Saturday, March 03, 2007

Moving Out Day... The Day After Retrospect

It's Saturday morning and I'm sitting here with an empty apartment. My wife is gone to be with her girlfriends one last time. My job is to clean up the mess created yesterday during the move, and try to sell or get rid of the remaining appliances and furniture pieces.

Let me begin by saying that one should never attempt to make a move on a weekday (Mistake #1). Nobody is able to help. I didn't realize how much stuff we had, and had left to pack. We had over a month to prepare and a pile of boxes was quickly adding up in the garage during that time. But one quick look around the house showed that there was still much work left to be done.

Jay's comment to our previous post was aptly put. At first we had a system for marking the boxes. Four pen colors: red, kitchen;  blue, bedroom; green, bathroom; black, living room and everything else. Our packing of the boxes was Tetris-style, you couldn't find an ounce of air in them at all. But yesterday the gloves were off and the clock was ticking. "Do you need this?" "No, throw it out." Unopened bottles of cleaner that we got with buy-one-get-one coupons named Zip, Pow, and Bang. (those didn't do so hot a job at cleaning. Mr. Clean's Magic Eraser, however, is worth its weight in salt. Or some other confused cliché)

We found that Uhaul is overly expensive for what you get and the risk involved. So we did what our friends the Sant'Agatas did who moved to North Carolina, we called ABF Trucking. For less than half the price we were given two 6x7x8 cubes to fill and then they will move them for us. They do have door-to-door service, but we took the cheap path and  save another $300 by moving the items to the cube at the terminal ourselves, which meant an in-town Uhaul rental for $30. That was mistake #2. With this setup we are packing our items into the truck, driving it to the ABF terminal, unloading, and packing a cube, and we'll have to duplicate the process on the other end. I quickly saw the error of my ways (because of Erin's pressing persuasion) and opted for the cubes to be delivered to the door of the new place.

We were done by 10:30pm and crashed into our bed. I slept like a rock, mostly because my body wouldn't move. I can feel every muscle in my body all the way down to my fingers. At 5:30am I awoke and took a shower, couldn't find my clothes, or a light, realized there were no curtains on the window, and put on my robe and got the paper. An hour later, when the sun came up, Erin came downstairs to find me and the cat laying on the couch reading the news. She noticed my clothes, or lack thereof and had a good laugh. I went upstairs to get dressed and realized that I had packed my socks.

So here I am, wearing yesterdays socks, and waiting for people to pick up our old stuff. Craig's List is a wonderful place to get rid of stuff. Most things I listed for free, and they're going like hotcakes. I called 1-800-GOT-JUNK and they were going to charge me upwards of $120 to take away my broken TV and BBQ. A free listing on Craig's List prompted a phone call from Kevin, my new best friend. He comes in to pick up a broken TV and notices all my Goodwill items in the garage. He starts going through the pile like an IRS auditor. In one bag he found an old Vans shoe of mine and put it on his foot he liked it so much that he took the other one and his shoe and put it in his car. He continued to walk around with mismatched (and one untied) shoes. He left with over half the items in the pile now in his car. Thank you, Kevin.

Next up... Unloading in Tacoma!

5 comments:

Rachel said...

Of the chaos of it all. I remember my portion of the Tustin/Colorado move all to well. Luckily it ended with me leaving 12 hours before the boys and avoiding the last minute hussle. Thank you Aubrey for being so small and needing to eat every few hours that I needed a head start and a hotel room! If and when Mike and I move again, I am really going to push for the hiring movers thing. It is pricey, but our backs are worth at least that much. Drive safely and don't forget to come back and get Erin!

Jenna Hoskinson said...

i always love reading your posts, Joshua...they make me laugh. Good choice on paying the extra $300 to have your stuff delivered right to your door - it's totally worth it! I'm so excited for you guys and can't wait to come visit!

Tara said...

I guess it was good that Tommy and I had already packed up all of our stuff and had it sitting in storage for two years before we actually moved. It makes the whole tetris packing thing a distant memory.
I think if we move again, we will definitely hire movers. I cannot imagine moving our gigantic and seriously heavy bedroom furniture down our stairs. I saw the furniture guys bringing it up and it was crazy!

Erin said...

Alright Joshua, tell us how the unloading went!

Anonymous said...

Hi, Erin! I've thouroughly enjoyed reading your web page. I so envy you moving to Oregon. I'm from there, you know. I'm determined to return some day.

It looks like I will be leaving Mission School as well. I've been laid off do to budget cuts, and the fact that our library will be closed down for a year while modernization takes place. I will have a job at another school, just don't know which one yet. My last day will be June 29th.

You are missed here already, and I'm sure your kids miss you, too. They probably just didn't realize the depth of what you were telling them.

Best wishes to you and Joshua now and in the future.

Love,
Bette Standon