I’m sorry for the lack of posts recently.  It seems like life decided to interfere with blogging, and as some of you know I have recently purchased a house¹  So, February 14th we loaded up the biggest truck Uhaul had and made the move.

So, from that ordeal I thought I’d share a few things I’ve learned:

Have Someone Who’s Good at Packing

My wife is awesome at packing.  Everything was packed and ready to go for moving day.  My dad laughed at how many boxes we asked him to bring from his job, but there was nothing but positive statements made on the moving day when the people that showed up only had to move things.  I literally went from one room where someone was talking about how it was the most orderly move they’ve ever done to outside where they were saying the very same thing.

Beware the Beeping Truck

Once we got everything loaded and were ready to leave, I jumped up in the cab and turned the truck on and it started beeping.  Sure enough, the brake light was on and the beeping was annoying.  I called the support line and they told me to bring it back to the place where I got it.

They disconnected the beeper!

Then they took it for a spin, told me that it had to go to the town I was driving to anyway for maintenance and that the light had gone off.

I drove the truck without incident, though if you ask my kids they’ll say I almost hit the house backing into the driveway.

The Guy With the Biggest Vehicle gets the GPS

Taking the truck back, I followed two cars to the place we were going.  Well, the lead car had the GPS, and I forgot my cell phone.  So, the GPS guy got into an exit only lane—we all pulled in after him—and then got out of it.  Well, I was too big to get out, and ended up in the downtown of the city that we’re living near.

That started a long slog though the town as I tried to follow some directions I was given instead of going the way that I knew.

A Fun Experience

It was neat to see who came out to help, and to be able to get stuff into the new house.  It’s even better to have things unpacked an placed back up on the walls.

I mean, it’s not like I was moving to Hawaii, but I’m sure many of the same principles still hold firm.  Certainly, if it had been for any greater distance I would have chosen something like ABF U-Pack, which I looked into, but they didn’t do the “short” trip that I wanted.

So take-a-way tips:

• Do your research about trucks.
• Pack everything you can before the move
• Make sure the boxes end up in the rooms on the destination side so that you can work a room at a time.
• Have a big budget for the incidentals that you know will come up.
• Enjoy your new house.

1. Praying that the old one will sell now! [↩]