Moving In

I took some pictures of the new apartment before the containers arrived in State College. My daughter had a rocker recliner and some kitchen stuff that she brought in her car from Pittsburgh (for at least the next year, her job is in State College and her husband’s is in Pittsburgh so they will learn the highway between their two apartments very well). She already had Internet service working. Things were empty and quiet. 

The sunroom that overlooks a meadow and trees (and some other apartments) was to become her office.

And then the unloading began. I tried to fold the furniture blankets as the furniture was moved in; a pile of them and old sheets we had used for padding around larger picture frames quickly accumulated.

Sometimes the box labeling enabled to movers to put it close to where it needed to be unpacked – like in the kitchen.

There was one box that that we laughed about – no label at all.

My husband arrived shortly after the unloading was done; he quickly the bedframe together. The pile of furniture blankets went into the back of his car to be stored in our basement until they are needed again.

My daughter commented that she is already thinking of this apartment as a retreat compared to the very urban Pittsburgh apartment. The State College apartment had good sound proofing and the apartment complex has forest all around it. The nearby trees are mostly various kinds of oaks but there are understory trees too (maybe some sassafras!). And there is a ground hog (or two) that wanders around on the mowed area between her apartment and the meadow; she’s already named the ground hog ‘Chuck.’

Moving in Containers – Part 4

It was a cloudy morning in State College, Pennsylvania when the last two containers loaded in Tucson were scheduled to be delivered and unloaded. The unloading would require steps down to the door of the apartment building and then a half flight of stairs up to the apartment (unlike the Tucson apartment where there were no stairs and dollies could be used).

The crew arrived with the two container (the U-Haul covers removed) and backed into the loading area. My daughter unlocked the locks on the containers.

Surprise! U-Haul had not taken the bolt they add from either container. Fortunately, my daughter had tools in the apartment so the bolts only delayed the unloading by about 5 minutes.

The two-man crew worked quickly – noticing the box that I’d labelled ‘last box’ in Tucson and finding one that wasn’t labelled at all (a mystery box…and demonstrating how tired I was by the last boxes to be packed). I began folding up the furniture blankets as they unloaded since we planned to keep them and the boxes for the next move (which could be in another year or two).

The dolly did end up being useful to hold the door to the container open while it was unloaded. It took the crew just over an hour to unload the 2 containers.

The ‘moving in containers’ experience (hiring people to load and unload) has been a positive one and is probably the way we’ll move in the future.

Previous Moving in Containers posts: Packing up in Tucson (one and two), Unloading in Pittsburgh (three).

Moving in Containers – Part 3

I posted about the containers being loaded up in Tucson more than a month ago (part 1 and part 2). A couple of weeks ago, the 1^st container packed up in Tucson was delivered to the Pittsburgh apartment. Instead of an apartment parking lot, the container had to be parked on an urban street. Fortunately, there was a parking space right in front of the apartment building. It was a harder job to unload because there were steps up to the building and then the apartment was on the second floor once the movers were inside (so 2 floors of steps). There was some grumbling about the stairs. And it took them a little longer to do the unloading than it had when the container was loaded.

Everything inside the container was in good shape – no breakage. Some of the boxes were crushed enough that they will just be recycled rather than reused. There are still two containers that we delivered in a few weeks to their apartment in State College...but so far – moving in containers has been a positive experience in terms of service and cost.

Moving in Containers – Part 2

I posted about the loading of the first container last week. That one will be delivered to Pittsburgh in mid- June and I’ll continue this series with that delivery. The rest of the shippable items in my daughter and son-on-law’s two bedroom Tucson apartment was loaded into two containers late last week. We had underestimated the amount of time it would take to pack boxes and ready furniture to go into the container. The time crunch was made worse when we found out the containers would be loaded in the morning rather than the afternoon. We got very little sleep! I loaded boxes of the same size in piles – putting them there while I packed them rather than moving then afterward.

The morning of the move, we put the queen-sized mattress in a mattress bag and then boxed it. The box springs just got a plastic bag. Maneuvering the big items into covers and boxes takes a lot of stretching and contortion….exhausting work. We marked the box that we’d purchased for the box springs as ‘do no move’ but there ended up being room in a container for the box so we didn’t have to put it in the re-cycle dumpster.

The kitchen was place we put things that were not going into the containers (i.e. no food or liquids).

The two containers arrive just after 9 AM with three men to load them. It took them 1 hour and 15 minutes to load them.

After they left – the hard part of throwing away pantry items and compacting as much as we could to take in the car. We put furniture items my daughter did not want to move near the dumpsters at the apartment and they were gone within a few hours – to a new home. I’m still working on what a learned from the experience --- preparing to write it down --- since when I move from my current house, it will probably be in containers.

Moving in Containers – Part 1

I am helping my daughter and son-in-law move from Arizona to Pennsylvania in U-Haul containers. The move was happening in two stages. Part of the packing for the first stage was done before I arrived last Tuesday and we packed up the rest before the team arrived with the container that they would load. I was glad that the futon was already in a mattress box (although I’ll have to help box queen size bed for the second stage of the move.

It only took them about an hour because we were packed and ready for them. I took a series of pictures to document the loading progress. It was a very full container!

After they left, we had plenty of room to pack up the rest of the apartment. Two containers arrive later today…and I’ll post about what happened with that loading.

So far – I like this kind of moving better than the full-service moves. It is easier to schedule loading…and delivery on the other end too. If this move continues to go well, I’ll probably choose to move in containers next time I move.