Moving

Looks like a lovely place - congrats on the move, Ned.

Thanks all!

It looks as though I will be moving in two weeks or so. Haven't done this for many years and would appreciate protips!

you're gonna need a LOT of alcohol

Honestly, my pro-tip more than all the others is: Put like things with like. I have classifications of things: "books", "folded clothes", "hanging clothes", "toiletries", "linens", "kitchen", "kitchen - fragile", and so on. Pack and label the boxes and BE SPECIFIC. Not until the frantic very very end should you be contemplating putting a bunch of hangers in a box with two cookbooks, the extra guest bedding, and a lamp without its shade.

Pro tip #2: Have enough boxes, by which I mean "Have an entire world's worth of boxes because otherwise you'll never know what's enough." I had about 35 of varying sizes when I moved last month and I really needed at least 40, maybe 45.

Other favorite tips involve Saran wrap, and having decided where EVERYTHING is going in the new place so you can tell movers where to leave furniture.

All the aforementioned is correct.

a bunch of hangers in a box with two cookbooks, the extra guest bedding, and a lamp without its shade.

ahahaha, this is such a perfect characterization of the final box

ugh the worst part of moving is the endless miscellany - you keep thinking you've packed/moved everything, but there is ALWAYS at least several boxes of small, annoying shit leftover.

Yay Ned!

I'll be moving a week from yesterday and didn't think to find a moving thread till just now. So just kinda jumping in here w/out reading everything.

I'm moving about 1/2 block from where I live now.

1. Definitely nice toaster oven. The thing I'm MOST excited about w/r/t the new place is that I will have counter space for a toaster oven! I bought one off Amazon a week ago and can't wait to unpack it. Also, sweet looking place, Ned!

2. The frustration w/ miscellany is OTM. It seems like at the end it starts procreating and does so faster and faster the closer you get to the end.

3. Not until the frantic very very end should you be contemplating putting a bunch of hangers in a box with two cookbooks, the extra guest bedding, and a lamp without its shade.

Agreed, but for some reason, this move I'm handling differently. My first couple boxes were strictly books, strictly winter clothes, strictly whatever. Then after a day I was like, Fuck it, and I went around throwing anything that would fit into a box, seal it up, and label it "DVD PLAYER, UNDERSHIRTS, MISC."

So, we moved today, mostly. We're splitting a 2-story place with another couple, and we're taking the top level. Unfortunately, the staircase is tight and has a 90 degree angle. Things that we just realized won't fit up the stairs:

Dresser
Record shelves
Bookshelves
Boxspring for mattress

sigh. Decision to take the upstairs seeming pretty stupid now tbh

Boxspring for mattress

this is how we ended up with a "platform" bed, 6 moves back. And the dresser that wouldn't break down into anything smaller ended up being cd storage in the downstairs room.

If there are hand rails in the staircase, taking them off can sometimes give you just enough extra room to squeeze around the corner.

It makes no sense to have stairs or doorways that normal furniture can't fit through. Infuriating. I've never lived in such a place, but my ex-bf and some interns I was supervising moved into places like this. Just awful.

yeah the bed thing is what i'm fearing with my next move. gf and i bought a bed together and it was supposed to be at my place until we moved in together. long story short she has it and i'm sleeping on the floor at my pad.

Hmmm.... I wrote and thought I posted something earlier re the magic of outsourcing.... Basically, I read a thing in Esquire when I was about 26 called "Dos and Don'ts for 30-somethings" and the Don't that stuck with me was "Don't rope your friends into helping you move. You're a grown-up now, so hire movers." While this is way too pat, it makes complete sense to me now.

One friend who is 34 and a considerably higher earner than me still gets her friends to help her move, which is very strange, IMO. When I told her that I spent $400 on movers (3 man crew, 3 hours total, including tip!), and was going to do so again, she was horrified. She insisted that I should let her help me instead because she SWEARS that she loves helping friends move. I said no fucking way - these guys strapped 3 or 4 boxes to their backs w/ canvas bands and RAN down my three flights of stairs. It was some of the best money I've ever spent.

This year I'm hiring cleaners, too b/c I have only until 3 p.m. to vacate, and while I doubt that if I did it myself I'd fuck up so badly I'd get hit with the clean-up fee that my property mgmt. company assesses ($50/hr), I'd rather have it done right.

Has anyone else experienced the demise of the security deposit?

Many (or most?) property management companies in Chicago are forgoing security deposits in favor of "move-in fees" which are usually $250-300 (non-refundable, as they are fees). But if you fuck up, instead of just keeping your deposit, the management company charges clean-up or repair fees on top of the $250-300 you already lost.

i move in 2.5 weeks. i've started the process this weekend. this is wise, yes?

Unquestionably. Whatever you can do to prepare in advance, the better.

A nice discovery I made is that I no longer have to go to the post office to set up change of address forwarding:

https://moversguide.usps.com/icoa/icoa-main-flow.do?execution=e1s1

Extremely simple, worked like a charm.

I did that when I moved and it was very convenient but I was disproportionately angry that it cost me a dollar!

Jesse OTM, hiring movers and end-of-lease cleaners means saving one's sanity. I only didnt need a mover last move as I moved three doors down, so we could to it all with 2 mates and a trolley but this time, no way,every last item is going into a box, and someone else is doing it. My move in 2008 was so traumatic (ever tried to pack and clean up EIGHT YEARS of pack-ratty endless mess? Ugh) and I never wanna do that again.

One good thing is the place I am in now is so bereft of storage (apart from one room with a small wardrobe there is none), most of my shit is still IN boxes haha.

Me too, Abbott. At least the first time. Now I'm not sure why it bothered me.

I did that when I moved and it was very convenient but I was disproportionately angry that it cost me a dollar!

I did this just a few days ago. Turns out the first google search result for "post office online change of address" is NOT an official USPS site, although it looks like it is, and at the end they charge you $5.99 fee.

buttheads!

Because it costs a dollar to do on the online something that is FREE off the online! Gets to me because I'm a cheap bastard! Why pay for something you can do for free???

xp

Waiting in the post office costs a chunk of your soul ;_;

So I accidentally found a place that rents out boxes and other moving supplies! It is called rentourboxes.com! You order online and they drop the stuff off at your place whenever you like, then come collect them from the new place. Cheaper than buying and very convenient. And eco-friendly(er).

I know I could be scavenging boxes from the liquor store dumpster or trawling Craigslist, but so much shit is going on right now that this seems worth some dough.

Not that our home seller's agent is threatening to "sue everyone" at this point because we need to close two days later than expected, so I could be living in said boxes if things fall through.

Hmm, nice! Will have to keep that in mind next time (hopefully not for a long while).

Wow. Great news!

Oh. I typed that only after reading the part about the boxes, so, addendum: Terrible news!

On this move I got really lucky that a pet supply store opened 1 block away 3 weeks ago. I got there on opening day and scored 20-25 perfectly-sized boxes. Additionally, my current building has about 200 units and lots of people moving in, so the trash room is full of boxes.

Last time I bought a lot of them. Not that expensive, but it really bugged me! Like the Abbott and the $1 address change charge.

I bought a bunch of flat-packed admin style boxes from Officeworks, they come in packs of 10, 30 was enough for my stuff. Most of its still in them. NO idea what is where. LOL.

Completely packed and waiting for the movers who are running 10 minutes late. The weatherman said yesterday that it was going to be 98 today, but Forecastfox says 90. Our weather guy is a drama/ratings queen, so I trust FF.

Screw forecastfox!

under two weeks now. bought some b0xes yesterday. i'm chillin for the most part. #idiocy

Moved. $30 over budget, but they had to carry a behemoth bed base up 6 flights bc it wouldn't fit in either elevator ;__; felt bad for them! That fucker is well over 200 lbs.

were they like "couldnt you have a lighter fecking bed base you arse!?"

New neighbours were moving in this morning as I slept one off. Groan.

Were they that loud? How loud does moving have to be?

I'll tell you one thing - if* I ever move again, I'm taking that bed apart and throwing it away (I don't think I can disassemble and reassemble it) b/c no one needs to go through that again.

It's this kind of bed base, by the way, that's why it weighs so much. Amazing storage!

http://x-land.org/_cache/Chauffage%20Piscine/img/gn_articles_Malm%20Ikea_0_1.jpg

Also, the lid is spring-loaded, so it kept popping open on them! Gah.

I am not yet a real grown up but when I become one I am not going to buy any furniture that cannot be disassembled and/or set on fire.

oh it can all be set on fire

Hahaha.

I think that the usual thing that goes with being "grownup" is having furniture that CAN'T be disassembled. Ikea is pretty 20-something-ish.

after a brief interregnum i once again own nothing that i cannot, in theory, move by myself.

in theory, this is cool, but maybe less so in practice

xp I'm so not real a grown up I just graduated from college and am living at home from my parents, a studio full of untreated pine Ikea furniture is my current aspiration.

*with my parents, typing is hard

a. and i are doing a 2-mile move (technically, 1.7 miles!) mid-month. we've been writing around for moving company estimates but no responses yet. we actually have very little furniture, and some of the more fragile/meaningful items we'll bring over ourselves. we used u-haul last time, and that ended up costing $100 and being a pain in the butt. i'm ready to be an adult and hire a fucking mover.

1. How old are you? ("you" = plural, stupid English)

2. Where do you live?

Also, my move was .10 mile

http://i.imgur.com/T4Lsr.png

(freebie for my stalker(s))

4 = house I've been renting for the last 5 years
2 = house I'm buying, to move into at the beginning of September

Distance between the two doorbells = 110 cm (43 inches)

But still, everything's got to be packed, all papers & formalities have to be changed - pretty ridiculous, but anyway.

http://i51.tinypic.com/rvvt40.jpg

I guess I needed a bigger mailbox.

ha. just smash the shared wall down and shove everything through. i once considered moving next door but it seemed too inherently ridiculous to bother with even though it was a better house than my own. now instead i'm moving 400 miles come september, no idea how i'm going to work out the logistics of that one. \o/