The Severed Cortex

If we knew that we would close the sale of our home on one day and close the purchase of a new home the next, we would have never moved our stuff the way we did. We expected to be 'homeless' for a couple of weeks. At least. Because of that, we needed some storage and PODS seemed to be the answer. A cheaper answer, and one that probably would have worked better had we known, was ABF UPack. The problem was that our stuff would have been stored outside. PODS are stored inside. Or so we are told.

Moving the stuff off the UHaul truck the night we closed was easy. We even took a break for several hours and drank beer.

Me: I'll have a Guinness
Nancy: I'll have a Fat Tire
Waitress: (looking at me) That will be $7
Me: I'll go ahead and pay for both
Waitress: It's $7 for both
Me: Sweet!
Nancy: Dude!

I may have made up the dude part.
All told, the two of us emptied a 26 foot truck in about two hours. The next day I dropped the truck off. Again, I can't say enough good things about UHaul, especially the guy at the West Alton store.

Eight days later we got our stuff from PODS. Yes, you heard me right. Eight days. If you've come this far with the moving story you know that we packed the last POD another 5 days prior to that. Meaning, of course, that we've slept on a floor for two weeks now. Well, slightly less. We stayed in a hotel a couple of those nights. And on the 6th day Moses came from upon the mountain and he brought with him 2 PODS trucks. They dropped two PODS and surprisingly both were filled with our stuff. That night we unloaded most of the POD that I originally packed. I was pleased to find out that none of stuff I packed got damaged. I damaged them after they were already moved into the house. We're going to fast forward past that part. This POD was loaded with boxes and it took a good solid 3 hours for us to unload only 3/4 of it.

The next morning I started attacking the remaining 1/4 and in an hour or so I was done. The movers showed up just after that, right on time. We only asked for two movers because unloading takes far less time than loading. It took them a solid three hours to unload the POD full of heavy stuff plus move most of the heavy stuff out of the garage. They managed to get all of it moved with only minor damage. A heavy entertainment center had some damage that I had to fix, but then again this was the fourth time it had been moved. Stuff happens. All in all I have to say Sims Awesome Moving Company did a pretty good job. They were reliable and for the most part they were careful with our stuff. If you want a no frills, get some guys to move stuff, Sims can take care of you. I tipped them heavily and bought them lunch, which we ate while watching Sportscenter.

It would take several more days to get the bulk of stuff put away, but there are still a number of things laying around in boxes. I hope to get them squared away this weekend. Finally getting the unfinished part of the basement clean was a big step in getting that project moving and this weekend I'm dedicated. I'll post a before and after picture. The before pic will be titled, Box Mountain.

We did have a full service company come in and give us an estimate. For them to pack, load, move, and unload the cost was $8500. That's quoted in American dollars, not Italian Lira. We managed to do it for slightly less than half of that, but that has a couple of caveats. One, we had to do a lot of the heavy lifting. Two, the full service quote did not include any storage time, which as it turns out would have been very little. We didn't know that at the time. To tie up one of their trailers for two or three weeks would have been another $1500 at least. PODS I could have left in storage for another 2 weeks past when they delivered at no extra charge. For another month it would have cost a small fraction of $1500. All in all, despite the long wait to get our stuff and the snafu with them unable to accommodate us last minute during the load process, PODS was a good solution for us.

Next time we move, and as far as I'm concerned that can be a long time from now, we are hiring full service. And we're getting rid of a lot of our crap.