all that said stuff needs to be moved with you.
1. Do research and determine the best storage/moving device for you. There are a lot of options out there when it comes to moving - U-Haul, PODS, Storage Units, Moving Companies, ReloCubes, Your Parents Basement...and the list goes on. When Scott and I sold our house, the first thing we did was call around to get quotes. All of the storage units within a 30 mile radius were full (for the size we needed), so we went on waiting lists. Hiring actual movers was out of the question. We were nearly busting our budget for the new house, so we didn't want to fork out thousands of dollars for professional movers, no matter how much I
2. Pack/Prep everything ahead of time. Mr. B and I began packing our house three weeks prior to moving day. The first items we packed were those that we didn't need or use often - wall décor, winter clothes, basement storage, garage nonsense, spare closets, guest bedrooms, etc. The days leading up to the move included the more heavily used items - kitchen dishware, underwear drawer, and bathroom toiletries. We dedicated one room (the dining room) to boxes and another to large furniture (the living room). That way when the movers arrived, we had a plan in place. If your getting free help - don't waste their time. Every bit of organization, will make moving day that much less stressful.
3. Take large furniture apart. This is one thing we hadn't done ahead of time. Mr. B's dad was the first one to arrive on moving day. He quickly took a census of everything we had and when he saw the dining room table, he said, "Let's take that apart." He walked upstairs to my office and said, "Oh, we need to take that apart too." Large, awkward items store better when they are easier to maneuver. Mr. B looked at me and said, "He's done this before!" This leads me to my next comment...
4. Assign someone that is good at organizing in the POD/Storage Unit to arrange your belongings. If you know a person that has moved a few times, ask them to join you on moving day. More than likely they can be the person that organizes the PODS (storage unit), to ensure you are maximizing your storage space. Believe me, you may need to use every last inch of that space, so you better pack it
5. Have food, water, and booze to keep your moving help happy. We had donuts and mimosas for the morning crowd and my uber kind mother in law brought a crockpot of sloppy joe's, chips, pickles and brownies for lunch. It was a hot and humid (what?!) day here, so the women had to keep reminding the men to stay hydrated, by tossing waters to them about every 30 minutes. By the end of moving day, the boys were ready for celebratory beers. Cheers!
Labels! Labels! Labels! I'm sure you did this and just forgot to mention in your very helpful and concise list! Labeling the boxes or buns is essential! Putting the room on the box that they will be going into in the new house- "guest room 1", "office", etc. Makes it much easier when you go to unpack and movers are unloading. That way they're not asking every five seconds, "where's this go?"
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