Escrow Closing in "2" weeks...Any Packing Advice?

[DisnyMama]

Just two more weeks till escrow closes on July 2nd and we have to be moved out. Here's the situation. I don't know where we are moving to yet! What I do know is we are planning to move to Texas but what I have to do is have a moving company pick up my stuff, store it, then when I know where we are moving to in Texas have them Move it there. Two days after escrow closes my DS and I are going to Texas to look for a Home. I have no idea how to pack for this kind of move, what I am looking at price wise. I know it is going to be very, very expensive but I have no choice. DS and I can't rent a U-Haul and move it ourselves. This is going to be quite an adventure.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Congratulations!!!! Good luck on your search. DH & I had to find a home in 2 weeks here in Texas. We did OK. Our house is lacking an office and now that dh works from home it kinda stinks. He made a bedroom upstairs into an office.

We based it on the school district and we have happy with that!

I am just going to be curious where you end up....We decided on Flower Mound. Have fun with the traffic, it should feel like home.

Oh packing advice, no help there. We still have stuff to unpack. So my advice is to get rid of ALOT of stuff.

 

[mom2rb]

What about PODS. Isn't that the one where you pack them at your house and they hold it for you. Then they bring it to your new house. I think the real name is Portable On Demand Storage.

 

[ducklite]

First you need to throw away or give away anything and everything you do'nt want or need to take with you. If some of your furniture has seen better days it might be cheaper to toss it and buy new for the new home than to pay for moving and storing it.

Have you looked into PODS? That might be a great way to cut your moving expenses. You can pack the container full of boxes and such, and have the movers only handle the heavy stuff.

If you are moving from a cool weather climate to a warm weather climate, go through your closets and pull out a lot of the winter clothes that you won't need anymore. I kept some things, but gave about half of my sweaters and turtlenecks to Goodwill.

Pull out any small valuable and irreplaceable items (jewelry and personal documents) and box them seperately. You want to hand carry those.

Anne

 

[barkley]

toss, toss, toss! anything big that you want to get rid of put up on freecycle (we got rid of the swing set and old-deflated, gross out nasty dirty-above ground pool this way). if you have old electronics check and see where they can be dropped off and what the rules are (some places only allow a limited number per week).

make a "master plan"-pick a color for each category of packed items (kitchen, master b/r, master bath, other bath, office, kid room #1...) as you pack boxes put a peice of colored electrical tape on each corner (or all the way around) so that when you move again you can just post a chart for the movers to know what room each box goes into (also makes it easier if you have to pull something out of storage).

as far as moving costs go-price compare! i saved over $1200 on a local move using a larger company vs. a small independant. i also learned that when we move across country we can qualify for their much lower military/government rates (the rates they give to those agencies) by virtue of being retired government (they extend those rates to both active/retired gov. as well as retired military). some movers offer discounts associated with different affiliations (insurance company, real estate company, civic organizations...).
check into what insurance you will need for the move-i found that my renter's insurance will cover everything, same as if it were in my home, for theft or fire-any damage the movers do i have to have insurance through their company to cover. if you are moving on the holiday weekend BOOK A MOVER NOW! holiday weekends book up fast-and remember, some movers charge a massive premium to move on a saturday or sunday (ours would have charged 50% more). and check to see what their policy is on "wardrobes"-one moving company (the higher cost one) sold these, but the national chain brought them in for us to use at no cost (and then were nice enuf to let us keep them for a week so we did'nt have to rush and unpack them).

if you have valuables (jewlery, cameras-other small items) consider getting a safety deposit box at the bank local to where you live now. that way, when you are out of the area house hunting you don't have to worry about your valuables (and unless you have awsome homeowners or renters insurance to cover it-if you store it in your car it may not be covered or only covered very little).

when we move out of state we know we will have to drive our cars, so we will end up renting a couple of small enclosed trailers. i figure (god forbid) if something happened to the moving van there are certain things i could never replace (like photo albums and the like)-these along with basic essentials, enough to survive on should a moving van be delayed a week or so-will travel with us.

with our kids, i had both "personalize" a moving box (name on it, stickers, marking pen drawings) and put in what THEY considered essentials (for son it was his "cuddle buddies" he sleeps with, play station and games, and certain toys, dd packed her security blanket (well at almost 12 it's now more of a security rag ), some books, her cd player and cd's). this way we could recognize these small boxes immediatly and know they were not to go with the movers-they traveled in the car with us for quick access. also, if possible-STOP buying food! use up everything in the fridge and the cabinets. nothing is worse than having to toss perfectly good food out because you're concerned how it's been stored. i bought those multi packs of cereal the last couple of weeks-those were easy to toss into the kid's boxes for quick snacks while we were initialy getting settled. i also took to asking for extra catsup and condiments at the drive thru windows-they saw us through the first few days and i did'nt have to schlep the half full containers of ranch dressing, catsup and the like. paper plates and cups are also YOUR FRIENDS during the last few days pre-move (that way you dont end up with a bunch of dishes to run in the dishwasher and pack the last hour or so).

good luck-pace yourself so you don't get ill.

 

[Jpgirl]

Here's how I moved 4 years ago (to Texas too!!) I got a notebook and with every box I packed I'd label the box with the room (Kitchen ect) then gave it a number-then in the notebook I'd write the contents of that box. I can tell you that the contents of a 4 bedroom with a basement full of stuff house cost about 20K to move from Ohio to Texas with me packing and no storage. Thank goodness dh's co. paid for the move.
I'm with other posters here-throw away anything you don't use. Also the movers will give you a list of stuff they will not move like gasoline, cleaning chemicals, matches, and the like. The movers we used would allow us to go to their facility and pick up used boxes for free. I went to a box place and bought blank newsprint and bubble wrap. With all the packing I did I only had 2 broken glasses-everything else was fine. Also when we drove down I took my vaccum cleaner, bucket, rags,trash bags with me so I could clean the house before the movers came with my stuff. Good luck you have a big job ahead of you but I know you can do it!! Aren't you the one asking what I'll Like about Texas ?? Well I think you'll love it here-Welcome!!

 

[LuvN~Travel]

toss, toss, toss! anything big that you want to get rid of put up on freecycle (we got rid of the swing set and old-deflated, gross out nasty dirty-above ground pool this way). if you have old electronics check and see where they can be dropped off and what the rules are (some places only allow a limited number per week).

make a "master plan"-pick a color for each category of packed items (kitchen, master b/r, master bath, other bath, office, kid room #1...) as you pack boxes put a peice of colored electrical tape on each corner (or all the way around) so that when you move again you can just post a chart for the movers to know what room each box goes into (also makes it easier if you have to pull something out of storage).

as far as moving costs go-price compare! i saved over $1200 on a local move using a larger company vs. a small independant. i also learned that when we move across country we can qualify for their much lower military/government rates (the rates they give to those agencies) by virtue of being retired government (they extend those rates to both active/retired gov. as well as retired military). some movers offer discounts associated with different affiliations (insurance company, real estate company, civic organizations...).
check into what insurance you will need for the move-i found that my renter's insurance will cover everything, same as if it were in my home, for theft or fire-any damage the movers do i have to have insurance through their company to cover. if you are moving on the holiday weekend BOOK A MOVER NOW! holiday weekends book up fast-and remember, some movers charge a massive premium to move on a saturday or sunday (ours would have charged 50% more). and check to see what their policy is on "wardrobes"-one moving company (the higher cost one) sold these, but the national chain brought them in for us to use at no cost (and then were nice enuf to let us keep them for a week so we did'nt have to rush and unpack them).

if you have valuables (jewlery, cameras-other small items) consider getting a safety deposit box at the bank local to where you live now. that way, when you are out of the area house hunting you don't have to worry about your valuables (and unless you have awsome homeowners or renters insurance to cover it-if you store it in your car it may not be covered or only covered very little).

when we move out of state we know we will have to drive our cars, so we will end up renting a couple of small enclosed trailers. i figure (god forbid) if something happened to the moving van there are certain things i could never replace (like photo albums and the like)-these along with basic essentials, enough to survive on should a moving van be delayed a week or so-will travel with us.

with our kids, i had both "personalize" a moving box (name on it, stickers, marking pen drawings) and put in what THEY considered essentials (for son it was his "cuddle buddies" he sleeps with, play station and games, and certain toys, dd packed her security blanket (well at almost 12 it's now more of a security rag ), some books, her cd player and cd's). this way we could recognize these small boxes immediatly and know they were not to go with the movers-they traveled in the car with us for quick access. also, if possible-STOP buying food! use up everything in the fridge and the cabinets. nothing is worse than having to toss perfectly good food out because you're concerned how it's been stored. i bought those multi packs of cereal the last couple of weeks-those were easy to toss into the kid's boxes for quick snacks while we were initialy getting settled. i also took to asking for extra catsup and condiments at the drive thru windows-they saw us through the first few days and i did'nt have to schlep the half full containers of ranch dressing, catsup and the like. paper plates and cups are also YOUR FRIENDS during the last few days pre-move (that way you dont end up with a bunch of dishes to run in the dishwasher and pack the last hour or so).

good luck-pace yourself so you don't get ill.

Yes, we are still living on paper plates and the plastic utensils. And, will be until the new counters are installed. Hopefully soon!
Kim

 

[DisnyMama]

I moved into the house I'm selling a little over a year ago and did alot of tossing back then so we are pretty lean as far as junk goes. Luckily there are many unpacked boxes still in the garage (but there not junk).

I was going to pick up the tapes that are labled Bedroom, Living Room, Kitchen, Garage, etc. but I only got the one labled Fragile-Handle with Care. I think I will spend the $8.00 and not be so cheap and get the others so it will make it easy for the movers when they get to the new house. Great Idea. Thanks.

JPGIRL-I did the same thing-I went to U-Haul and picked up some bubble wrap and blank newsprint and started packing my grandmothers china and my Disney SnowGlobes. I still have some boxes from when we moved in but I will check with the moving company about used boxes.

I have been wondering about PODS. If I fill a POD here in California can they ship it to Texas? For some reason I thought they were just storage units that they brought to your home and they stayed in place for instance if you were doing remodeling and you needed to removed furniture and stuff out of your home you could store it in a POD in your driveway till the work was done.

Thanks everyone for your great advice. I really appreciate it all.
Shannon