Hi friends!
We’re coming up for air over here, and I’m pretty sure we are never moving again. Phew. It’s been a wild ride. But, we are in our new house and the fun of getting settled (and DECORATING) begins!! There’s no way around it, moving is stressful. Moving your home AND business is even more stressful!
We’ve moved several times, and have done all different ways – from the “throw it all in the car college move” to the corporate relo – we’ve tried it all. This time we decided to do the packing and moving ourselves to save some money. And since we were moving just 5 minutes up the road it seemed like the best decision. We tried a new method to help us keep organized, and it was honestly the smoothest part of the whole process.
I teamed up with MyWay Mobile Storage at the recommendation of a friend. They have the coolest process ever, and it kept our do-it-yourself move organized and do-able. Here’s how it worked:
MyWay brings you up to 4 storage containers at a time on this nifty flat bed truck.
They use a fork lift to bring the containers right where you want them – usually the driveway or yard.
The forklift just lines those babies up nice and tight. And then they are ready to be loaded up!
Here’s what the inside of the container looks like – they are all wood construction with the vinyl covering to protect against the weather. Each container has a door and latch that’s easy to open and close (and lock) so you can pack as you want.
My kid’s immediately found little packs of Skittles tucked inside each container (to help power you up when moving all that heavy stuff). 🙂
You can load them completely full – the boxes went in really easy. The containers hold and amazing amount of things, especially when they are packed tight.
Furniture takes up a little more space and is a little harder to load, but when you put your Tetris brain to work, it’s not so bad. Since I was moving business items as well as personal, I tried to keep it as separate as possible to help in the organization of it all.
Once the containers are full there are a few options: you can have MyWay store the containers for you off site OR you can have them taken right to the new place. We opted to have the first 4 containers stored, and had them bring us 4 empty ones to fill up. Using the forklift, they keep the containers as level as possible and load them back on the truck.
This is where it’s important to pack those containers tight to avoid the items shifting around! I will say though, I didn’t find a single thing broken (woo hoo!).
We filled up 4 more containers and had them all delivered to our new house the day before closing. It was nice to know our things were safe and locked just waiting for us to unpack rather than in-transit somewhere on a moving truck.
They lined all 8 up in the new driveway and we enlisted the help of neighbors and friends to unload – ya’ll we got all those containers unloaded in no time! This part of the move was surprisingly quick and easy!
Here are a few tips for your next move (I’m never moving again – so I won’t need tips like this):
1. Label those boxes with the room the box is GOING INTO not necessarily COMING FROM (they may be the same room, but maybe not).
2. Pack in stages. I went through the house first and packed all the decor and things we wouldn’t miss for a few weeks.
Then I went through again and did another round pulling things we wouldn’t need out of the house and into boxes.
The last week before moving, I packed all the things except for what we would really need (which went into suitcases).
3. Get help. We had lots of hands for unloading which made for quick work of it!
4. Pace yourself. The nice thing about the MyWay containers was I could pack a little at a time, day by day. And as I packed boxes they could go right outside into the containers. When I took it all a little at a time, it didn’t feel so overwhelming.
Once the crates were unloaded, I just called MyWay and they came and picked up the empty containers! The new neighbors were totally impressed with the whole process, and I’m sure they appreciated how quick it was all done.
I’m off to keep unpacking and figuring out where things go, but stay tuned – lots of fun house projects will be coming your way soon!!
Disclosure: I worked with MyWay Mobile Storage on this post but would have used them anyway — I only share brands I know and love with you all, opinions are my own and are 100% true! To see my full disclosure policy, click here.
Until next time,
Jenni
