Moving Day

Looking around at all the belongings we still had last Friday (11Dec15) and the overwhelming feeling rushed over us: "We're never going to fit all of this into only one POD!" So we got lucky and there was one delivery slot  available on Saturday and one pick-up cancellation slot open for Monday pick-up. We snagged it quickly!!

Second POD is here

Our bedroom was still a mess with everything you could imagine collected from around the house the night before our big move. Anything from clean laundry, to paperwork, to bags only half-packed, boxes/bins for the movers, and somewhere underneath it all was a bed for us to sleep on. But come 10pm we called it quits because we knew we would be worthless come the morning if we didn't get a good nights sleep.

Our messy drop-house

Finally our big moving day came.  You know how folks tend to say that things can take twice as long as it should or that one should plan accordingly? We were very glad that we gave ourselves lots of wiggle room for this move because this Sunday was our big moving day and when one of the guy's called out sick, we had to wait most of the day for his replacement. Scheduled to start at 9am, we "sat around" (aka: finished all that last minute packing!) because we didn't get started until after 1pm. And to be honest, we didn't have much stuff so I'm still not sure why it took these two young guys four hours to pack a two bedroom?! They even kept commenting on how well we packed and wrapped up furniture so all they were doing was physically moving things outside. Ugh!  It was a lesson in patience for sure.

Playing Tetris inside a POD

But they were really nice guys and you could tell they were trying really hard to puzzle piece things together so we only needed to store the one pod. Their puzzle skills were fascinating! We were so impressed! Unfortunately we still had to fill about 1/3 of the second POD because our mattresses were just way too big. But I was still impressed at their skills as they kept reassuring us,"I'm 90%sure we can just squeeze this all into one POD." They tried so hard!

Make sure your munchkin still has a few toys to play in the midst of moving chaos!

Moving day with a toddler and a dog isn't easy. Even if you're not the one physically moving the boxes, you're certainly are the one keeping a munchkin happy and a dog out of the way. Our friends on the other side of town were so kind to offer for our two year old to stay with them for the morning, and generously through naptime as well.  The dog was more well behaved then we expected and for the most part stayed out of the way and only peeked around corners out of curiosity.  And with all the doors open, I was impressed how she stayed in the house for the most part, never running away. Overall the move as a whole went more smoothly then we expected. PODS and the movers were very easy to schedule, and I would recommend them to people thinking of storing prior to relocating. And  wrapping up your own furniture and things into boxes took forever for us, but with a bunch of blankets for protection and shrink wrap galore, it can totally be done and saves a ton a money!

Packing the cars with everything we will need these next few months

Another tip I would suggest is to not do everything last minute. Keeping this down to the last wire inevitably adds to what stress you already have. I'm glad we didn't have the movers come any later then two days prior to closing. This way we could have a full day in between for sweeping out the house, packing our cars appropriately, and most importantly, ensuring the PODS were picked up. Only one POD could be picked up on Monday, and the other squeaked by with pick-up at 10am (the new owners had their walk-through at 10:30! Yikes that was a close call!!)

Hornbeam friends visiting

And the biggest tip I can give for a big move like this is to accept help, especially from friends and family who offer! Toddlers are happier if they have a few of their toys to play with to keep them occupied or if they can stay at a friends house to hang out with their best friends.  Thankfully once all our furniture was unavailable for us to use, we were also able to stay with our close friends who also live in town.  They graciously had an extra bathroom and two guest rooms for us and our Tiny Tot to use.  They also have a dog that our Doodles likes to go on doggie-playdates too so it was a nice treat for the dogs as well.  We desperately missed having Christmas decorations around during this move and we felt right at home at their house with their Christmas tree and stockings hung with care.  And to add to the comfort, we slept in their Paris-decorated room giving us the feel of a vacation from all the moving stress.  For two days they spoiled us with good food and comfort.

She's got the pig-tail blues

So many friends and neighbors outpoured their love and support for us during this transition week and we know we are truly blessed. We already miss our Chelmsford family!

Goodby Home, Sweet Irish Home

PODS

Our moving POD is now in the driveway!  We decided to place our belongings into short-term storage because even though we are selling our house, we don't have a new permanent address for quite some time.

PODS was the only portable storage option for us that had the largest size available.  We rented a 8'x8'x16' POD and hope it will fit all the stuff we have left!

Dancing a little jig inside the new POD

There is even a new trailer attachment called POD-zilla which can pick-up/put-down raise/lower straight up and down.  This is key for us since once we pack, we don't want our furniture and belongings to shift like it would being hoisted onto a truck like a tow-truck fashion.  So this puppy arrived on Monday morning and has been living in our driveway this week until the movers come to pack it up on Sunday.

Successful Moving/Yard Sale

We had an incredible turnout on Saturday for a December moving sale! It was in the mid 30's setting up in the early morning, but the sun warmed things up quickly, and mid-40's seemed perfect.  My friend Noël came over to help, which was so helpful with watching our little Keiki.  They played in the leaves and hula-hoops and she was surprisingly very entertained for most of the morning.
We cleared out so much stuff from our house that even one of our neighbors said, "you know you don't have to sell off your lives, right?"  And it's funny because even though the driveway was filled with furniture, air conditioners , yard maintenance stuff, books, baby bouncers and toys, both big and small items...  Our  house still feels like it has a LOT of stuff in it that I simply wish we didn't have to pack!  Saturday was so successful that we decided to continue the sale on Sunday morning with more aggressive pricing on larger items and all the small items left over from the day prior became free stuff.

Just to note for those reading and want to know if we have any tips or tricks for a successful yard sale, I would say prepare, prepare, prepare! Doing your homework, advertising, and pricing items correctly is key.  For a few weeks prior, we started storing the items to sell in our garage, pre-priced so we didn't have to go back and do double the work.  I simply used the fluorescent neon garage sale stickers that you can cheaply find on Amazon and priced things $0.25, $0.50, $1, $2, $5, and furniture was no more then $30.  By pricing as we went it made the morning of the sale SO UCH less hectic!  I made neon pink signs to place on the high traffic street corners too.  They were simply stated "Moving Sale" with the date, time and address.  I choose pink because I didn't want yellow to blend in with street signs or orange to blend in with construction signs.  We found that the fast way to get the word out to the public that we were having the moving sale was to use local town/community online yard sale pages available through Facebook.  This was by far a HUGE help and highly recommend seeing if it's offered in your area.  We also utilized online yard sale groups and Craigslist.

Two Week Countdown

Our family is in the final 2 week stretch before we close on our home and hand over the keys to the next (hopefully loving!) couple.  This week we are preparing for a Saturday yard/moving sale and praying the snow holds out, then our storage pod arrives next Monday to start packing up, and finally our movers are coming next weekend for helping our completion. Our days are filled with juggling an overactive toddler and anxious dog (they are noticing all the boxes accumulate), packing in the one hour nap times that never seem long enough and after bedtime for late nights, selling things and more donating trips to Goodwill, and coordinating with parties involved with selling a home (lawyers, inspectors, fire department, real estate agents.)  I have gained a new respect for families who make this transition and a new found appreciation for those who move multiple times!

Adding Christmas lights to our sign

Town fire department testing our house alarms

More and more free boxes from the local liquor store