First Non-DITY move
Cherryblossoms07
member
I introduced myself on here a while back but it has been quite a while since I have posted anything, so I will do a short reintroduction. My DH is with the Air Force. We have two kids - 2 1/2 year old little girl and 7 month old baby boy. We are currently stationed in FL and will be doing our first non- DITY move next month.
Do any of you have tips for making the move as smooth as possible? I keep seeing FB statuses about broken and missing items from people who have recently moved. Is there anything I can do to help prevent this?
So far these are the suggestions I have received....
- Find a babysitter for packing and moving day
- Take a video inventory of our household goods
- Take everything down from the walls and high shelves
I would love any advice you all have to offer!
Re: First Non-DITY move
There was a thread about this recently:
https://community.thebump.com/cs/ks/forums/thread/67040373.aspx
I've only done one PCS move, and we moved to Hawaii, so I didn't have to deal with boxes in the moving truck, and wasn't worried about things getting stolen. (They put everything in large wooden crates, nail them shut and seal them.) We did have some things get broken, and the mover that I neglected to keep an eye on made some ridiculous packing choices.
You didn't say where you're going, but if you ARE going overseas and they put your stuff in the big wooden crates, make sure that they have the seals that go on the crates. If I remember correctly, they had DH's name on them and he signed them when they put them on. However, DH had to ask them for them - the movers had left them at their office. DH said that if the crates aren't sealed, stuff can get lost/stolen, and you can't tell if the crate has been opened or not. Their office was about 45 minutes away from our house, so we had to wait an hour and a half AFTER they finished packing for them to drive back and get them.
And on that same note, make sure that the movers have the correct paperwork. When we went to sign papers and stuff after they had packed everything, I noticed it had the wrong name on it.
In no particular order:
- insist they NOT use your clothing, towels, bedding, etc for packing material. They like to finish filling up boxes with light, soft things rather than use their paper. And they'll use it anywhere and everywhere!
- insist your upholstered furniture get shrink wrapped. Often they try to get away without doing it but you run less of a risk of your upholstery getting dirty that way.
- unpacking everything is available to you. That means they take things out of boxes and set down where they have room. The benefit of having some boxes, like mirror packs or kitchen boxes, unpacked is that they take the boxes and paper with them.
- we like to offer bottled water and usually lunch for the packers and loaders.
- if you can swing it, do a door to door move. The more your things are handles on and off a truck the more potential for damage. Door to door also cuts down on theft.
- insure all high dollar or high value items are noted on the separate inventory sheet specifically for those items.
(sorry for the funky formatting)
Anything that you can't stand to have lost of broken, take with you either in a car or as luggage. Family heirloom, keepsakes, valuables. Take all your important papers with you!!!!! If you can scan them and keep on a flash drive or something. We also take DH's dress uniforms, you never know how long things will take to get there and what they will need when they do.
Same as everyone else above has said, take pictures.
Consider getting water/gatorade and even lunch for the movers. A veteran wife told me once it wasn't just for good will, but if the movers don't have to leave to get lunch, then everything will go faster, you don't have to wait for them to get back and start working again.
Separate out anything you don't want packed, perhaps in a bathroom/laundry room, and clearly mark that as do not touch!
Take out the trash and recycling before they get there. We have had movers pack up our recycling, and I know people who had their trash packed up and moved too.
Someone on another page pointed out that they had forgotten to pack their bedroom/personal toys from the night stand, and her husband had to run up and grab them before the movers got to them, so if you have em, put them away/pack them away before the movers get there.
Other than that, lean back and enjoy the fact that someone else is doing all the work.
First time I didn't do the packing myself was really weird, I ended up walking the neighbors dog while DH stayed to supervise. I was used to doing the work, and needed to get out of their way. 