Moving Day!

Moving Day!

My sister-in-law moved this past weekend. We helped.

For most of us, the words "Moving Day" strike terror in our hearts. This day was no exception!

We arrived at our destination--aka "old house"--shortly after 9 a.m. Saturday morning. The first thing we saw was a bunch of trucks and a large trailer in front of the "old house." This was good, because we were afraid we would be the only ones there to help, other than maybe one or two of her four children.

If you're a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, as we are, one of the perks of membership is an experienced moving crew who will come and load up your stuff for you and haul it away to your new digs. For free, other than maybe some donuts or pizza. And they like it best when you have everything ready to go, boxed up and waiting, so all they have to do is load it into the van, trailer, pickup trucks or whatever moving option you have chosen. They really HATE it when you're not ready, although you'll usually not hear them say so. So when we parked and made our way through all the trucks to the door, this is what we had found--the
ultimate experienced moving crew.

By the time we got there, the trucks and trailer were pretty much packed, so we helped with the rest of the loading, and loaded stuff into our truck as well. To cut to the chase and not make this any longer than necessary, suffice it to say that we got furniture and boxes and all from the "old house" to the "new condo." And that is where the fun REALLY began!

Dsil and her dh (dear husband), had lived for a good 25 years or so in a 3,000 sq. ft. Colonial style mansion, modeled after the one her dh's sister lived in, in Tennessee. You may be aware of how much stuff accumulates after even 2 or 3 years of living in one place. Plus, with the wide double-doors in the old mansion, and wide hallways, no one probably even noticed that the oversized couches, dressers, and several fancy curio cabinets were a mover's nightmare. Two years ago they sold this mansion (all their kids had been gone for several years and they plain just didn't need or want to live in this large a house), and moved into the present
"old house," just a few blocks from the OLD old house. Now they were moving from the NEW "old house" to a condominium. And while obviously moving the oversized couches, dressers and curio cabinets hadn't presented much of a problem going from the OLD old house to the NEW old house, it was going to present a problem here.

The condo was upstairs. To get upstairs, you had to go up a narrow, totally covered stairway. Dsil assured the men that she had measured and the curio cabinets should go up those stairs and right into her new home. NOT! With a bit of huffing & puffing they could get the first one up to the turn. But it was too tight to make the turn, so they had to come back down again and park this one in the garage. They tried the next one, which was a little smaller, with the same results. I think there was a third one which they didn't even bother with and just moved it to the garage. Her son will probably rent a forklift and lift the things onto the garage roof, which is flat, and they can be hoisted over the deck railing and into the
sliding door fairly easily.

We learned a few things with this move.

#1. Make use of the free, experienced moving crew.
#2. Have plenty of boxes for the move.
#3. Have them packed and labeled with what's in them (she didn't) and where they go (she did).
#4. And this is the most important!!!!! Get rid of stuff BEFORE you move. Have a garage sale, donate, give away, or throw away, but look at what you have, determine if it's really something you need--and jettison the rest.

Dsil's dh assured us that when the moved from the OLD old house to the NEW old house, they got rid of a lot of stuff. They must have accumulated a LOT more stuff in the two years they were in the NEW old house. With a downsize in our future someday, it is a good time to begin our own program of getting rid of stuff!