What I Have Learned. (The Moving Edition)

Well I am almost through the worst move in history! Or at least our history of 11 moves in 9 years. Day one, our packers failed to pack everything they needed, including computer equipment and even an entire drawer! I caught the drawer but missed the rest. Day two, our movers forgot a number of our items, after having me sign off that they were all taken, but not before doing substantial damage to our home! Day three and four were uneventful as we drove our two cars cross country and back to our new home. Day 5 we bought a 5 day cooler, filled it ice and food that would survive. Then we rested and waited for our second week to begin.

Day 6 Hubby went back to work out of state and my youngest and I were left to cool our heels, living out of a cooler until our fridge with the rest of our stuff arrived. It should have been on Day 5, and then again on Day 6. Day 7 I got a delivery time and then halfway through the day with no sign of them, I was informed that they would not be coming that day either. Day 8 they finally arrived and spent the day unloading my stuff. Day 9 should be the end of my moving fiasco as unpackers should have us mostly set up then.

Here's what I have learned during all this...

1. CONSTANT VIGILANCE! In 11 moves we have never had a problem and it may have allowed us to become complacent. For all future moves (and with our life that's a very real likelihood) I plan to be just as aware and vigilant as I was in the 2nd or 3rd move, because lets face it you never know what you have to be worried about in your first move.

2. Never sign ANYTHING before you read it! Seems simple enough right? I mean who wouldn't read what they are given before signing it, but when you get page after page after of forms to sign nobody wants to give you enough time to read it. These pages come at the end of a usually very long day, either buying a car or in this case confirming that everything they said was packed, loaded etc is in fact the case. Which leads me to my next piece of wisdom...

3. Check, check, double check and then check again! This seems to be somewhat of an issue with me, as you may have noticed during my Summer Savings Marathon debacle . In the case of moving, had I not checked every single drawer I would have missed an entire drawer filled with important papers. Even when I ran through my house repeatedly checking all around, inside and out, somehow I still managed to miss some items, that even after the 5th time of keeping things from being left behind, I somehow didn't catch before the truck left. And on that note...

4. If you can't remember to check every single nook and cranny, how can you expect someone else to? I'm not sure what a person (or at least me) has to do to ensure every nook and cranny is left empty, but next time around I think I will make note of each area to confirm they have been gone through. Open every cupboard, drawer and closet. If you are too short to see inside a given cupboard or onto a shelf, get a stool or ask the person you are dealing with to look for you and confirm nothing is left. In my case, I would probably create my own form for them to sign affirming that they checked and state that an area I can't see inside is clear, but I've had a really bad move! I'm sure you can trust your movers in general, but for me I'm gonna be a bit on the paranoid side.

5. Be sure and tip your waiters! Or in my case movers. Most people wouldn't have tipped their loaders after the problems and damage that occurred, me I did. I was pretty bothered by that fact as day after day went by without my stuff with more and more problems being uncovered, but when they did show up, it paid off after all. I had a number of items that were previously in the house and needed to be moved to other parts of the house before the new items could be placed and because they had good feelings towards me, I was able to get them to move those items, even though they could have easily refused. On that note...

6. You can catch more flies with honey...or in this case pizza. Ahh pizza, is there anything a person won't do? In the middle of the move, I ordered pizza for me and my household and included the movers in the order. The appreciation felt from them as a result helped to smooth over little things like, they had put our huge filing cabinet on the wrong floor as well as placing our secondary freezer in the wrong location, both of which had to be remedied. By the end of the day, I started to apologize for them having to fix so many things (even though they were wrong) and the reply was "Hey you bought us pizza we're happy to make things right." But even when everyone is trying to do a good job and make things right...

7. No matter how hard you try, there are things that will go wrong. I checked all the beds and found they were not fully put together, I checked our outside equipment and found the same. I walked the house every square inch examining the walls, doors, floors, everything. I triple checked the crib in the very end and fortunately discovered before they left that it was put together backwards and couldn't be latched. A problem that would not have been able to be resolved that night and would have cost my little girl her bed for yet another night. Even after checking everything I thought I needed to it wasn't enough. My husband and I spent the entire night searching for various critical things that should have been labeled clearly, but weren't, including our bedding box (the one packed last thing of the moving day so you could have blankets to sleep on up until your things are taken), as well as my husband's riding suit and helmet for his motorcycle.

8. Take a deep breath...Realize you did the best you could, that things are going to go badly, sometimes worse than most. Get your house in order, unpack, and get to know the area around you. There is always something new to experience in a new town, new friends to make, new places to go. Breath deep and accept that even if things may have gone wrong, it will eventually be over. You will get over it and some day soon this will be the place you call home. In the end, at least you have some great stories to tell!

My moving experience is not quite over yet, so if I learn anything else along the way I'll be sure to pop in and share that too :)