Moving Services and Products

This is no business-paid relocation; I'm doing it myself.
I’m moving, and it’s a personal move.
If you’re being moved for business reasons, you’ve got it easy. When someone else is paying for it, just call professional movers and get out of their way.
And I do mean get out of their way. I’m reminded of the famous first “military move” in my past. We were young and inexperienced, and were told “don’t do anything,” so I didn’t. Well, I did put the clothes we would need for our 3-day drive to our new location in a special dresser drawer, but that was about it.
How amazed I was when they scooped up dirty dishes and ashtrays with cigarette butts in them and dumped them into moving boxes without changing their expressions. While I ran to protect the dirty diapers from their grasp, they must’ve packed our clothes for the trip, plus my toddler’s favorite car-car. There were tears for 200 miles. My son cried too. So that’s a paid-for move.
This one I’m doing on my own and it’s been an adventure. Here are some tips.

NOW WHERE CAN YOU GET SOME HELP?
Moving is one of the biggest stressors in life, and we hate to even be around it. Even my own son said he’d send money if only he didn’t have to come help.
So, let’s see how these things work … who could possible benefit from your move and therefore want to help you?

FIND A REALTOR WHO WANTS TO SELL YOUR HOUSE
Ken Brodeen has been my lifesaver. He likes to sell houses and came over to tell me what I’d need to sell this one quickly. He was referred by a friend of mine, and he works in what I call a “quality loop.”
He not only told me what needed doing, he started giving me the names and phone numbers of all the trustworthy repairmen and service people I would need. In fact, he had THEM call ME. All I had to do was answer the phone when it rang.
He has a carpeting company he works with that doesn’t charge you until your house is sold, a painter who’s an artist and also a careful worker – no paint to scrape off windows or furniture when he’s gone! A tile man.
My list of repairmen comes and goes; they die, go out of business, they’re obnoxious or incompetent and I never want them back. Ken made it easy for me. A realtor who wants to sell your house will work for your business. Take advantage of this. They can be fabulous resource people for you, and save you lots of time.

GET NEW CARPETING
You may not get more than half the money back but it makes the house sell faster and it has a serendipitous advantage. You have to move a lot of stuff to get new carpeting in and this gives you a pre-run for the move. Why not pack it up as you go along and also weed it out. It also gives you a tremendous “lift” and makes you love your house again (or still), which is always the number 1 selling point. You know how the realtor tells you – if you love your house, be there when they show it; if not, go away.
The carpeters move big furniture for a fee, and as long as you have to unload the buffet, you might as well pack up the china and crystal. Come on now, how many fancy dinner parties are you going to have between now and the move?
Realtors always want you to put in cream-colored carpeting, and what person in their right mind would live with that? It’s been fun to gamble with fate for a couple of months – one spilled glass of wine … one drop of spaghetti sauce …

DECLUTTER
To sell a house, you need to de-clutter it. That’s another reasons to start packing!

MAKE TWO PILES
Start in a back bedroom and move toward the garage. Sort and pack: two piles. One is for the garage sale (and what doesn’t sell at the garage sale goes to Goodwill) and the other is for packing. I’m not a big believer in paying to take junk with you. When you pack by room, you can label your boxes and mark them. Write big and clear in magic marker. Remember the word “FRAGILE”. Use a different colored tape or label for each room. Which reminds me – you need the right tools!

THE TOOLS YOU NEED
Companies like U-Haul offer a great deal – you can buy those lovely boxes and return the ones you don’t use. How sweet is that? Yes, you could haunt the back of liquor stores for those boxes, but what’s your time worth? If you’re lucky, your son just moved and will knock down their boxes and give them to you!
The U-Haul in my neighborhood will even deliver the boxes to you within hours.
Get that great pro packing tape, with the Manco handler. You’ll feel like such a pro, and it works. Then a huge black magic marker. Be SURE and label what’s in each box. Over-label, you won’t be sorry, because when you get there you’re going to be tired and needing certain things.
Then some sort of huge colored label for marking rooms, if you like. “Red” for master bedroom, “Blue” for living room, etc.
U–Haul has the advantage of having different sizes of boxes, and all the stuff you need for breakables—foam, popcorn, etc. Great wardrobe boxes too, so you can be assured at least as many clothes as you put in there won’t need re-laundering and pressing when you arrive.
Use things you’ll be moving like pillows and extra linens for padding. Why not?

Susan Dunn

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