The Sewing Mom

I grew up relocating with my family about every two years. My dad was in the Air Force and so that’s what we did, as an Air Force family, we went where we were told to go. I think my mom became an expert on packing the house and the kids and everything else, because of how often we did it. I think a lot of what she learned rubbed off onto me.

As an adult, I moved myself from one place to another several times during my college years. Of course, that’s not too bad, I didn’t have much back then. After getting married, my husband’s job has required us to do 4 interstate relocations, and the older we get, the more stuff we collect, the more there is to contend with in a move.

The various employers have all had different relocation packages, some have done everything for us, selling our home, packing us up, hiring the moving companies , etc. Others have just given us a lump dollar amount and then I am in charge of it all. It falls to me to hire the real estate agent, the moving company, and everything that goes with it. This is much more stressful.

Our most recent relocation occurred back in April when we moved from Illinois to Texas. The company used a relocation service as the contact for us. We told them what we needed and the sent out the right people. I have to say though, I was certainly glad that I had experience with moving because I felt more confident in dealing with all of these people.

The initial moving company that came out to give us an estimate was so high on both our estimated household goods weight as well as the estimated cost, I insisted that the relocation center send out a second company to do an estimate. Sure enough, the original estimate was several thousand pounds higher than it should have been and the cost was close to $10K higher. If I had not had experience and had some idea of the weight and cost (I keep all my old documentation), I would have overpaid.

Moving is stressful anyway, but if you don’t know what to expect, or the questions to ask, it can be even more stressful. If you’ve never moved, there are resources out there to help, including homebulletin.net which is useful for finding moving companies for both local and interstate moves. Whatever you do, don’t try to do it alone, look for reputable advice and use reputable companies. Get everything in writing!

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