July 21st, 2003:

Fuck moving.

We’re paying movers.

That’s a difficult thing to do. I’ve never hired movers before, and I have no clue what to expect. Prices range from $50 – $85 per hour. Others charge based on WHAT they are moving, and want an itemized list up front. That becomes difficult because, if we have less than we specify, we don’t get a refund. And if we have more, the charge to add things while there is higher than adding them before hand. Some people charge travel fees, others don’t. Some people charge a service fee, others don’t. Some have their own trucks, others don’t. It’s all very complicated.

Additionally, I don’t know how many hours to expect my move to take. I know that, when my dad and I finished off my apartment two moves ago, a lot of it was already done, but we also had a lot of packing to do as well, and it took us about 5 hours. I’ve asked moving companies how long they expect my move to take and I’ve heard as low as 3.5 hours, to as high as 7.

A co-worker of mine used a place recently that has a 26′ truck and charges $65/hr for two men. No travel fee. No service charge. And he said they did a pretty good job and moved him in 2 hours and 10 minutes. He estimated my move at 4 hours including driving time. I figure if Jess and I pitch in, that should be enough time. Even if it runs over a couple of hours, it isn’t the end of the world. Anything is better than moving myself for 8 solid hours in 100+ degree weather and 1157% humidity.

The movers are called Focus Van Lines. If you know anything about them, speak now or forever hold your peace.

Update: I’ve checked out Focus Van Lines with the BBB and with TXDOT, and they seem to be legitimate. They’ve had no complaints against them in the three years they’ve been operating and have all of the required insurances.

Update 2: And I cancelled my U-Haul reservation, in case you were worried that I’d forget. (You’re such nice people, really).

Jess and I will be moving this Friday. We get the keys Thrusday night, and we’ll probably bring over electronics and stuff in the car when we go to sign the lease. Then, on Friday, we’ve reserved a U-Haul. $80 for one day and 30 miles, $0.40 for each additional mile, pick up in Irving and drop off in Plano.

I hope our move will be pretty uneventful. Jess has done an amazing job of packing up all of our stuff, and, for the most part, all of the non-essentials are done. This week, we’ll finish up everything else (I say “we’ll” but I’m sure Jess will do a lot more than I do) so that there’s only junk left by Thursday morning. I’ll probably end up going to work that day (another big shipment of computers to provision comes in the day before) but should get off early enough to come back here, help finish packing any remaining items, load up the car, and make it to Plano by 5:30pm. Then, depending on what’s left to do, we’ll either spend the night out there, or come back to Irving that evening. Friday morning, I’ll pick up the U-Haul, and we’ll start moving.

I’m guessing it should take about 4 hours to load up the truck. It might be easier (because I’ll have more help) to move on Saturday. That way, I wouldn’t need to take a day off of work (even though I have two days to spare that have to be taken by August 2nd or I most likely lose them) and more people will be off of work to lend a hand. Even without help, though, I think Jess and I can handle loading the truck on our own. We don’t have THAT much stuff and most of it isn’t all that heavy.

The only thing I’m really going to need help with is getting someone to drive out to Plano and pick me up on Saturday morning. I need them to follow me to U-Haul in Plano and then drive me back to Irving so I can get my car. I’d have Jess do it, but she isn’t all that comfortable driving a stick yet, hates freeways, and hates the tollway even more. So I’d rather not force her to do all of those things unless I have to. Does anyone want to volunteer for that? If I decide to move on Saturday, will that make it easier? If so, it can be done.

I really hate moving. I hate having to take everything out of its place and put it into a box and then spend four hours in the hot Texas summer packing it all neatly into a truck only to drive 30 minutes down the road and then undo all of the work we did. Even more than that, I hate all the timing and coordination that has to occur in order to make sure that all of our stuff, our cats, our cars, and, of course, us are in Plano together within one 24 hour period while putting as few miles on the moving truck as possible. It just seems like so much complication .

It might be easier for me to pick-up and drop off in Irving. I don’t know. If I do it that way, it’s $29.95/day plus $0.79/mile. Assuming that I’ll only need to make one trip and that I really will only need 30 miles each way, that actually saves me $3 in the end. Yahoo says the trip is 25.9 miles each way. If I add 10 miles for pickup and dropoff then I’m still under $80. Hmmm. Maybe that’s a better idea. Then Jess can follow me to the U-Haul place to pick it up, and follow me back there to drop it off since there won’t be any freeways involved. That does sound like a better idea, doesn’t it?

(See… this is part of the reason I keep an online journal/diary/weblog thing. Not only do I think more clearly when I write out my thoughts, but it gives you all a chance to double check my thought process and give me additional insight.)

The only remaining debate is whether to go for a Friday move, or a Saturday move. Jess and I have a concert (Counting Crows and John Mayer woooooo!) to go to Sunday night, so dropping the truck off Sunday morning shouldn’t be a problem as long as we get all of the moving type stuff done the day before. Then we can just pick one day that following week to go back to the old place and clean up and then we’ll be done. But, I like being able to do it earlier, because I like to give myself extra time to do stuff, just in case. And since I’ve never made a successful, well organized move before, I’m not really sure what to expect.

What do you think?