1. March 2011: California to Virginia
2. October 2011: Virginia to Florida
3. April 2012: Florida to Texas
4. December 2012: Texas to Florida (again!)
5. November 2013: Florida to California
And now...
6. April 2014: California to Hawaii
It really has been 6 moves in slightly over 3 years, I still can't believe it, even as I type this out! But there it is, in black and white. Is that some sort of record?!?!
According to some studies, moving ranks up there as one of the top 5 most stressful life events, next to work, debt, loneliness, and marriage/relationship problems. And while it isn't exactly an event that I have come to enjoy, we have somehow come to manage this task with more ease and, shall I say, poise, over the years.
Here are a few lessons we have learned along the way:
1. Before the movers arrive, locate all keys ( and important items for that matter), as they will pack everything! We learned this the hard way in Virginia, when after the movers had locked up the truck and taken off, we realized we couldn't locate the house keys. We figured they had to just be in one of the cars, or in my "Mary Poppins'" bottomless purse somewhere, and that they would eventually pop up. Well pop up they didn't, until of course we were unpacking boxes in FL, which provided for a very frantic last day of running around and trying to rectify the situation before we had to do our final walk through and turn in the keys to our landlord.
2. In correlation with #1, we have found it best to establish an off-limits area/room, so the movers know what does not need to be packed and you can safely and securely store away any important items. As I said, they will take everything they see, not only keys laying around but even down to the dirty trash in your trash can. Many times, the moving company will send 3-4 packers/movers, so the over-zealous packing is simply a matter of lack of-, or mis-communication. But, it's better to be safe than sorry. We have also found that using colored painters tape or duck tape to signify an item or an area/room of the house that is not to be touched or packed works great as well.
No one said it had to be organized, just off-limits! You can deal with the organization later! This is our off limits stock pile, stashed in the guest bathroom during this move!
3. Make sure to thoroughly document the condition of the home with pictures, videos, and transcript upon move in. Our first Virginia landlord tried to take the majority of our deposit upon move out, despite the fact that the place was in better condition than we found it in and the owner declined a pre-move-in inspection altogether. And although we did not have pictures, luckily I sent him a very thorough email documenting many of the issues I discovered upon move in.
4. Take documentation of the condition of your furniture!!!!! On our first military move, we were in for quite a shock when we went to sign the inventory sheet and discovered everything was written in code: sw1287, rlc 9674, etc. I had heard about this previously from a fellow Marine wife, and had specifically mentioned to the movers in the beginning, that as we were newlyweds most, if not all, of our furniture was brand new, and if he noticed any imperfections along the way to please point them out to me as he went so I could confirm. Well after obliging for the first few pieces, the head mover realized this painstakingly tedious task would take far too long for his liking and proceeded to continue without informing me of any further imperfections. Believing in the goodness of other people, I was naive enough to assume that he too realized our furniture was new and that he had found no further imperfections. At the time of final sign off, we realized our mistake; however, to ask him to prove and verify each of his condition documentations would have required unloading the entire truck and unwrapping the majority of pieces. And while these weren't exactly honest movers, they were still well fed and well tipped movers, so we took our chances by proceeding forward, and not confronting the issue. That ended up being quite the mistake!
5. Never tip your military movers. While in my TMO (transportation management office) class, they did say that the moving companies were paid very well by the government for military moves and that tipping was not only NOT recommended, it was also supposed to be reported if any packer or mover asked for a tip, food or to use your restroom. That last one is crazy, right? Can you imagine if every time one of the three-four movers had to use the restroom they would have to close and lock up the truck and drive somewhere?!? Come on!!! That's just ridiculous. Jordan and I were also always under the impression that happy movers were good movers, which is why we (generously) tipped and fed the movers on our first experience with military movers from VA to FL as mentioned in number 4. Well our furniture has never taken such a beating as it did in that first move. And after shelling out $20/each person for two days, totaling $160 in tips, plus providing lunch both days for the 4-man crew, we were not happy campers to say the least. After that we adhered to the no tipping rule, but decided to continue to provide lunch, waters, and Gatorade, as well as our bathroom in good faith and human decency. Afterall, they have your whole life in their hands, and we have heard far too many stories of disgruntled movers stealing items.
6. When moving yourself, never stop in a shady town, despite how convenient it may be or how cheap the hotel rooms may be! We are given a per diem amount when we move ourselves across the country, as opposed to allowing the military to contract movers to move us. That per diem amount covers food and hotel costs, and it can sometimes be tempting to minimize your costs to maximize your profit on the move. Luckily, Jordan and I have always been ones to listen to our instincts, and after a planned overnight rest in Memphis one trip, we soon discovered, it was a bit "rougher" than we had imagined, and therefore felt it best to, despite the late hour, grab a coffee and keep trucking along to the next town . While we always keep a lock on our storage truck, there is no guarantee someone may not try to pry open the back of your truck and steal your household goods. Or in an absolutely tragic instance that just happened recently, a fellow military family had their entire moving truck stolen from their hotel parking lot, not only with their entire lives' contents inside, but also with a trailer and car attached to the back of the truck, which is the manner we all usually tend to travel. My heart just breaks for that family. So listen to your instincts, drive to the next town, park close to your hotel room so you can hear any disturbances, and if you can, park under a street lamp with lots of direct light to deter any threat.
7. When taking your cars across country, whether on a trailer or being driven, invest in a car bra or some type of protective covering. The front of your car takes a beating! Jordan has even used painters tape! But make sure you have super high quality paint on your car if you try this method. When we used this technique on his Audi, it worked absolutely perfectly. My 350z however, apparently did not have as high of quality paint as the Audi, and in a few small spots, the blue tape started to pull off a layer of the clear protective sealant on the car.
8. If you can, avoid your stuff going in to storage. The reason is, your shipment transfers hands far too many times. You have the packers/loaders at the point of origin, the un-loaders at the storage center, the re-loaders again out of storage, and the unloaders/unpackers at the destination. Your items change hands, and therefore liability, multiple times and no one has a personal invested interest or responsibility in your items arriving in good shape. Each company blames the other, and no one, single group takes the financial hit for the damage.
9. Invest in a blow up mattress. Whether you move yourself or have the military move you, you will need a day or two at the house after the truck is loaded for general cleaning and carpet cleaning. And more than likely, if the military moves you, you will have to wait 1-2 weeks before the furniture arrives at your new place. We have also found that packing one box of essentials, including a pan, a baking sheet, cutting board, knife, and plastic cups, plates and cutlery, has allowed us to stay in our home, rather than an expensive hotel, and eat normal, healthy meals, as opposed to fast food or pricey eating out options. Believe me, after a week on the road of traveling, nothing sounds better than a home cooked meal!!!!
10. Take inventory of your items! While I have mentioned the condition of your furniture previously, it's also important to keep receipts and records of all of your individual items. This seems like a daunting task, and it is, but it is so worth it. On our move from Texas to Florida, our movers misplaced an entire box. It just happened to be a box mostly consisting of our wedding china and expensive linens and serve-ware we received as wedding gifts. Of course, upon receiving this claim, the moving company was hesitant to easily just sign over a check. To be honest, it was probably the single most expensive box by weight and volume they could have lost. So they requested PROOF OF OUR OWNERSHIP OF THESE LISTED ITEMS. Can you believe that? After packing, boxing, loading and documenting the box itself, they needed me to prove we owned what they lost. Point being, their descriptions on their inventory list are very vague. It is your responsibility to prove ownership and value. I racked my mind over how I was supposed to prove ownership over ALL that was missing, and believe me, it was a lot. I mean, who keeps receipts of every item ever purchased? Luckily, as I mentioned, the majority of these items were purchased off our registry as wedding gifts, so I was able to contact the companies, and generously, they offered to take the time to retrieve our old records from their archives. However, EVEN THEN, that was still not enough for the moving companies to reimburse us. They requested photos of the actual items in our house. They fought us tooth and nail the entire way. Luckily, I enjoy decorating and furnishing our home with every move, and therefore, I love taking pictures of the new set up each time, so I had captured a majority of the missing items, in the background of my personal photos. We now take video of our entire home, including serial numbers and visual confirmation that all electronics, like TV and computers, are in working and functioning order, as well as the contents of every cabinet and closet in the house. It may be crazy, but we are sick of learning the hard way.
11. Hide your "goodies." Pack your personal items and expensive jewelry/watches and irreplaceable items yourself and carry with you, if possible. Even with undeniable proof, wedding albums, handmade quilts, and other sentimental items cannot be replaced, so don't risk it. Luckily, we haven't yet had an issue with this, but I remind myself often not to become complacent amongst these many moves, and to always take on the responsibility to pack and move these items ourselves.
12. Ask the movers to pack in a back-to-front method, so you can clean and vacuum behind them. I can't tell you how many vacuums we have left curbside by the trash because we were unable to vacuum the house completely and in a timely manner before the movers had left.
13. Organized in... SOMEWHAT organized out. It doesn't matter if it's a toothbrush and a socket wrench, if they are somewhat in the same vicinity, they will end up in the same box. The more you can organize ahead of time, the easier your unpacking process will be and therefore the sooner your household will be in order.
14. You will have a lot of extra items that the movers cannot take, mostly liquids and ammunition, haha. You can either try to hide them amongst your items and risk ruining the rest of the contents of the box and surrounding boxes if an item leaks or explodes, or pay it forward, and give away all the items you can't take.
15. When you start to get overwhelmed, always keep in mind it's going to take a lot longer than you had anticipated, so give yourself at least a day buffer, and remember that it always gets worse before it gets better!
16. Despite how clean you think you keep your house, you are in for a rude awakening when you start to move out your furniture and hit the nitty gritty cleaning list. Wow! You quickly realize you definitely aren't as tidy and neat as you previously thought, actually you are pretty disgusting to have lived amongst this hidden filth for so long.
Our current, empty house, except for a few, fragrant, wedding flowers from my friend Emily's wedding, this past weekend!17. Many people say that cars are one of the worst investments. Well that situation becomes even more compounded when you are in the military life. The military does not pay to "ship" your car to your next duty station during a PCS (Permanent Change of Station) move, although they do give you a minimal stipend per mile and estimated (low-ball) average gas allowance per car. However, it's important to always consider the wear and tear on your car and how the inverse relationship between mileage and value of your car will affect the overall resale price, during each of these moves. In the past we have always towed one and driven the second; however, this move overseas to Hawaii is a whole different ball game. Even though Jordan and I are married, and I am his dependent, the military will only pay to ship one car overseas. Which means if we wanted to send a second car, it would cost us $1200-1500 from California. Well, as we established earlier, cars are basically a terrible investment to begin with, so why would we invest another $1200-1500 in a car, only to have to pay the same $1200-1500, at minimum, again in 3 years time to ship it back to the CONUS. Thankfully, we were in a position to sell my car at a significant profit, and decided it was best to avoid shipping costs to maintain the profit we had invested in the car. And while this was a blessing, it was still hard to say goodbye to my "zippity-do-da" 350Z.
18. Avoid purchasing any oversized furniture. While we absolutely love our comfy sectional, with each and every move, it has been a challenge to make it fit in the different homes we have lived in. I have often eliminated potential houses just by the fact that our sectional would not work in the space. However, not only is it a matter of just fitting in the way of floor plan and configuration of the various living rooms, but also actually fitting into the house itself! This last place took the cake on that one!
Moving in... Yep that's an industrial electrical cord and Jordan at the very bottom standing underneath the sectional piece.
Moving out...
19. It sounds cheesy, but having a positive attitude goes a long way. Yes, it's going to be long, miserable, dirty and tiring, and you may have to nervously watch your beloved sectional hover precariously 30 feet above ground, but whining and complaining won't change anything. So put on a good music playlist and just smile, laugh, and embrace it.
20. Just because I couldn't end the list at 19, it didn't feel right!
1. Custom address return labels! Since the day we got married, I have wanted to order some of these customized and decorative ones!
2. Checks, with the address listed of where we currently live! I have stacks of checkbooks unused because we have moved so quickly, and people do not like out of state checks.
3. Planting flowers and a vegetable garden, including lots of spinach and kale to make homemade salads like we do from my mom's garden! Of course since we are going to Hawaii, we may have to plant a pineapple plant as well!
4. Painting walls and hammering holes into the wall with the knowledge that I won't have to deal with patching and color matching them for 3+ years. I can't wait to finally nest and decoratively make a place my own!
Our current hack job, sigh, because Jordan always insists on mounting the tv on the wall, as well as wiring all of the equipment THROUGH the wall, despite the short length of time we are always expected to stay. And while it always looks great once mounted, it's another story, after we leave.
5. Establishing my own identity, outside of Jordan's career, and having a daily existence that is deeper than grocery shopping, cooking, working out and being Jordan's study partner! Don't get me wrong, I have loved, embraced and will probably miss that simple life, but I'm ready to finally put my expensive education to work. Although, I may have to get creative in order to find something that will also allow me be a continuous tour guide for all of our fabulous visitors planning on coming out!
So I know I still need to document our amazing time in California these last 6 months; however, I don't want to let my lack of time and energy toward that overwhelming project push me further and further behind, and infringe on our present ongoings. So please forgive the jump in timeline for now, and I promise to do a flashback blog post once we are settled in Hawaii, once we have our computers up and running. Until then, enjoy our move to and first adventures in Hawaii!!!
P.S. Please forgive the random type formatting, this is my first attempt at using the blogger app on the iPad to stay current while our computers are already packed away. And for the life of me, I can't figure out how to fix it! Grandma, help!!!!!! (She's the iPad wiz)
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