It's Moving Tips Wednesday MKF 10/30

[WiccansIllusion]

Morning everyone.

I officially move into my apartment on saturday, and was wondering what everyone's moving horror stories where.

Or if you have any tips on situations that might arise with the best friend being the room mate and all....


Anyways and for the WT question:

How do you think they handled moving into Buffy's house?

[Spice Faerie]

Ugh, I hate moving! I'm a grad student right now so I have to move in and out of the dorm every year. What a pain in the ass.

You're going to be living with your best friend you said? That could work fine as long as you each have a seperate room. Otherwise that could put some strain on the friendship.

As for Willow and Tara I don't think they had much problems moving into Buffy's seeing as they had everyone to help them move. They probably liked it better at Buffy's anyway since it was more like home, ya know?

Spice

[sparrow]

Oh please, really don't want to hear moving horror stories as I have to move in about a month and a half. I'm so moving all my stuff myself.

[ruby]

Some of the best advice I got was to clearly label a box with the most important things in it, so you can find it right away. With all the chaos and stress of having your belongings in transit, it can be very reassuring to see a box that says "COFFEE POT" in huge, screaming letters. At least you can wail and gnash your teeth with a hot cup of coffee as you unpack.

Label everything clearly, for that matter.

As for horror stories, I just completed a big move (NY to Chicago) with professional movers. They arrived on the day they said they would, but not until after dark. They didn't finish unloading until 3 AM!!! Talk about starting off on the wrong foot with the neighbors. When it was all over I took a sleeping pill and literally collapsed on a blanket on the floor.

W/T probably had it a lot easier. Notice how the Scoobies always used to help each other out with the heavy lifting? Their biggest conflict was probably about where to hang the Maxfield Parrish print. "I don't know, honey, shouldn't it be next to the kitty picture?"

[Zippy]

Handy hint when moving keep a bottle opener in a bag with your important stuff i.e. keys, it's very frustrating having to rummage through all of your boxes to find it!

I hate moving, having spent the past 5 years moving once a year into new halls of residence or flats I think I can live without ever having to move again, in fact now I don't have to unless I decide to sell my house!

I never really had any moving disasters, but the student housing staff at my Uni. insisted on putting me in a top floor flat every year. Good thing I was able to tell my dad how important it was that I got to know my flatmates while he lugged my stuff upstairs.

W/T probably had help from the other scoobies. Bribing friends with the promise of beer and Chinese usually works on my mates.

[Chino6069]

We celebrated our first year in our apartment at the weekend. It was a much better day on Saturday than it was the same time last year on the day of the move.

They say moving and divorce are the most stressful things you can ever go through. I can agree on the moving part.

I got in such a state we had to call the ambulance as we thought I was having a heart attack, after only being in the flat a couple of hours and the removal guys were still unloading our gear!

I had been emptying boxes in the bathrooms - shampoos etc and was on the floor under the sink when I got pins and needles up my left arm, then up my face all over my head and I thought to myself - loads of people did in the bathroom - so I got up and went to the lounge where thankfully the couch had arrived. I called my gf in and told her I had pins and needles not just in my left arm, but all over my head and down my right arm too.

We called the ambulance and by the time they arrived (only 7 minutes from the hospital) the tingling had eased off and they hooked me up to the heart monitor. They were having a good look around and noticed my gf's pics of her time in the army lying up against the wall and so they got chatting about 'the good old days' while I was lying there thinking I wasn't even going to see a night in our new home together

The readings were fine and so I decided to stay home. I kept out the way and just lay flat out under the lounge windows and gave orders to the removal men.

Ohh I did call my lawyer and had her make sure my Will was in order and she had all my paperwork incase something did go wrong. I wanted to make sure my gf would be okay and the flat would definately go over to her. You can't be too careful with these things.

Anyhoo, as you can see I am still here. It got me out of unpacking for a couple of days but I was soon back to normal. Turns out my troubles came from a trapped nerve in my neck and I've got spondilosis. I'm still getting physiotherapy for that and everything that seems to be coming from that.

So, that was our moving horror tale. Glad to see it had a happy ending tho'. We still love this flat and still can't believe we live here

We did have another horror of being burgled on the first Saturday night we had gone out - 4 months after we moved in. But that's another tale for another time

[dulcinea]

heh, I was sitting here reading this thread thinking, la la la, I've never had any problems. Then all of a sudden, the memory of last time I moved hit me. I think I had repressed it.

I'd taken two days off work, and as my new flatmate & I didn't have much stuff and were moving to an new empty flat half an hour away, and my parents were organising the delivery of all my old furniture from their place, my new flatmate and I had decided that we'd move almost everything but our really big and heavy stuff ourselves.
So, Thursday and Friday, I'd made about 20 trips, moved everything, my furniture and appliances had arrived intact, so I went back to my old place to wait for the movers to arrive, they were due at 3pm. My new flatmate went back to her old place, which was just down the road. We'd organised for the movers to pick up my bed and bookcase, and then to go and pick up her furniture. Everything was going smoothly.
another hour of sitting in my empty room went by, then another hour....I made several phone calls, and was assured that they would be arriving soon. It was getting late, so we made the decision to head over to the new place. My old flatmate was home, and going to wait for the movers, so I handed over that housekey, never to return. but 11pm rolled around, and we were bedless, the movers had never turned up. So an uncomfortable night was spend on makeshift mattresses on the floor...
next morning, we contacted another company, who luckily were making a delivery in the same area, and they came to the rescue.
I know it seems like a small thing, but at the time, I was tired, stressed and really wanted a bed to curl up in!

oh, and then there was the time I was helping friends move. We were told "I measured the bed, it will fit out the window without being taken apart" Of course, once we are standing outside, in the rain, with the bedframe stuck, holding the end of the very heavy bed, we realised she hadn't taken the legs or headboard into account. So we had to dismantle the bed while it was stuck....

[Croissont84]

Ha! Dulcina you made me laugh with the bed story, I can just imagine it!

Anyway, onto my painful moving out experience, I moved in with two friends for a few months and it was NOT good, one was a slob, one was a clean freak, one could cook, one didn't know how to boil water, and you get my point. Lots of fights, me in the middle, and I haven't spoken to one of them since we left. My advice, make sure you really KNOW the person you're moving in with, otherwise disaster will ensue... trust me

[Indygo]

After having moved 6 times in five years (for many different reasons) I have become the most efficient mover around.

My friends call me the "Moving Expert". I have the number for the movers on my speed dial. (We call them "removalists" here in Oz) I can pack everything I own in three hours into labelled boxes (I always keep my moving boxes), and unpack neatly in half the time, despite being a "collector" and owning heaps of crap. There is no other part of my life where I am this efficient. At moving time, I am in charge, and everybody knows it. *g*

People have suggested I should really taking up organising other people's moving as a career. Is there such a thing?

Indygo

[Arwen]

Best of wishes on the move! As much as it is a pain in the keester, being in a new place is like a new love relationship, only with a house/apartment!

Hmmm....moving tips. Well, never get cranky with the moving guys when they're carrying your treasured piano, the only thing in the world that you actually adore more than your own life even, up three flights of stairs (did I mention grand piano?) and when they even get within an inch of bumping it into the wall you shriek at the top of your lungs for them to smarten up or you'll make them a man no more.

Yeah, they'll then proceed to threaten to drop it right then and there, no matter if you're in the way.

It's just best for your friend to lock you in a room, gagged and bound until it's in your new home. That sounds kinda kinky.....been reading way too much W/T fic!

[JulesP600]

I moved in June and the only advice I can really give is make sure you label everything clearly........it is sooooo important!

If you can keep the kettle/coffee etc. seperate and with you, you will want it!

It is a horrible thing to do but if you are moving somewhere nicer than you are at now it is lovely too

Good Luck!!!!