Of course Moving Day would be a $hit show!
T minus 14 days before moving day and everyone’s favorite question to ask me is “so, are you all packed?” NO! I was never “all packed” and the frustrating part about it was that I couldn’t pack a damn thing. Because we were moving across the country, we needed to rely on a moving service that would ensure safe transport for all of our belongings. In order for everything to be insured, they had to do 100% of the packing. Luxury right? Well yes, but I couldn’t wrap my head around it. As moving day got closer and closer, I woke up every morning believing that I should be doing something. I needed to be making progress or at least make it look like I was taking this thing seriously. In other words, we didn’t purchase luxury, we purchased anxiety! But that anxiety was all on us. We were assured from so many people that we were overthinking this and the moving company would do everything.
T minus 24 hours before the moving truck was due to arrive and I went from room to room doing a final sweep of what could be tossed, what could be sold and what could be donated. I did all the laundry, folded everything and put clothes away in drawers as if I would be accessing them tomorrow. I went to bed that night believing in my heart of hearts that tomorrow morning the movers would arrive and commend me for how organized my home was. They would come and say things like “wow, you’ve made our job so easy. Everything is so organized and this is way less stuff than we anticipated. You must have done an incredible job decluttering!”
Okay so perhaps I have a bit of a thing about needing to constantly exceed expectations in exchange for words of affirmation. I like pats on the back (arguably too much), which is why I would always clean the house before the cleaning lady arrived, or I will tidy all the plates at the end of a meal and stack them neatly for the server just to hear the words “wow, I wish all my tables were like you!”
T minus 0: MOVING DAY.
The time is 8:00 am and the head moving guy arrives on time with a huge truck taking up 2.5 driveways. Feels like overkill for our home, but I know they do multiple moves with one truck so it makes sense to me. I’m in the master bedroom folding the last of the clean linens and listening intently as my husband walks him through each room. He gets to the end of the tour and I smile in anticipation as I wait for the inevitable compliments and pats on the back. That’s when I hear him say, “This is TWICE the amount of stuff to move than what we were told!”
WHAT???!!! But I decluttered! I sold things…how could this be?
“They told us 4000lbs and this is easily 8000 or more”, he continued. “To put it into context for you, 4000lbs would be equivalent to a 1-2 bedroom apartment.” For those who haven’t seen my house, it’s about 4200 square feet of living space…..so yeah, we’ve got a f@#king problem!
He runs out to make some phone calls and shortly thereafter the packers arrive. They scan the house and say to us “we are only here to pack 9 boxes.”
9 BOXES??? So basically, you’re here to pack the linens?
“Is there another team being sent to pack the remaining 40 plus boxes?” we ask calmly, to which she replies “I don’t know!” That’s when we hear the main mover say, “Wish I could help you but I’m being sent to another job. Good luck with everything” as he gets into his massive truck and drives away. No more truck taking up 2.5 parking spaces. Just an empty street and texts from neighbors saying “I just saw the truck pull away. That was so fast! I didn’t even see them load a single box!” *insert the side eye emoji here*
Hey everyone, I don’t mean to raise any alarm bells or be difficult; however, we are scheduled to board a plane tomorrow afternoon and since we’ve already spent about $1000 in pre-flight COVID tests, rescheduling is not an option. Yet we have no movers and the people packing our house will stop after 9 boxes. Not to mention we have been informed that this one day move is now expected to take two days….if they started right now, which obviously….00wasn’t happening.
An interesting thing occurred in this moment where we should have been freaking out. There was a quiet calm between myself and Chris where we knew that it would just have to get figured out. Long story short, hour by hour, it all started coming together. The packers were authorized to complete the whole house, and the next morning a team of 8 movers and a new truck showed up. We needed to be enroute to the airport by 2 pm to leave enough time for our Visa applications to be reviewed, so needless to say, we abandoned the house 3.5 hours before the move was complete. We handed or keys to our amazing neighbor who agreed to oversee the remainder of the move; said our goodbyes while the contents of our home were piled in the driveway waiting to be moved into the truck; and quickly jumped in the car as the skies opened up with an intense downpour of rain and thunder. PERFECT!
Yeah…it will all get figured out and in 2 weeks we will be reunited with the contents of our home…we hope :)