Today, on one of my many forums, I was asked the question:
“My husband just joined the Army and will be shipping out next week, so I will have alot of moving in my future. Do you have any advice for a military wife?”
Do I have advice! oh heck ya! This is the third time I will move, and number four is just around the corner. This the seventh time my husband has moved during his career, so I’ve learned lots from him. But, this is the first DITY (Do IT Yourself) move for both of us, so I’ve gotten plenty of advice from my mom too!
Bu to the new military wife, well… Moving isn’t so bad in the military really. Take full advantage of letting someone else do the packing and the moving. We are doing this one DITY (Do It Yourself) because we are literally moving up the road, and the Company that owns the housing here has to pay us extra $$ to DITY. It’s not going to cost near that much for us to do this, because my mom has the hook up with boxes, and because we have friends who owe us big time (we helped them move a few months ago) and they are helping us.
When we move again in a couple of months, I will be taking advantage of the military’s movers. I’ll let them pack my stuff, load it into the truck, and drive it all a couple hundred miles away to the new duty station.
My best advice, Take lots of pictures!!! Anything you have of value, photograph it. Any collectibles, good china (I use corelle, so I’m not too worried), etc… anything that would cost major mula to replace, photograph!
Another thing we did, we saved the orginal packaging from all our electronics. That means the boxes and the styrafoam. This way, when we move we can put all our electronics (IE: TV, Stereo system, Speakers, Computers, printers, etc) pack in the packaging and keep it safe for the move. Because of this, we usually pack that kind of stuff ourselves whether the Navy is moving us or we are… DH has all the Styrafoam marked as to what box, and where in the box it goes. that way we could break down the boxes, and keep all the Styrafoam in one big box or bag. I also saved the orginal packaging for several of my collectibles, IE my Precious Moments boxes, and my Angel figurine boxes.
When *they* pack you out, they make a detailed inventory of what’s in each box, and what’s in the house. Sometimes what they say is in the box is actually in the box. *S* (actually they are pretty good about it, but somethings did get mixed up in my last move. it was all there, just marked wrong.) You get the Inventory list, and you get to check it when they unpack you to make sure that nothing is missing.
If you ever opt to DITY, make LOTS of lists! List out everything that needs to be done in each room in order to pack it up, make and inventory list of your own and number the boxes so that you know what is in each box and where to find that darn can opener. *S*
If you have kids, get them to make signs for their rooms, and then post the signs on the bedrooms the day the movers bring your stuff. that way you can tell the movers as they bring the stuff in, “that goes in Room 1, Tommy’s room.” etc, and they can do most of the heavy lifting for you. In fact, it’s probably a good idea even if you don’t have kids to label your rooms, at the very least put big numbers on each door, to make life easier for the movers and you when they start bringing in your stuff. Otherwise, you’ll wind up with a bunch of boxes dumped where ever, and it will seem to take forever to get it all sorted out.
Moving is about as painless as moving can possibly be, in the military. Seriously. I’m just complaining because I will have to move twice within 6 months (which happens sometimes, i know), and well… cuz I can. *S*
Some other advice, keep receipts of high priced items, ie: TV, DVD Player Stereo System, and also keep the owners manual for these items or dl them from the companies website. This will help you to setup all of your stuff when you receive it later on! Good luck