Homeless

We moved out of our house today.  It was, in a word, Brutal.

The mover's estimate over the phone was 5 hours for 3 guys at $140 an hour.  It took closer to 10 hours.  And then, they told me I couldn't pay $80 a day to keep my stuff on the truck... I had to pay those same 3 guys $140 an hour to unload my stuff into their warehouse - they estimated another four hours.  With driving time that they also charge me for, the whole move cost me close to $2200.00.  And that's just to get my stuff on the truck and some of it in the POD.  To get it back from their warehouse they're going to have to load it onto the truck again, then bring it to me and unload it into my house.  It makes me sick just thinking about paying for it.

They also did NOT bring boxes.  WHAT?  No.  No boxes.  I TOLD them I hadn't boxed everything up.  They brought tape, and furniture blankets, and paper.  But no boxes.  When we ran through the boxes I had leftover from my boxing, they started just wrapping everything in shrink wrap. My husband and I watched in amusement as one of the movers wrap up a foam mattress topper in shrinkwrap.  We wondered why they weren't putting it in a box.  That was before the cold harsh realization hit, that I am paying these guys to hand carry out little individually shrink wrapped items that should be placed in big boxes. It wasn't until I approached one of them and asked if they had a box I could use to start boxing up my kitchen they told me they could order boxes from the warehouse, but they're very expensive.  Finally I figured it out.  I said "You mean I need to go buy more boxes from U-Haul?"  Yes. How many?  25 medium and 2 wardrobes.
I bought what they said plus 5 large boxes.  Then a couple hours later I had to run to U-Haul again for more boxes.  
Turns out I have 8 left over I can sell back...  But the whole thing was extremely frustrating and painful.  I was packing up as quick as I could, and felt like I was basically upending bathroom drawers into boxes.  Sorting it out once we get to the new house is going to be nothing short of a nightmare.  I'm seriously considering stirring each box with the handle of the toilet plunger to see if anything important rises to the surface, then just throwing the rest into the trash.  There is a convenient place on the side of each box for you to write what's in it for each of 4 moves. A painting of a happy lady tells me to "Recycle this box!!"  How in the world am I going to recycle it?  I am NEVER MOVING AGAIN!

Since Hubby was gone for the better part of the day today, he didn't get that desperate overwhelming feeling of wholesale dumping into boxes.  He assured me over the phone tonight it was worth having these guys move us, and it will be worth it on the other end having them unload the truck.  Which brings me to the other horrible thing about this move - How much freaking stuff we have!  We filled a POD with stuff last month when we were purging.  Then today we filled a 2nd POD, and the overflow filled THEIR ENTIRE TRUCK!!!  This wasn't just a little trailer truck, this was a whole MOVING VAN truck!  I don't get it!  Where did all that stuff come from, how did we cram it all into our little house, and how am I going to explain to my darling family that I'm not letting half of it into the new house!?!? 

It's going to continue to be a brutal week.  We are scheduled to take possession of the new house on Friday morning, when I get to supervise three men spending a whole day filling my clean empty new house with crap I'm not sure I want at $140 an hour.  I've got to purge, if it kills me.

In the mean time, the girls, the dog and I are homeless, bouncing from my parent's house 2 hours north, and the old neighborhood where I plan on taking the girls for a playdate while I sign on the new house.  Hubby suggested I get a hotel in town, instead of driving all the way up to my parent's house.  But I think I figured on the way up here I seemed to need some comfort and stability.  Even though my folks are out of town for the time I'm going to be in their house, I wanted to come somewhere familiar.  Just for a day or two.