Buying A Home
zoieglow
member
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Packing/Moving Advice?
I'm was wondering if anyone has any advice about the packing and moving process - tips, tricks, timeline help (closing on both houses on the same day), opinions on movers vs no movers, etc. Just a general idea of what helped you make the process go smoothly - little things or big things. Thanks!
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Re: Packing/Moving Advice?
1. It's never too early to start hoarding boxes and start packing things.
2. Definitely start a 'give away' and 'throw away' pile. Moving is a golden opportunity to purge unnecessary stuff.
3. If you're over 25, hire movers (for at least the big stuff) and don't ask friends to help. If you hire movers for everything, don't start packing yourself (I think most companies require they pack it to move it).
4. It's also never to early to start eating up the pantry. But keep track of what you've eaten so you remember to replace it at the new place.
5. Label boxes with essential "must unpack" items. You don't need your entire linen closet on day one, but you will need towels.
6. Don't pack your kitchen stuff in newspaper. Otherwise, you'll have to wash everything b/c the black newsprint gets on everything. Buy butcher paper or something similar and utilize things you already have (e.g., kitchen towels).
The above post has some great tips so I'll just add:
1. Clean first. If you put everything in the proper place before you begin you'll have a much easier time keeping everything organized and unpacking everything later on.
2. Group items by room and label the boxes appropriately. Once again, this will make unpacking things much easier. Also, if you accidentally pack something you need too early in the process, you'll have less boxes to dig through hunting it down.
3. If you can, try to keep clothing on the hangers. For our last move we used large garbage bags like dress bags and placed them flat on top of the boxes. Before that we folded them down into boxes with the hangers still on and that seemed to work well enough too. I know rehanging things doesn't take a whole lot of time, but every little bit saved helps.
My last tip I'm not sure would be helpful to everybody, but it works well for us.
4. Make the kitchen one of the first rooms you start packing. For us, the kitchen has ton of funny shaped or delicate items that are a pain to deal with when we're already tired of packing. It just doesn't seem as bad when we do it first.
This must be a regional thing? We used movers in our last move and packed up everything. The only stuff they did for us was wrap furniture in moving blankets.
I am curious as to why/how you came up with this tip. What makes 25 the age you think movers should be used?
My Valentine Bookends (2~13~13, 2~15~09)
If you can afford movers, by all means hire them. I will never try to move myself again......the money spent was well worth it.
If you can afford to have them pack for you as well, do it. You won't regret it, especially if you are on a tight time frame.
Age 25 is more of a guideline - like ability to rent a car. Typically, by 25, you're beyond college and probably grad school, maybe having kids, you've acquired stuff and furniture, and you probably just bought a home. You are a self-reliant adult and should act accordingly.
Unless, all of your friends are on board with helping one other, I don't think you should even put friends in the position of having to decline moving help. DH has fraternity brothers in the area who are pretty close to him. None of us have asked the one another to asist w/moves (we've all moved recently).
ETA: I fully support DIY at any age, my comment was mostly in regards to asking friends to help.
this is what I have heard, and thus we are using movers for our October move.
I keep coming back to this and cracking up about the age 25 guideline. wtf?
OP - From my experience, movers are 100% worth it! Research the whole "they pack for you" think, though. I know that some can do that for you, but I just can't comprehend how that would work well. They will not pack things as well as you will and you will probably have to sign a waiver of sorts so that you don't hold them responsible. If they definitely break something (furniture, tv, etc) the day of the move, most will let you submit a claim to get reimbursed. They are a legitimate business and have liability insurance for these things.
It is never too early to start packing.
As PPs mentioned, label every single box for what room it goes in. This will make yours and the movers' lives SO much easier!
Good luck with everything and enjoy your new home! : )
I hired movers and I packed everything that would fit into a box.
My husband and my brother are both over 40 and they easily moved some of the big stuff...AND I'm pretty sure that my movers were all over the age of 25...I'm not really getting how "25" is relevant to anything.
BTW, I would NEVER let anyone pack stuff that is most valuable to me. IMO, I would pack my items with more care than movers would. They did a nice job packing up my large items, but when my GF had her home packed they were just throwing everything in a box and labeling it all "miscellaneous -room-"
I was meticulous about labeling boxed. It might be that I'm totally type A, but you can't really assume that everyone will due a shoddy packing job. Most large moving companies include a certain amount of insurance to cover anything that breaks.
We packed one suitcase with everything we would need within 24-48 hours of moving - a change of clothes, pjs, a set of towels and sheets, and toiletries - also put aside 1 box of food essentials and packed the cooler along with plastic plates, napkins, and cutlery to take over separately.
And even if they only move you, you'll likely have to sign something releasing them from responsibility if something breaks.