Goodbyes

Goodbyes are the hardest part of moving for most people.  Check out Tsh’s ideas at theartofsimple.net.

 

I found it helpful to think of goodbyes as an on-going process rather than a one time event.

 

Au Revoir,

Erica

 

Moving Week Eats

When the kitchen is packed here is a list of foods that are convenient and nutritious, requiring nothing more than a knife, spoon, napkin, microwave and paper plate.

Fruits:  Grapes, cutie oranges, apples, nectarines, pears, cherries

Dairy:  cheese sticks, individual yogurt cups,

Meats/nuts:  lunch meat, mixed nuts, power bars, hard-boiled eggs (you can buy them boiled at the store or boil them before you pack your last pot),

Grains:  crackers, bagels, popcorn

Veggies:  baby carrots, pepper slices, cherry tomatoes, broccoli, Steamfresh bags by Birdseye

Beverages:  Water- extra bottles for moving helpers

The Local Move

It’s time for my family to move again, and this time we have a 3 month old, in addition to our 2.5 and 5 year old daughters!  Thankfully we’re moving within the city of Ames so no goodbyes.

Preparations?

We’ve planned what needs to happen week by week for four weeks out from the closing date on the house we’re buying.  We could have used a couple more weeks, but four is what we have!

Four weeks until closing:

1.  Schedule carpet cleaning and move-out inspection for the house we’ve been renting.  The prices really very for carpet cleaners.  One company insisted on coming out to measure before giving an estimate.  After that we knew the exact square footage to get estimates from other carpet cleaners.  Make sure you know what method they’ll use.  Many property management agencies insist on the hot water extraction method.

2. Take stock of friends and family who’ve offered to help, and pray about how best to use them. (childcare, cleaning, loading, unloading, lawn mowing).  We find scheduling volunteers in shifts of 1 and 1/2 to 2 hours works best for everyone involved.

3.  Reserve a moving truck– I think the expense is worth the convenience of making a couple trips across the city verses many trips with boxes etc. crammed into cars.  Remember that if you’re moving on a weekend at the end of the month, during the summer, moving trucks are going to be in high demand.  This time I rented one from U-Haul.  A 14 ft. truck, for 24 hours, costs about 45.00 + .99/mile.  That includes insurance.  This price was much cheaper than Budget, and Penske didn’t have any trucks available the weekend we needed one.  If you bought a house, check with the realty company that your realtor works for.  Sometimes they offer the best price.

4.  Pack what is not going to be needed or missed in the next couple weeks.  For us this is most of our book collection, winter blankets, coats, my fabric collection, and pottery or dishes that we use for special occasions.  I like to make a three column spread sheet with the number of each packed box, a brief summary of its contents, and where it should go in the new home.  Each box can be labeled with its number and where it should go in the new house.

5.  Process what you want to donate, sell or throw away and get it out of the house!

6.  Think about how you’ll live differently in the layout of this new home.  For example, our main floor square footage is about twice as large at our rental house than in the home we’re moving to.  That means relocating the office, playroom, and other things to the finished basement.

Three weeks until closing:

1.  Pack office non-essentials.

2.  Pack toy non-essentials.  Maybe the girls will spend more time in the backyard if I pack up their toys!

3.  Double a couple of dinners so that you have meals in the freezer for the next two weeks.

4.  Visit the neighborhood you’ll be moving to.  If you have children take them to the park to play and anticipate the fun you’ll have there.

5.  Collect coupons for eating out when your kitchen is packed up.

Two weeks until closing:

1.  Set up or transfer utilities, including the internet/cable, trash, etc.

2.  Announce new address including move-in date to work, schools, church, magazines, doctors, dentist, friends, family, usps, bank, credit cards, pension, insurance companies, rewards programs, pay-pal, amazon, charities, library, phone company, etc.

3.  Move as many boxes as possible into the garage of the home you’re moving out of, if you have one, so you’re staged for the big move.  This is a nice way to get those moving boxes out of sight too.

4.  If you have children that are too young to move boxes and need supervision, schedule childcare for the busiest days.

One week until closing:

1.  Pack a suitcase for your family to live out of for as long as you think it will take to get settled again.

2.  Pack the rest of your belongings, beginning with the least essential. 

3.  If you have children at home, make a point to schedule a few outings.  

4.  Take down pictures and cover in bubble wrap.  Patching and painting nail holes is extra nice.

Moving weekend:

1.  Let work and friends know that you may be difficult to reach over the next few days while you move and get connected at the new place.

2.  Pick up thank you gifts for people who are helping you relocate (realtor, friends, etc.).

3.  Establish a place on a table or counter top at your new home where you can keep important papers, keys, purse, and other small things that could easily get buried in the boxes and packing paper. – Marla Opgenorth

4.  Remember to look behind open doors!  I lost a lovely mirror this way.  The same applies for bird houses you may have suctioned on to your windows outside.

5.  Label keys.  This is a huge help to the person moving into your house.  Put keys in separate ziplocks and label them.   -Marla Opgenorth

6.  Celebrate!  Mark the occasion by planting a tree, hosting a family meeting, or just sitting on the deck sipping your favorite beverage.

What would you add?  Please leave more suggestions in the comment box!

 

Moving Children

Moving with children definitely deserves some careful planning.  Here are some great resources I want to share with you.  If you have additional thoughts or resources please leave them in a comment at the bottom of this post!

Introducing and processing the move together:

Understanding Children, a publication from Iowa State University

Preparing your Child for a Move, Kid’s Health, Reviewed by Dr. Jennifer Shroff Pendley

Moving is Tough for Kids, by Dr. Nancy Darling

Children and Family Moves published by the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

PBS Supersisters offer six tips

Education:

Brief Explanations of traditional school alternatives that you might consider for your children in your new home

A few good tips from 123 movers

Military Families:

Military Children and PCS

Care.com

http://www.militarychild.org

Long Car Trips Between Homes

Tips from Tsh Oxenreider-Who believes a passport is one of the world’s greatest textbooks

Ideas from Make and Takes

Baby Center

Brilliant Ideas From Parents All Over the Country, #3 is My Personal Fave.

Helpful Write-up by a Collection of Authors–  I especially appreciated their links

Insights from The Mother of All Trips

In addition to these resources my family found a few other ideas to be helpful.

1.  While you pack, if there is someone you trust who loves your children, set up childcare.  I found three hours per morning for two weeks before the take-off date allowed me to do a lot of packing and running errands without the girls.  We still had enough time together the rest of the day to keep a pretty normal schedule.

2.  Can’t bring the pets?  Be honest about saying goodbye to pets and allowing them to grieve the loss of that companionship.  If you think it would help, take them to visit the pet’s new home before moving.

3.  Pray for your children!  Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me.”  Matthew 19:14.  He cares about the desires of their hearts as much as he cares about ours.  I’m praying that we’ll have a cherry tree, and chickens in our next home for my oldest daughter.  Right now we’re renting so it’s not an option!

Let children help pack

Cook something delicious in the new kitchen

Find the nearest park

Live like the locals- ISU football game!

Find a local toy store

Found it! It’s a combination baby/child/maternity consignment store.

Discover museums, botanical gardens, or other special attractions in your new home.  Reiman Gardens in Ames is a favorite of ours and it’s just a couple blocks from our house!

Moving Companies

We’ve used several different moving companies. Here is an example of the services and expenses for a hypothetical move from Ft. Collins, CO to Ames, IA- moving a 3+bedroom house in a 22, 24 or 26 ft. truck.  All prices reflect you loading and unloading the truck yourself.  The first three, Budget, Penske, and U-Haul are more typical choices if you want to drive the truck yourself and pull a vehicle.  The fourth option is for U-Pack and it’s the company we actually used for our recent move from Ft. Collins, CO to Ames, IA.  This is a great option if you don’t want to drive an enormous truck, but you’d like to save money by doing the packing/loading work yourself.

After reading many reviews on each company, I would have to say that none of them are perfect, but building a day or two of flexibility into your schedule will definitely help you cope with this physical and logistic challenge!

Budget

They suggest renting the truck for four days, but you can reserve it longer for an extra fee.  This scenario requires you to pick up the truck in the city you’re leaving and drop off the truck in the city you’re moving to.

$549.55 for unlimited miles in a 24 foot moving truck, a car dolly, and a hand truck (dolly)

This is ideal for people who don’t mind driving a huge vehicle and don’t need to accommodate children with car seats.

Penske

Like Budget, this arrangement is for those movers who are able to drive their own truck.  Penske requires you to pick up the truck in the city you’re leaving and drop off the truck in the city you’re moving to.

$928.72 for a 22′ truck, hand truck (dolly), and minimal personal and towing insurance ($65.22).

U-Haul

U-Haul also suggests renting the truck for four days, but you can reserve it longer for an extra fee.  U-Haul requires you to pick up the truck in the city you’re leaving and drop off the truck in the city you’re moving to.

$1084.00 for the distance from Ft. Collins, CO to Ames, IA with a 26 ft. truck (they didn’t have a 24 ft. option), a car dolly,   a hand truck (dolly), and a damage coverage fee.  I selected the minimum damage coverage for both the truck and car dolly.

What I love about the U-Haul option is they provide a listing of local companies at both your departure and arrival locations during the reservation process, in case you want to hire extra help loading/unloading on either end.  One negative I’ve experienced with U-Haul, and I’ve heard from other DIY movers as well, is that sometimes the truck you reserved is not available at the time you reserved it.  This can add a lot of stress to your moving process!  I’ve heard from others who have also experienced this.

ABF U-Pack

Youtube on how U-Pack works

Unlike Budget and U-Haul, ABF U-Pack delivers the trailer to the home you’re leaving and drives it to your new address.  They suggest a 17 ft. truck for a 3 bedroom home and unlike U-Haul and Budget, the price includes gas, and a driver.  The down-side of going with U-Pack is that you have to call a few days before you want the trailer delivered to the home you’re moving from to confirm, and again call to confirm a few days before you want it delivered to the house you’re moving into.  We went with this option when we moved from Colorado to Iowa and they didn’t get the trailer to us the night we requested it, even though we had confirmed ahead of time.  Thankfully the trailer was delivered to the house we moved into the day we requested and the local movers we hired were able to unload it as scheduled.

The following paragraph is taken from U-Pack’s website.  These trailers are taller than the typical moving truck.

Compare ABF’s trailer space to a rental truck

“The amount of loading space in the full 28′ trailer is
equivalent in size to a 26′ rental truck plus another 10′ rental
truck with some room left over.

Need less space? Just subtract $47 per foot from your 17′ quote,
subject to a 5′ minimum. Need more? Just add $47 per foot,
subject to a $1,938 maximum.”

$1,155.00 for trailer delivery to departure house,  driving the trailer to arrival house, and gas.  This price does not include a car dolly or a hand truck (dolly).  We drove our own car and worked a little vacation in between packing and unpacking – it was wonderful!  However, if you want to ship your car instead of drive it, this is a much more expensive option.  With U-Pack, shipping a car from Ft. Collins, CO to Ames, IA costs $1023.50!  That is several times the gas money to drive it or the cost of a car dolly you could use with another moving company.

Also, if U-Pack is the option that works best for you, wrap your fragile items extra well with lots of bubble wrap.  These trucks are not built like other moving trucks and do not have an air lift/hydraulic system.

Another nice feature of U-Pack is that they give you wiggle room in the estimation of how much space you’ll need.  They’ll schedule a bigger truck and only charge for as many feet as you use.

For those of you moving to or from a big city, having an enormous trailer parked in front of your home for days at a time may not be ideal.  One reviewer of U-Pack mentioned needing to obtain a special parking permit.  Here’s the quote, “They drop off a 28 foot trailer at your place, which is sort of a pain in the *** to park in both the Washington metro area and Chicago.  I had to obtain parking permits from Arlington, VA ($34) and the city of Chicago (the most horrendous, bureaucratic process imaginable).”

Moving with an Eternal Perspective

Even in the best cases when we’ve moved closer to family or there has been a great job offer, I find moving to be awful.  After four major relocations, it certainly hasn’t gotten any easier.  There is a delicate balance between all the goodbyes, keeping to the packing schedule, selling a house, and preparing children for the move.  For our past two moves I’ve also been pregnant- a blessing and a challenge!  To gain an eternal perspective it’s necessary to look back at history.  Here are some Biblical scenarios that have pointed me to the truth about God’s perfect provision.  If you have time- check out the surrounding passage.  The context is key.

“I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” Genesis 28:15 (From Jacob’s Dream at Bethel)

“My God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Jesus Christ.”  Phillipians 4:19

^” By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.  By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.  For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.” Hebrews 11: 8-10

^” All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.  People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own.  If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return.  Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.”  Hebrews 11:13-16

“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28

^” This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: ^‘Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile.  Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.‘” Jeremiah 29: 4-7

^“‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.'” Jeremiah 29:11-12

Isaiah chapters 40-55

While I look forward to living a more settled life, God has provided for my family in amazing ways.  Recognizing God’s homemaking provisions in this temporary home suggests great things to come in our eternal homes.  Here’s one more passage . . .

Jesus Comforts His Disciples

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me.  My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.  You know the way to the place where I am going.” John 14:1-4

Uprooted, with guest writer and plant pathologist, Dr. Matt Bakker

Corn seedling

Being uprooted from a loved community is heart wrenching, but also provides some important information.  My husband has studied plant roots for the past several years and I find there are some interesting parallels between plant roots and our own roots – the people, homes, and events that establish us where we are and shape us as we grow.  Here are Matt’s words on roots:

“Although often out of sight and out of mind, roots are crucial to plant health. First consider just how many roots there are! It can be difficult to imagine, from the surface, what lies beneath the ground and surprising just how much root material there really is underneath some plants.  Regardless of depth or width, roots do the important work of anchoring plants in place.

Also, the pull of evaporation at leaf surfaces draws water up from soil, through roots. With that water comes essential nutrients dissolved in the soil solution. Roots secrete chemicals to liberate nutrients from soil, actively pump chemicals from the soil to the plant interior, and host a myriad of microscopic organisms that play a role in plant health.

Potato roots and tubers

Roots have such a profound influence on soil that scientists have created the term ‘rhizosphere’ to distinguish from all other soil that part of the soil that is under the influence of a living plant root. Roots of most plants host intimate fungal partners that serve as vast extensions of root surface area. Legumes and a few other plants have the ability to converse with microbial partners in soil, exchanging signals that invite infection and build custom housing for bacteria whose unique enzymes can transform nitrogen gas from the atmosphere into chemical forms that the plant can use. In payment for this service, the plant offers sugars – built from carbon dioxide and sunlight up in the leaves, but transported down to feed life in the soil. Roots defend against pathogens and disease.

Roots provide a retreat, and power for re-growth when disaster strikes (think prairie fire or bison teeth).” – Matt Bakker

I love to think back on where I’ve been and delight in the way God has shaped me to be more dependent on Him since the beginning of my marriage to Matt and our first move together, the day after our wedding, in 2004.  Our four homes have been a place of retreat and power for regrowth.

Image credit: http://www.123rf.com/photo_11136363_silhouettes-of-tree-with-its-roots.html’>cla78/123RF Stock Photo

Stretch Wrap

Congratulations to Jessica H., the winner of my blog giveaway drawing! 

For our most recent move from Colorado to Iowa, we found a treasure!  Stretch wrap.  Check out this YouTube video for instructions on how to protect your furniture and photos for more ideas.

YouTube on Stretch Wrap

These are the two sizes we found at Home Depot (Also available in similar sizes at Lowes, The Container Store, Office Depot, and most moving companies.). The bigger size is 19 1/5 inches and helpful for protecting furniture as featured in the YouTube video, and the smaller one is 5

Keeps bubble wrap tightly around these glass plates.  Picture taken from http://www.11magnolialane.com.

inches and can be used for securing silverware into the tray, keeping bubble wrap in place, wrapping boards or polls together, and keeping a rug rolled tight. See the picture below for the rug example. We just wrap the six inches closest to the ends for a rug 3 feet or smaller and for bigger rugs we do the ends the same way but add a few extra wrapped sections in the middle as well.

Bigger and smaller options

The stretch wrap kept the doors securely closed on the bottom half of our play kitchen.

stretch wrapused on a small rug

Keeps drawers closed- you might want a packing blanket around it first to protect wood from bumps and scratches. Picture taken from bettermoveonline.co.uk.

Our History

Welcome to my blog!  I hope this site will be a place of encouragement and help to those contemplating the details of a move.  My family’s experience with moving has been mostly DIY and on a budget, so my ideas and resources may fit the needs of the DIY mover better than others.  In the last nine years, my husband, children, and I have gotten to live in some amazing communities, none of which have been easy to leave.  I will have more posts this week and in the months to come covering different topics around the work of moving.  Here’s the path we’ve followed: