My Secret To Making A Move Easier

I am a pro at packing and moving.  I mean, in the past three years, we have moved twice.  It was not fun at all, but I learned the best way to pack and the best way to move.  Do you want to know my secret?

Pay someone else to do it all. 

No, I'm kidding.  Kind of.  The packing needs to be done by me, because let's face it, I am the only one who will care if my elephants make it safely to their new home.  As far as the moving part?  Well, let the professionals help.  With abf upack moving, you pack and load the truck yourself, and then have a professional come and drive all your belongings to your new place.  Trust me when I tell you this is a lot easier than making fifty trips in a pickup truck.  

Thankfully, I have no plans on moving again anytime soon.  Well, maybe next year, because we want to buy our own place.  At least I know how to pack!

Boxes

Are you thinking about moving? I have become an expert mover, which in turn has made me an expert packer. The best piece of advice that I can give to anyone considering a move is to invest in some good boxes. Trust me when I say that if you have the proper packing supplies, your breakables will remain unbroken. Of course, that is assuming that once they are packed, the boxes are handled with care. U-Pack has a box for every need, from hanging clothes to sectioned boxes for cups and dishes, so finding the perfect box is easy.

Remember them the next time you need to do some packing.

The First Moving Story

I live in the south. It is not supposed to snow in the south. But, luckily, this year we have been snowed upon a couple of times, the most recent being the night before we moved.

That's right. Friday while I was here, at the new place, waiting for the phone guy, it started snowing. By the time he came and did what he had to do, it was snowing pretty good. We left to go to the apartment, and it took us almost an hour to make a trip that should have taken 15 minutes at the most. The roads were horrible, and we were convinced we would be stuck in that apartment forever.

Saturday morning, we get up ready to get moving, and look outside to find lots and lots of snow. Now, it looked beautiful, but we wanted to move! Then my mom calls, and she was flying to NY, and my sister was taking her to the airport but didn't want to take the kids, so I went and babysat for Carson and Lylah for a few hours. By the time we actually started moving things to the new place, it was well into the afternoon. In fact, we didn't even get the beds moved, and had to spend another night at the apartment.

Thankfully most of the snow melted during the day on Saturday, so we were able to get a good bit done yesterday, but there is only so much the kids and I can help Junior with. I am a weakling, and wasn't able to do much. I did, however, unpack most of the boxes today. That was until Junior made a trip from the apartment. Now I have new things to unpack tomorrow.

I promise, pictures of the new place are coming soon. I want to get everything in it's place first. And I have another story for you, which will explain why we had to stop moving for about three hours on Saturday...

To My Wonderful Blog Friends....

We got the house...yay!!!!...so I will spend the next week or so trying to get ready to move. This means that I will not only be taking a break from entrecard as I have already posted, but I will be cutting back on the blogging as well. As soon as I am all unpacked and settled, I will post some pictures and get back to it. Until then, I may find time to do a post here and there, but for the most part will be super busy with other things. Try not to miss me too much!

The Maze

Do you want to see why I haven't been blogging? Take a look at these pictures. I have boxes everywhere! I have made little paths through them, just so that we can get from room to room. There have been many stubbed toes the past week or so, but it will all be worth it when we can leave this horrible little apartment.

I think we have finally found the perfect place. It is a cute three bedroom double wide, in a nice mobile home community. I can not, and will not, call it a trailer park, because it is so much more than that. The kids will have other kids to play with, and they will have lots of space to ride their bikes. Our yard is really tiny, but they do all the yard work. I know, you are all shocked that I would give up mowing myself since I love it so much, but rest assured. I now have mom's yard to mow, so it is all good.

When I spoke to the owner the other day, she pre-qualified us over the phone. The only thing holding us up is the background check, which should be back by tomorrow. There is not a doubt in my mind that we will pass that with flying colors. Once we hear back from her, we will go in and sign the lease. She said they have lots of restrictions, but good ones, like no loose dogs running around. In fact, no dogs over 10 pounds are allowed in the entire neighborhood, and they enforce the leash laws.

The house itself is cute. It has three bedrooms and two full baths. The kitchen is okay. The cabinets are handmade, and don't exactly match, but I am going to ask if I can paint them. Right now some of them are just unfinished wood, so I don't think it will be a problem. The living room is a nice size, and the bedroom for the girls is big enough for them to share comfortably. We can take our appliances (Yay! I was worried about this) and it's already hooked up for the cable company I use now, so they should be able to transfer my service pretty easily.

The only draw back is that Brandi has to change schools. As most of you know, she is my worrier, and this is pretty stressful for her. She has been crying on and off since we looked at the house yesterday. I keep telling her that she is going to make friends easily, and that we are only moving ten minutes away, if that, so she can still have play dates with her friends she has now. But, being eight, I know it's hard to say goodbye to the kids she has known for years. She told me that she is nervous about walking into a new classroom alone, and I told her that Junior and I will take her on her first day. I hope the school allows us to walk her to her class. I am actually hoping that we can set up a tour of the school beforehand so she can kind of get to know the layout.

But, I know in my heart that this is a good thing, and that if we hear back that we got the place tomorrow, that is where we are meant to be. All the other places we have looked at have fallen through for one reason or another, so I have to believe that all of that was because we belong in this house. Does that make sense?

The Hunt For A House Continues

I am getting kind of frustrated with this whole "finding a new place to live" thing. Every place we have looked at has something we don't like, and i have a feeling we are going to end up picking the best of the worst. I am surprised at what people are asking for places that are falling apart. We went and looked at a house (mobile home) last week. It was advertised as having four bedrooms and 2 baths for only $600 a month. What a joke! One of the bedrooms was no bigger than a closet, and the wall in one of the bathrooms was rotting on the bottom. When we told the lady, after looking at it, that we weren't interested, she wanted to know why. Exactly why. Junior told her the layout didn't work for us, and we high tailed it out of there.

The house we are seriously considering is the one with the small living room. It is the only house we've seen that is in really great shape, and that has big enough bedrooms. It is also right across the street from McDonald's and a bunch of other fast food restaurants, so if I had to go back to work one day, I could walk there while the kids were in school.

For right now I am still mainly focusing on getting the house packed up. We are still undecided on the best moving strategy. Junior thinks we should rent a storage building (which we were going to do months ago but never got around to it), but I don't see the point of moving everything twice. I mean, if I had my way, we would hire a Moving Company Los Angeles and let them do all the work. They are:

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It would be so nice to have someone else break their backs trying to move our entertainment center. Moving Companies Los Angeles would make this move so much less stressful. But, I really can not complain about moving, because the last time we did this, I had just had surgery and couldn't lift a thing. That would have been the perfect time to take advantage of Los Angeles Moving Companies services. This time, I am able to lift, and will probably end up doing more lifting than Junior. His shoulder and back just aren't what they used to be, and I would hate for him to re-injure something.

The only thing standing in our way now is finding a new place. Like I said, the best of the worst is looking pretty good right now.

There IS A Reason For My Lack Of Posting Lately

Hello blog world! I feel like I haven't been around in forever. I know there have been some posts from me, but to tell you the truth, my heart just hasn't been in it.

I am totally stressed out about finding somewhere to live, and I am packing like it's an obsession. I want to be ready to go as soon as we find a new place, and that means that everything needs to be packed. The good thing is that I am totally organized (which is weird for me) and things are moving along great. This weekend I am going to focus on the bedrooms, and hopefully it won't be too long before I am unpacking!

And So It Goes

The place we were interested in has been rented. I am not worried too much, because it just means that we weren't meant to live there. I am a big believer in "what is meant to be, will be", and when we have the money in hand, I am sure we will find the perfect place.

We are actually toying with the idea of moving closer to my mom and sister. There are so many houses in that area for rent, with prices we can actually afford. The only problem would be that all the kids would change schools (it's a different district) and I'm not too keen on moving Ryan. With his ADHD, he has a relationship with the school nurse, and now that I am typing this, I realize that he will be going to a new school next year anyway, so what's the difference? But, changing at that age (14) has got to be hard.

I don't know...I have so much thinking (and packing) to do.

I Just Realized...

...that I haven't posted anything since Thursday.

That is so not like me.

Nothing special has been happening, I have just been doing a lot of packing.

And then more packing.

We found a place to live...peeking in the windows, it looks perfect for us. We are waiting for the owners to cal back so we can set up a time to walk through. The only problem is that we won't have the money to move for a few more weeks, and it might not be available then.

We have our fingers crossed, though.

So Much Moving Going On

A few months ago, my sister and her husband bought a new house. Last month, my mother bought a new house. In the next couple of months, my brother plans on moving, and so do we. It seems like everyone is ready for change, and now seems to be the best time for it. A new year is upon us, and with it comes endless possibilities.

If you are moving in the near future, too, you should check out moving companies to help make the move a little easier. You can have them drop off a container (or trailer) three days before the move, and you can take your time packing it your way. Then they come and move the container to your new place, and you will have three days to unload it. This sure does beat the million trips we are going to be taking with our little trailer.

Maybe we'll have money in our budget to use this moving company...

Let's Get Packing!

Now that mom is settled in her new house, it's time for me to start packing my house. I am getting all of her boxes, which are really good ones, which will make my packing a little easier. I told the kids today that after Christmas, I want to get as much done as I can before they go back to school. I am thinking about putting my bed out here in the living room, and using my room as a place to put the packed boxes. It will only be for a month or so, and no one ever comes over because I am embarrassed to have people here, so who cares if I have a bed in the living room.

Two Closets Down...One More To Go

I don't know what got into me this morning, but I have been cleaning like a madwoman. I put on some music...Def Lepard, baby...and sang while I scrubbed. My kitchen is sparkly, at least it was before I cooked supper. My shower curtain is mildew free...I don't know why, but for the past month or so, this curtain gets mildewy overnight. I threw it in the washer with detergent and bleach, and let it soak for a while. A run through the wash cycle, and it is white again.

I also went through closets and packed a few boxes. I threw out so much junk, and it felt so good. I am glad I am making progress on the packing. The one closet left is in Ryan's room, and it has all my Christmas decorations in it. Once I pull all of that out, I can put the boxes I have already packed in that closet so they are out of the way.

On deck for tomorrow...Lady Antebellum and cleaning the living room!

Packing For The Move That Will Happen In Three Months

I have officially started packing! I have five boxes done, and plan on doing a little more tomorrow. I am really getting into it. I am sorting the things to keep and the things to trash, and it is nice. When we moved here, Ryan and Kasi packed most of the house since I had just had surgery and couldn't do anything, and some of those boxes have never been touched. They were just stuck in the closet. I am enjoying going through them, because there are things in them we haven't used, or needed, in the 15 months we have been here. To me, that means it is time for them to go.

I was interested in reading through some moving tips, and found some great ones on a Los Angeles Office Movers website. The best one I found was about not polishing your furniture right before moving day. Doing so makes it harder for the moving guys to keep a hold of it. Since Junior is my moving guy, I think it would be kind of mean to make it easier for him to drop things. I mean, he really doesn't need any help in that area. In all the times we have moved, he has dropped quite a few pieces of furniture. He will tell you it was my fault because I was helping him, but I strongly disagree.

If you are moving and are thinking about hiring a professional to help, call moving companies Los Angeles toll free, 1-800-431-3920 for a free quote. I am leaning towards hiring someone when we move in February to help Junior out. I am not doing it this time.

That way he can't blame me when something goes wrong.

I Started Packing

Yup, that's right. This afternoon I packed up three boxes. One was of stuff from my desk that just takes up spce...like old tax papers and kids artwork. Two boxes are of picture frames.

When we moved here, we went from an eight room house with a long hallway to a five room house with a tiny hallway. I had so many pictures I just didn't have room to display. I ended up sticking them in Ryan's closet.

Since the kids were home today, I had Ryan pull down the pictures and I boxed them up. I wanted to get all the boxes out of his closet, but I have no where to put the boxes right now. I'm hoping we can get a storage building in the next couple of weeks. We have a few bills that have lowered our monthly payment, so we should be able to afford the storage fee.

I am getting really excited about moving, even though I have no idea where we are going.

Boxes

Last weekend, Junior brought home about 20 boxes from a liquor store. I was all excited to get some things packed up that we don't use on a daily basis. I wanted to clean out closets, because believe it or not, there are still boxes in there from when we moved in. I haven't used anything in those boxes in over a year, so I think it is safe to say that they are probably filled with junk. I wanted to sort through, and keep the good stuff, and trash the rest.

I was motivated....for about an hour.

Those boxes are stacked neatly...still empty.

I haven't done a thing.

In all fairness, though, Brandi has been sick for the last week, and this kid is kind of high maintenance. I am hoping that when she goes back to school tomorrow, I can get at least a couple of boxes packed.

That's my plan, anyway.