1) I will have to separate out stuff to be shipped over via air and to take as carry-on luggage as it could be many months until we have our stuff (we will need to buy and close on a house before we accept our shipment). Just easier to keep stuff separated if I'm packing myself.
2) Just control issues around knowing what is packed in each box and that like items are packed together so unpacking isn't any worse than it has to be.
3) Doing a lot of de-cluttering to clear the house out as we're trying to sell it now. Would be easier to pack things up myself now than just "store" them for the movers to pack.
4) We may be paying for this move ourselves so I have to believe that movers charge a lot more to pack a house than just arrive and load it into a container. A friend who moved overseas recently told me that it took the movers FIVE DAYS to pack and load their sea container.
We're having a moving company pack us up and out...no complaints here as I've done it all many times and many ways (7 times in 6 years) and I'd go with a moving company each time, no contest, even though it can be pricey. But here's my two cents if you do have movers coming to your house:
Watch them carefully. That's not implying that they are all crooks but in our vast experience we've been robbed of two antique chairs, 2 boxes of video games and movies, rugs, toys, clothes, not to mention the things we see if photographs and then think "Dear Lord...where did that painting go? We haven't seen that in years!" And then there is the stuff that gets demolished....not nicked or scratched but borderline cremated! Frightful and very disheartening. We actually had a mover show up, start packing, take out three boxes to the truck and never return. We thought he was catching a smoke but I think he caught a cab instead.
We've also learned that we don't ever label the boxes w/ the valuable things in them...it makes it too easy. We just labeled it by the room it was to go in (bathroom, bedroom, master, etc.). It's not necessarily the actual packers you must worry about...but those that take your stuff off the truck and put it in storage or another container, etc. If they see two boxes, one labeled "PlayStation 2 games and Movies" and the other "bathroom supplies"...which box are they going to take? It sounds like heading overseas though, a comprehensive list of what's in the box is pretty necessary so I'm not sure how to get around that.
To help keep an 'eye' on them this time, we're going to enlist the help of some good friends to come over and hang out in the rooms the movers are in. There are always more of them than there are of you...but hopefully having friends over will balance it out a bit. My daughter thinks I have eyes in the back of my head but the movers certainly aren't that naive! If the movers think I'm a little OCD so be it...I'd rather end up with all of my stuff than much of it missing.
And buy 'em coffee and donuts in the morning...they are soooo much happier and are "nicer" to your stuff. Unless you just have a scrooge.
I finally got an answer from my shipping company about us being able to pack or not, and they said that we can pack anything that isn't breakable and just leave the boxes unsealed so that they can make the inventory list for customs, and make sure there isn't anything hazardous.
Must be different based on moving companies. We've got United and they told me that I cannot pack ANYTHING! I asked "Can I pack it and just leave the boxes open so they could inspect them?" and I got a very firm "Nope." They even went so far as to tell me that the things that I've had boxed up for years [memorabilia, etc] all had to be taken out and repacked by the packers. UGH. In the past when we've packed things ourselves the movers/packers wrote on "PBO" (or Packed By Owner) and if anything showed up broken, we couldn't claim it (EVEN if the box looked like it had been run over by a semi).
Anyone know any more about 20 ft vs 40 ft containers, ie what were you able to fit?
When asking the movers about whether or not we'll be able to fit everything, he said yes. Again, we get a 40 footer. We've only got a 1600 square foot house but I'm the consummate pack-rat and minimalism is NOT a decorating style of mine if you get my drift. I've got two toddlers (lots o' clothes and toys) and a husband that has YET to throw away his entire box of grammar school football trophies. We're taking just about everything: sectional, queen size bed, full size bed, armoires, coffee tables, 4 wing back chairs, toys beyond the amount any human should ever own, and the list goes on. The mover promised me we'd have no problem. Now...getting it into a house in London...different story I'm sure
