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DF and I moved apartments yesterday. We moved down the street - literally about 400 yards from our previous apartment - because the rent was $300 cheaper. It was supposed to be an easy, simple move, on account of us moving down the street.
Rule #1: There's no such thing as an easy, simple move.
It was going okay at first - my mom came over to help and we got most of our boxes into the new place fine, planning to save the heavy furniture for when our "friend with the truck" showed up, which was around noon. Everyone was hungry by then, so the four of us had lunch (DF and I paid). Then we got ready to move the furniture. The bed breaks down, so no problem. Then it was time for the couch.
Our couch is large and two pieces (it's a sectional). We knew it would be difficult to move, but thanks to a well-timed dolly loan, it wasn't as bad getting it to the new place as it could have been. We even got it up the stairs without too much heartache.
Then it wouldn't fit through the door. Of our second story apartment.
Due to the configuration of the stairs, a really ill-advised sloped overhang, and a total lack of planning on the part of whomever designed our building, the couch simply would not fit however much we shoved and however creatively we positioned it.
Uh... what now? Jokingly, our friend suggested we haul it over the balcony. An hour and zero progress any other way later, that's precisely what we ended up doing. We tied ropes to the couch and hauled our couch over the balcony.
Between DF and I, we've moved about twenty times and that stunt was by far the hardest thing we've ever had to do while moving. At one point we almost dropped it. That was the longest minute and a half of my life.
The apartment looks really nice though... so I guess that's good...
Post by moneymaven on May 20, 2011 12:39:56 GMT -5
My sister and I did this exact same thing years ago when moving out of an apartment. The large, generously sized new elevators they installed WEREN'T WORKING the day of the move and we had to be out the same day. So dad was on the ground level and we were upstairs lowing the two large couches we had by ropes on the side of the building from the third floor. It was very entertaining and heart wrenching.
When DH and I moved in together, we were just dating. He was in an apartment and I lived with my Grandma at the time. I bought a house and we moved in together. There were several things about the move that were memorable:
1) Since we were dating, we....uh...."celebrated" our last night in the apartment before moving the next day. His apartment was on the 2nd story and the lower apartment had been vacant for most of the time we had been dating. A family moved in about 2 weeks before he moved out. That night, we got several bangs on the ceiling to cut it out. We thought it was hilarious as it wasn't THAT late (about 10 or 11pm on a Thursday night), but finally quieted down since they weren't letting us finish anyway.
The next morning, we went to get the moving truck around 8am. Came back and the car for the other apartment was gone, but DH's company work truck had a flat tire (which it didn't have before we left). Pissed DH off until he realized it was just flat and not punctured. We laugh about it now.
ETA: The joke was on them as we didn't need the truck that day and left it there all weekend with a flat tire.
2) While moving into the new house, we suddenly noticed a huge plume of black smoke in the (near) distance at about 3pm. We kept moving, but wondered what the smoke was from. Found out later that a propane tank had exploded at a business, killing a man. Then discovered the business was right next door to a house I had tried to buy, but was turned down on because of the work that needed to be done. There was damage to all of the houses around that business as well.
We were very sad for the guy and his family, but thankful we didn't get that house!
On a pessimistic note, you're going to hanve just as much fun when you need to get it back out.
There is no way in hell I'm doing the next one. This weekend taught me that professional movers are worth every penny.
Although it would be much easier to get the couch down, I'd imagine.
I couldn't agree more. When we bought our current house about 4 years ago we went the cheap route with friends helping and buying them plenty of beer & pizza. I'll never do it again. It wasn't a bad experience but it just seemed to take so much time. I've insisted that the next move is for the pros to do and the pizza and beer can be with friends during the move!
Moving sucks that's really all there is to it. When I moved out with roommates shortly before graduating (5+ years ago) they lived in a place that was literally across the street from the 3 bedroom we moved into. Like your move you would think a relatively short move distance wise isn't bad but carrying things down one set of stairs, across the street and up another set of stairs was brutal after a while. When we moved out of that place about a year ago similar to your story getting the couch out (bought and had it delivered when moved in) was a pain. We had it half way out the door but it was a tight fit so there it was almost stuck yet resting on the railing so that it was halfway hanging off and almost ready to fall about 10 feet onto a tree that would have tore it up. So I'm out there holding onto it so it doesn't fall as we continue to maneuver it out the door. It was like some messed up game of tetris.
Right now I don't own much so moving my stuff isn't too bad and my roommate is pretty handy and we actually did the last big move as far as the rental truck goes in less than 4 hours. Also he has a dolly that he got years ago so we were able to move some stuff in trucks before getting the big stuff into the moving truck. I'm going to be moving in less than a month and I'm not looking forward to it. After that my next move will be about 10-12 months after into a place I buy but since I don't own much I'll have to purchase most things and have them delivered.
Post by Anne_in_VA on May 20, 2011 13:09:19 GMT -5
After a divorce I had a roommate for several years. When she got married I had to move to a new apartment with a new roommate who was a friend of a friend. I got the moving truck and several friends and I loaded all my stuff in it and went over to new roomies place to load her stuff. She hadn't even begun packing because she'd been out partying for days and we all ended up packing all afternoon and then loading the truck for her. I should have known from that issue that there'd be issues with her but didn't know the extent of her partying ways until she suddenly moved out a few months later while taking all my liquor (what was left after she drank most of it), and some of my belongings. She moved from SE VA to Washington, DC and didn't give me her new address or phone # so I had no way to ask her for the utilities or the rent she still owed me.
Never had another roommate after that for obvious reasons (except DH of courese!).
Post by Urban Chicago on May 20, 2011 13:09:45 GMT -5
Our house (an old Bungalow) has a really narrow staircase with an odd angle up to the second floor. We ended up building a semi-permanent rope/pulley system and hauling almost all the upstairs furniture through the bedroom window. If we ever move again (not that I want to), most of the furniture will stay here.
I couldn't agree more. When we bought our current house about 4 years ago we went the cheap route with friends helping and buying them plenty of beer & pizza. I'll never do it again. It wasn't a bad experience but it just seemed to take so much time. I've insisted that the next move is for the pros to do and the pizza and beer can be with friends during the move!
Our friend with the truck actually made the whole thing harder, and by the end of the day I was pissed as hell at both him and DF by proxy. He has a bad back, which I knew, so I wasn't expecting him to do any heavy lifting. But when he came over, he helped DF lift one of the bedframes (which isn't heavy, especially with four hands), and immediately started whining about how much his back hurt. He went back into the apartment and sat on the couch, insisting that DF join him rather than continuing to pack the truck.
Meanwhile, my mom and I were next door unloading our cars while they loafed around. At that point, there were PLENTY OF THINGS in the apartment that were not at ALL heavy (i.e., lamps, random bags of clothes, barstools). They could have been carrying those out with no damage to his back whatsoever. He was being so passive-aggressive about the whole thing that I wanted to scream by the end.
Then after the couch debacle, he INSISTED that DF take him out for some beers as payback (even though we had already bought him lunch), which left me home by myself trying to clear a path in the bedroom so we could put the bed up and sleep that night.
DF apologized profusely, and as long as he helps me A LOT this weekend he's off the hook, but that particular friend's "help" was definitely not worth what we paid for it.
Post by shanendoah on May 20, 2011 13:36:46 GMT -5
Moving things in over the balcony is a tried and true method for our group, especially if you can back the truck right up under the balcony and lift stuff from there (or pass stuff down to it).
If you're young and/or not able to hire professional movers, the more people you have the better. For one set of friends moves, we had the pirates (downstairs/truck loading team) vs the ninjas (upstairs carrying stuff out of the apartment team). Ninjas were responsible for stuff from the apartment, though the elevator to the doors of the building. Pirates were responsible to getting it loaded in the truck. I was one of the ninjas dedicated to the elevator run. At the new place, which was a house, we formed a bucket brigade and just passed things from one person to the next from the truck to the house.
The worst was the dual move day: Two people, three locations. We showed up at the first place to get person 1's stuff. She was sort of packed, but mostly we just carried individual things to the truck. She also had random industrial art projects stored in the garage and spent most of her time digging through it to point out to us what should go and what should stay. We get to the second place where we have to unload person 1's stuff and load person 2's stuff in/from the same room. Once again, person 1 mostly stood around and pointed. Once we got person 2's stuff in the truck, we moved him to our place. Because person 2/us were not as popular as person 1, we lost over half the moving crew in the process.
However, we do have 2 furniture dollies, as did person 2 (a good friend of ours), plus we have our own regular dolly and always get another one with the truck. It really does make everything go much, much quicker.
I don't want to move again not because of moving but because it would mean I'd have to go through escrow again. Now there's my horror stories.
I hate to move. We are thinking about a long distance move in a couple of years. It is a good thing we have time, because it is going to suck.
We moved my deceased aunt's things last weak and it was the worst. She had all the stuff from previously deceased relatives. She had a ton of candles, baskets, and vases. It actually went pretty smoothly, except for the volume of stuff. We paid an unemployed friend to help with the heavy stuff. Of course it ended with a bunch of stuff that didn't fit into a box thrown into a truck, but that is the way it always ends when we move.
Last Edit: May 20, 2011 13:56:25 GMT -5 by Deleted - Back to Top
Post by Cookies Galore on May 20, 2011 13:59:13 GMT -5
Our move last year was really annoying. Doable, but annoying. It was in the upper 90s and very humid, ick. BF's sister was one of the people who offered to help us and she brought along her boys. I loved having a three-year-old and a six-year-old as moving obstacles when I'm carrying heavy boxes. It was hot. The move and clean up took longer than I wanted, and it was hot. The move itself wasn't too bad. We started boxing things up the week prior and did as much preliminary cleaning as we could. BF's buddy came over to help with his pick-up and we rented a Uhaul van. We were moving from one one-bedroom to another four blocks away, so I didn't think it would be a big deal. It wasn't, but it was a super long day. We did our moving a cleaning all in the same day, so it ended up being a 10-hour day. We decided to go balls out and go out to dinner and eat and drink a lot. That part was awesome.
Post by thyme4change on May 20, 2011 13:59:41 GMT -5
Just reading this thread I'm getting all anxious. I've told my husband that no amount of space we could gain would be worth moving. We will just have to stay here and throw out more stuff. I hate moving.
Yikes ... I've got one, and can even tie it in to money to keep it on-topic.
During the course of my first post-college job I got transferred to NYC. I moved up to corporate housing and started work, DW stayed behind for the last few months she needed to get her degree. We got some quotes from movers and selected one - we had just gotten married, it was our first apartment and we had very little furniture, so we figured it would be pretty straightforward.
After two mover-requested schedule changes, they showed up: three guys in an 18 wheeler, which was much bigger than they needed/had said they would use - we had a two bedroom apt, had just gotten married and didn't have a lot of furniture) she found out that they had plenty of large boxes, but very few small/med boxes; one roll of packing tape, which isn't nearly enough to begin with, but also no scissors or box cutters to cut it with so they had to use their teeth to start jagged tears in the tape, frequently mangling what they were able to use; and no markers to write on the boxes, so they used ballpoint pens that DW was able to find.
Once they finally had everything in the truck and closed it up, the foreman brought DW a clipboard and told her that since it took them longer than they had expected to pack - despite the delay being from their trying to negotiate an 18 wheeler around an apartment parking lot and then trying to seal boxes - the cost was $200 more (this was in May '94). They wouldn't move the truck until DW signed the agreement to pay the extra money. She signed, and off they drove.
Next day, I get the morning off of work to meet the movers - truck driver shows up, soon followed by a car w/ two guys. I talk with the truck driver, who is a nice enough guy, and he told me that it took him a little over 4 hrs to get there. The guys in the care are from a local labor pool. Truck driver calls into the moving dispatch, says that they want to talk to me. Lady on the phone tells me that the fee is an additional $700 - on TOP of the charge that they had DW sign for the previous day, and nearly doubling the total move cost. These extra charges were apparently for, among other things, six hours of travel for three people. I was absolutely furious at what was literally highway robbery, but they wouldn't unload the truck unless I gave my credit card information so I gave it.
The guys unloaded the truck, so got to see what a shambles it was. Boxes that weren't taped together had fallen apart in the truck - they had appeared to have slid all over b/c the truck was maybe a third full - boxes had collapsed under the weight of large boxes that were overpacked/too heavy, various items - including rolls of Christmas wrapping paper had just been placed in the truck, not in a box or anything... it was an absolute mess.
So this was my first professional move... and then became the first time I disputed a bill with my credit card company.
Wow - sorry for such a long post. How much do I owe you guys for being such good therapists?
Just reading this thread I'm getting all anxious. I've told my husband that no amount of space we could gain would be worth moving. We will just have to stay here and throw out more stuff. I hate moving.
I looked at a really nice house in my neighborhood last weekend. I want to say it was about 3600 sq ft to my house's 2070. It was a 3 bedroom with a loft.
I was pretty much thinking the same thing. I don't want to move again. I did it 3 times in about 5 years. I figure if the house we live in does not meet our needs we need to do what we can to make it work. Also our family will shrink in the next 5 years and a 3000+ sq ft house will be really big at that point.
I got purple heart calling about once a month and scheduling a pick up. Last month they did not talk to me, they talked to DH. The day before the pick up he went thru the closet and got rid of a significant amount of his overstuffed closet. I have been trying to get him to do that for a few years now.
Post by Anne_in_VA on May 20, 2011 14:25:38 GMT -5
Gosh bean - can you get your DH to talk to my DH about cleaning out clutter? He thinks that if he spent money to buy it it, if someone gifted it to him or if he inherited it, it must be valuable and it can never be thrown out or given away.
Gosh bean - can you get your DH to talk to my DH about cleaning out clutter? He thinks that if he spent money to buy it it, if someone gifted it to him or if he inherited it, it must be valuable and it can never be thrown out or given away.
Well, that's a whole nother subject. My DH might not be the best person to talk to your DH into getting rid of "Antiques" Anyone want to explain to my DH that broken antiques are just junk and have no value. I have thrown a few things in the garbage only to have his mother go thru my garbage and let DH know that I was throwing his stuff away.
This thing with Purple Heart calling really was a miracle. When he talks about us getting rid of "junk" he is refering to my stuff and the kids stuff - his stuff is all valuable.
My DD cleans her closet out a little too frequently if you ask me. I clean my closet out pretty regularly. MY DS does not accumulate too much stuff becasue he is more of a minamilist.
After the last time I moved I told myself I really needed to aggressively get rid of stuff before I moved the stuff to the new house and then decided we no longer had a use for the stuff. Last time we moved, it took me so long to unpack the kids toys and books they had grown out of them by the time they were unpacked. If I make the decision I tend to keep stuff, if I ask my kids if they still want something I frequently get a not really...so there you go.
The other thing I realized was a lot of stuff just did not go in the new house, so you should take time to really think about old decor/new decor and how the item will be used.
I remember one of our moves from when I was a teenager. It was right down the block as well. It took almost two months to finally get everything moved over. We were moving from a rental into the house that my parents had purchased. Both of my parents are procrastinators, and our old landlord didn't really care when we moved out - nor did he charge us rent for that extra time. He also had left a room in the house full of his dead wife's belongings that we were to not go into.
My parents would let us bring stuff over by the shopping cart load, so a bag of clothes and a few random things at a time. They also let us older ones sleep in the new house with our sleeping bags. After a while it got crazy because you wouldn't remember that the microwave was still at the old house until you pulled something out of the freezer with no place to heat it up. And the arguments over the dishwashing if you had already done it at one house....lol. I never hope to go through anything like that ever again.
So this was my first professional move... and then became the first time I disputed a bill with my credit card company.
How did your credit card dispute turn out?
I abhor moving. When I put my current house on the market, it's going to be listed furnished so that I don't have to bother with packing the furniture, TVs, etc.
I made the foolish mistake of closing on the sale of my old house and the purchase of my new house on the same day, without movers and without taking more than a day off from work to pack (we had a major project at work that I couldn't escape from). The two weeks prior to closing, I was frantically running to my new house to make sure construction punch list items were being taken care of, staying up all night to pack, and putting everything into a 40ft container to be moved to my new house. The day of the closing, I literally stayed up all night and got maybe 20 minutes of sleep (on the floor) before we had to get out of the house and coordinate the actual move. Never again!
After DH#1 died, I married a man that lived 1800 miles away. When I moved I literally placed my hand on everything and asked just one question. Do I want to pay to move this. I was able to tuck things in my heart and get rid of 95% of our 37 years of marriage.
I moved into a fairly new huge home with DH#2, and his DW#1 was a shopaholic. The 3K ft basement was full, and the house was also full. Most of my stuff ended up in the basement. We downsized and moved back 1800 miles 6 years later. I started packing for the move in January, and finally told hubby to find someplace to hide while I went through DW#1's stuff/junk.
We actually moved the end of Sept, and I still took 3 PU loads to GoodWill after we got here. Downsizing from 6K ft to 2K ft is a real trick, especially dealing with 40 years of his marriage and memories.
We hired professional movers and filled one of the huge moving trailers. Took a full day to load, and a full day to unload. What a mess.
OP Congrats on getting the couch in. I actually gave up my couch when I couldn't get it into a second story apartment. I really didn't have anyone to try the rope trick and it might have involved standing in prickly bushes so I actually brought it back to my ex to keep. I was a nice long lightweight couch and when I was in college I took off light fixtures in the hallway and had the neighbors across the way open their front door to give me extra room to move it out. They wanted to buy the couch off of me. ;D
Recently I haven't had much luck with professional movers. Lots of damage and they want tips. So I'd actually prefer to go the friend route if I were to move locally again.
Out of nothing; everything. Believing is seeing. Knowing is key. Remember to top off your positive tank daily. TAKE THAT INTERNET! - DVD Commentary Monsters University
OP Congrats on getting the couch in. I actually gave up my couch when I couldn't get it into a second story apartment. I really didn't have anyone to try the rope trick and it might have involved standing in prickly bushes so I actually brought it back to my ex to keep.
I'm not sure what we would have done if the rope trick hadn't worked because this couch cost me $950, it's the absolute perfect color combination for both our current and previous apartment, it's equal parts comfortable and attractive, it can sleep two people which is handy when we have more than one friend overnight, and basically it's magic. I love it and it took me forever to find it and I do not want to give it up. (Especially not now, haha!)
So this was my first professional move... and then became the first time I disputed a bill with my credit card company.
How did your credit card dispute turn out?
I won, but I sort of lost. I submitted the dispute form to the credit card company, complete with seven tabbed exhibits ... they agreed that it was erroneous and didn't pay the disputed amount (I didn't contest the original quote, just the sham charges).
So it seemed everything was squared away, but then over a year later, when we had moved back from the NYC stint, I got a call from a collection agency trying to collect the debt. I refused to aknowledge the debt, and submitted copies of the paperwork to them refuting it, and didn't hear from them again. However, when we went to buy a home six months or so later we found that it was on our credit report as a collection. Mortgage company insisted that it be cleared before they allowed closing - I was pretty... "annoyed", but it was the only way to get the house, so I had the closing company handle it.... I put it out of my mind in an attempt to save my sanity.... until yet another year later, when I got a letter from the closing company's legal counsel saying that they were conducting an audit, and found that the check to the moving company had been cut, but hadn't been delivered.... and they wanted me to find out the correct address to send it to. After some back and forth, I got them to send the money back to me, along with a letter saying that they were absolving themselves of the issue.... so I got my money back
All of our property purchases for the next several years were land buys or loans that local banks kept in their own portfolio, so after the statute of limitations passed it wasn't an issue.
Post by TheOtherMe on May 20, 2011 21:49:13 GMT -5
At the last apartment where I lived, the neighbors above me moved their couch out of the apartment by tossing it over the balcony and then just leaving it there.
I had a friend many years ago who had an apartment where her bedroom was a loft. She had a huge headboard and the loft had a spiral staircase. We used the rope and pulley method to get that up to her bedroom and then down when she moved.
Several years ago, DH and I were sharing a campus-owned house with friends and moving in after summer break. After moving nearly everything else into our second-floor bedroom, we discovered our box spring would not fit up the stairs, and none of the bedroom windows were more than 3 feet wide or high. We ended up sleeping on our brand-new mattress on the floor for nine months and leaning the box spring against the dining room wall because it couldn't fit down the stairs into the basement, either.
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Post by ❤ mollymouser ❤ on May 21, 2011 1:42:36 GMT -5
When we moved to our home in 2003 (as newlyweds), our neighbors welcomed us to the neighborhood by placing 250 pink flamingoes on our lawn the very first night ~ I saw it the next morning and thought it was simply hysterical! (They were just on loan, but it was still fun!) ;D
We hired professional movers, so I don't have any really entertaining moving-in stories to share ~ but it did take my wonderful DH and I 45 minutes to chase one of our cats around our empty condo, in an attempt to squoosh her into a cat carrier. Finally, exhausted, we got her into a giant box ~ then she burst out of it just as we were carrying her out the door. That was probably the hardest part of the move, actually! (grin)
Oh Firebird! I'm glad you got the couch in... we had a similar experience except that the couch just wouldn't fit.
Before we bought this place, we lived in a tiny rental house that I'm convinced was built for dwarfs. Each of the doorways had an L-angle that made it impossible to bring anything wider than 2' into the house. And the doorways were only about 6'6" high. We finally had to order a fold-down futon as the LR couch and put the big, nice couch in the garage... where the centipedes invaded it.
After moving 5 times in the last 6 years, I'm hoping to stay put a while! We don't have any truly awful stories, just the typical blizzard-on-moving day, backing the truck into MIL's car, breaking prized possessions kinds. And there was the move from NY when we realized that only about 2/3 of our belongings were going to fit on the truck. We had to leave a lot behind