In the old days my biggest job in a company move was to keep the kids out from under foot. Today, I have choices. Pay for the one stop shop. Or cobble the pieces together into a DIY moving experience.
Just like Hobby Lobby sells materials for crafts, and Home Depot sells supplies for home improvement, a variety of companies sell pieces and parts for a DIY move. Packing supplies, packing services, trucks, loading services, storage solutions, specialty piano loading. You name it.
Challenge accepted!
We were only moving five hundred miles. Easy. Peasy. Right?
Organizing is my superpower.
Step 1:
Stage the house for showing, using one packing and moving company to fill a couple of storage units.
Step 2:
Use a different moving company, to pack and load rented trucks. Add in one company for piano loading and another for piano unloading. I recruited my son-in-law to drive a truck and help unload. Hard to say ‘no’ to your new in-laws.
Step 3:
Schlep everything from storage to the new house. It took six weeks to complete this step, moving only on weekends. We suspended all moving activities for my son’s wedding partway through this step. With each trip, I would unpack, making the new house feel like home. Then we would bring another truck load, creating another pile to be unpacked. Ugh.
As a writer, I loved meeting all the different people who provide moving services. So many story ideas. When I returned the “piano board” to the company who loaded the piano, I got a peek at their storage facility. So many pianos in one place. How can I use this in a story?
On one of the trips to the storage unit, we were halfway to Colorado when I realized I had left the key in New Mexico. Of course, we had bought the good locks which couldn’t be opened easily with a bolt cutter. No. We had to purchase a grinder. A thunderstorm rolled through as we were cutting the locks, and it’s a slow process. I felt kind of bad watching the rain drip down my husband’s neck as he operated the grinder.
I knew the move was wearing on me when, on that same trip, I opened my suitcase and found that I forgot to pack any clean shirts.
My husband said, “You’re wearing a shirt now.”
My reply, “I’ll be wearing this shirt tomorrow, too.”
As a writer, the experience gave me ideas of obstacles to throw in my character’s path. Teachers at writing seminars say, “When things get boring, bring in a guy with a gun.” Thankfully, that never happened. Lots of inconveniences, but no guys with guns.
Now that it’s all done, I can get back to the business of writing, blogging, and posting random observations on Facebook.
Would I do it again? No.
Do I regret it? No. It’s all part of the adventure.
Luck for my readers, each adventure leads to a blog. It’s good to be back.