Moving & a grooving
Monday, 29. December 2008, 14:47:27
After a hectic couple of days I've now helped my girlfriend move home four times. The moves have ranged from the simply traumatic to the downright disastrous.
Here follows some helpful tips from my experience for those moving home.
Make sure you have contact with your new landlord/lady/letting agent
In these days of mobile phones, satellite communications, high speed broadband, easily accessible free email providers & such like, communication is becoming increasingly impossible. There is no end to what can go wrong. In days gone by communication was easy, you'd meet & talk. Now though too many people rely on noo-fangled techno wizardry which in reality is simply a number of answering machines playing recorded messages at each other creating a positive feedback loop. Then you spend an entire day sitting on a partially dismantled sofa staring at a load of crates waiting for the phone to ring.
Make sure you get at least one landline number as well as a mobile phone number (I know I'm an Opera zealot but mobile phones really are completely rubbish). Make sure they are written down on a notepad & stored on your phone.
Opera users should copy important phone numbers & other information to notes & use Opera Link to make sure you can access them from any internet connection (& any browser).
Don't move at Christmas time
Christmas is a pretty rubbish time to do anything other than celebrate Christmas. The roads & pavements are busier, everywhere has a car parked in it & your letting agent will have seemingly ceased to exist (although in many cases this will be an improvement in service).
Also in the UK it seems that a large number of charity shops & services where you can donate unwanted items for resale are Christian charities (something us atheists need to remember when we think the world would be a better place without religion), & funnily enough most Christian charities close down for Christmas!
Make sure the essentials are on hand
Kettle, mugs, teabags, milk, teaspoon. 'nuff said.
Have breakfast
Moving is tiring, make sure you get some breakfast down you.
Get a van
If you've got a friend with a van ask them very nicely if they would be able to help you out. If this fails offer love, booze, money &/or sex. You could hire a professional removal company but another option available in the current economic down turn if you know any builders, chances are they will be having a bit of a slack time at the moment & would be glad of some extra work. Ferrying stuff back & forth in cars is massively inefficient in both time & money & increases overall stress. Vans are also much easier to lift things into & out of so you are less likely to hurt yourself.
Good boxes are a must
I was sceptical when Nix told me she had hired a dozen plastic collapsible crates from Easistore, the less than exemplary service we got from the work experience students who apparently had the run of the complex when we picked them up wasn't great, but in the end they were really useful & far easier to handle than awkward & flimsy cardboard boxes. They were big, strong, stacked securely & collapsed down really neatly. Most importantly they had strong carrying handles, if something is easy to grab hold of, you can comfortably carry considerably more weight.
Only move what you actually need
In our ridiculous consumer driven world you will have tons of stuff that you don't want or need. But please make every effort not to turn my planet into one big landfill.
Charity shops are very grateful for saleable items such as books, CDS, DVDs & clothes (although some seem to be getting pickier with what they'll take, as more people downsize into cheaper homes, they are getting rid of more stuff).
If you don't already know about it Freecycle is ace. Get in quick to avoid people coming to pick stuff up mid move, if you are trying to get rid of big items like furniture include dimensions in your offered message plus take some pics upload them somewhere (MyOpera provides plenty of free storage space & has a really good photo album system if you didn't already know) & remember to include a link to the gallery. This will help reduce failure-to-collects if it turns out to not be what the freecycler wants.
Try to be creative, I spent a happy half hour demolishing Nicky's old bed. The fabric & mattress had to be dumped unfortunately, but the cardboard was recycled & the draws & frame will be raised seed beds in the garden this coming year.
Pack things one room at a time
Once you've got all the big things dismantled start on the clutter. Get in a room, close the door, pack things into boxes & don't stop until everything is packed away. Stick everything on the van or in one big room near the door. Once a room is completed close the door & don't go back in until you've finished the whole house. Don't waste time flitting in between half packed rooms.
When it gets to unloading at the other end take boxes straight to the corresponding room in your new place & leave it there until you've finished unloading. Don't start arranging furniture & flowers until all the boxes are in your new place.
Just bloody get on with it
By the time you've carefully planned the optimal method to do something you could probably have finished & had time for an extra cup of tea.
Here follows some helpful tips from my experience for those moving home.
Make sure you have contact with your new landlord/lady/letting agent
In these days of mobile phones, satellite communications, high speed broadband, easily accessible free email providers & such like, communication is becoming increasingly impossible. There is no end to what can go wrong. In days gone by communication was easy, you'd meet & talk. Now though too many people rely on noo-fangled techno wizardry which in reality is simply a number of answering machines playing recorded messages at each other creating a positive feedback loop. Then you spend an entire day sitting on a partially dismantled sofa staring at a load of crates waiting for the phone to ring.
Make sure you get at least one landline number as well as a mobile phone number (I know I'm an Opera zealot but mobile phones really are completely rubbish). Make sure they are written down on a notepad & stored on your phone.
Opera users should copy important phone numbers & other information to notes & use Opera Link to make sure you can access them from any internet connection (& any browser).
Don't move at Christmas time
Christmas is a pretty rubbish time to do anything other than celebrate Christmas. The roads & pavements are busier, everywhere has a car parked in it & your letting agent will have seemingly ceased to exist (although in many cases this will be an improvement in service).
Also in the UK it seems that a large number of charity shops & services where you can donate unwanted items for resale are Christian charities (something us atheists need to remember when we think the world would be a better place without religion), & funnily enough most Christian charities close down for Christmas!
Make sure the essentials are on hand
Kettle, mugs, teabags, milk, teaspoon. 'nuff said.
Have breakfast
Moving is tiring, make sure you get some breakfast down you.
Get a van
If you've got a friend with a van ask them very nicely if they would be able to help you out. If this fails offer love, booze, money &/or sex. You could hire a professional removal company but another option available in the current economic down turn if you know any builders, chances are they will be having a bit of a slack time at the moment & would be glad of some extra work. Ferrying stuff back & forth in cars is massively inefficient in both time & money & increases overall stress. Vans are also much easier to lift things into & out of so you are less likely to hurt yourself.
Good boxes are a must
I was sceptical when Nix told me she had hired a dozen plastic collapsible crates from Easistore, the less than exemplary service we got from the work experience students who apparently had the run of the complex when we picked them up wasn't great, but in the end they were really useful & far easier to handle than awkward & flimsy cardboard boxes. They were big, strong, stacked securely & collapsed down really neatly. Most importantly they had strong carrying handles, if something is easy to grab hold of, you can comfortably carry considerably more weight.
Only move what you actually need
In our ridiculous consumer driven world you will have tons of stuff that you don't want or need. But please make every effort not to turn my planet into one big landfill.
Charity shops are very grateful for saleable items such as books, CDS, DVDs & clothes (although some seem to be getting pickier with what they'll take, as more people downsize into cheaper homes, they are getting rid of more stuff).
If you don't already know about it Freecycle is ace. Get in quick to avoid people coming to pick stuff up mid move, if you are trying to get rid of big items like furniture include dimensions in your offered message plus take some pics upload them somewhere (MyOpera provides plenty of free storage space & has a really good photo album system if you didn't already know) & remember to include a link to the gallery. This will help reduce failure-to-collects if it turns out to not be what the freecycler wants.
Try to be creative, I spent a happy half hour demolishing Nicky's old bed. The fabric & mattress had to be dumped unfortunately, but the cardboard was recycled & the draws & frame will be raised seed beds in the garden this coming year.
Pack things one room at a time
Once you've got all the big things dismantled start on the clutter. Get in a room, close the door, pack things into boxes & don't stop until everything is packed away. Stick everything on the van or in one big room near the door. Once a room is completed close the door & don't go back in until you've finished the whole house. Don't waste time flitting in between half packed rooms.
When it gets to unloading at the other end take boxes straight to the corresponding room in your new place & leave it there until you've finished unloading. Don't start arranging furniture & flowers until all the boxes are in your new place.
Just bloody get on with it
By the time you've carefully planned the optimal method to do something you could probably have finished & had time for an extra cup of tea.
WIDGETIZE