We haven’t moved for 26 years! Have a move later this week. In town move. Literally less than 5 minutes from our current house. Movers will be moving all inside/outside furniture, kitchen boxes and some random other boxes.
Too late for packing tips - though I’m definitely still doing that.
But wondering if you have any day before/day of tips to share. The moving company says my job that day is to just sit by the front door and direct the guys to which room things go. Should be the easiest day of my life. LOL.
Of course I’m thinking about food for the day. I bought snacks and water to throw in a couple of bowls near the entry for the movers. I’d like to throw something in the crockpot in the morning that is dump and forget so we have something to eat during the day. Maybe a soup? It needs to need NO care after I dump ingredients in. Our realtor said she will send over pizza in the evening for our first night there - she is a gem!!!
I know a couple other people on CC are in moving mode. Without over stressing us, share your simple, could be helpful tips.
My $.02 is not to bother with a crock pot meal because that means you’ll need to have kitchen stuff unpacked to eat it with. Take out is your friend for the at least the first 24 hours. Maybe grab bagels or something easy for breakfast the next morning to have on hand.
I’d also suggest having boxes really, really well labeled so you know what to open first. (I even wrote on boxes “open first” ; )). Have your cleaning supplies well marked too.
An advantage is that we have been working on the house for 2 months so I’ve had a good amount of time in the house to decide where things go, to already establish cleaning supplies there and to have already bright over some household things.
Label boxes by area - 1, 2, 3… (if you don’t have a HUGE amount of areas or boxes then use color stickers like those garage sale stickers). Then post those numbers (in a big way) in the new house on the door/area of where it is to go. Post the master list. You can designate closets too–keeps you from writing “linens” or kitchen gadgets a hundred times. Include garage areas if you have it divided in anyway. Unless you have little furniture I’m betting you’ll be telling them where to haul it rather than sitting.
I would not want to cook even a crock pot meal on moving day. Consider putting some salads and deli sandwiches in the fridge the day before. You’ll want paper plates and disposable utensils. Be sure to keep paper towels and trash bags available at the old house.
We moved last summer. Off the top of my head, here’s a few things I did to try to stay organized.
I bought a set of colored masking tape on Amazon and marked boxes and furniture based on where it was going. Red for the kitchen, blue for the bedroom, etc. It was easy for the guys and it was easy for me to look around the new place and see if something was misplaced while the guys were still there to move it again. You can put the right color tape on the door to the room so there is no confusion. A couple of the guys didn’t speak English so the visuals were helpful.
Have cash on hand for tips
Have ziploc bags for hardware. When the guys are taking apart beds and furniture, be there with the bags so it all stays together. I would tape the bags either inside a drawer or on the leg of the furniture. It’s amazing how they can lose one screw that’s needed to put your bed back together.
When we last moved, we tipped enough for each mover to get $75 (about a decade ago). They were amazing; setting up beds, rearranging rooms when I decided to change the layout, patient, kind and funny. There were 5 of them, so that came to $375 in total - and the move took just under 10 hrs total (45 mins of that was the drive time between houses). Tipping basically $7.5/hr per person seemed like a bargain to me with everything they did.
The biggest part was making sure the actual cash was set up so that it could easily be distributed evenly. $20s and $5s are your friends.
We ordered a new bed and mattress! That is a job we need to do before Friday -put it together! The rest of the beds will be put together by the moving crew. We just have to make them.
We have moved a lot - both locally and internationally - some paid by us and some paid due to corporate move - We always provide lunch for the movers - usually subway or pizza or chipotle and we always tip out of our own funds. It is always appreciated and the movers work so hard. Having snacks and beverages will be appreciated - don’t think lunch is always the norm, and depending on length of move - $50-$75 per mover is what we have always done.
I know you said no packing tips but this is one I feel I should pass on anyway. Label the kitchen boxes that have things you want right away like the plates, utensils, etc.
It’s easier to pack than unpack because when packing you’re just pulling stuff out of drawers and cabinets and putting into boxes, but when unpacking you need to find good homes for all the stuff in a house with a different layout. So you might spend a few days unloading the boxes in places such as your kitchen, finding places for things until you’re sick of unpacking for the day. We had a nice stack of boxes all helpfully labeled “kitchen” so they were delivered to the right area but no idea which of them had things like plates and utensils in them.
I have not moved in a very long time, but I have helped my daughter move a couple of times now. I gave each of the movers $20 at the end of the move (team of three). They were expensive moves (short distance - but took a lot of time because the apartments were walk ups).
Be sure, especially for heavy items, the item is exactly where you want it before they leave (you don’t want to have to move it yourself later on.) Don’t feel bad about making them move it until it is how you want it.
Don’t even think of cooking - bagels, pizza, sandwiches, are you best bets for your meals that day.
Don’t just make the bed, lay on it. One move, the bed looked fine and then we went to lay in it hours later and it had not been put together properly (so we had to fix it ourselves).
The movers are young and strong, have them do any hard work (for us that included stuff like crawling under the bed to plug in stuff.)
Have them take with them anything that they can when they leave. It is so much harder for us to get rid of the big bags they pack mattresses in and other large packing materials.
If you don’t have them yet, buy a pack of “moving men” furniture sliders. Inevitably, you will have to reposition some of the pieces. These little pieces of Teflon work magic!
I just offered mine to my daughter and SIL for their move here last week. You would have though I offered them dog food; my SIL is a very do it himself person, and I have just come to find out from my D that by offers are taken by him as inadequacy on his part. Seems his parents always made him second guess his decisions and choices, and he still has trouble understanding it can be done out of love.
We moved 7 times in the first 10 years we were married, and just moved S1 into a house.
Agree with the suggestions of “OPEN FIRST” label on a box with your pjs , toilet paper, sheets, some plates, tv remote – whatever you want that first 48 hrs.
Label boxes on a side as well as a top. Don’t be surprised if the system fails.
Unpack tchoktes and books onto any shelf. You can re-arrange them later. Ditto clothes – just hang them up.
Some people like to concentrate on having one room completely unpacked and done-- it gives you a normality space — but for some people it’s fine to just be random. find your happy place
From my DiL-- once the boxes were placed in the right room, we opened all of them from the top so we could look inside quickly and find things.
Give yourself a time to STOP. Like, after 8pm, no more unpacking, or at least sit down for an hour. Don’t unpack 24/7 or you’ll lose your mind.
