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Okay, so we know hindsight is 20/20 (or at least doesn't need reading glasses). For those of you who have moved, looking back, is there anything you said...Dang, I wish we would have considered XYZ before we decided to move (or as part of the move)?
Inching closer to a decision to move 1/2 way across the country and I'm scared I haven't thought of something
Okay, so we know hindsight is 20/20 (or at least doesn't need reading glasses). For those of you who have moved, looking back, is there anything you said...Dang, I wish we would have considered XYZ before we decided to move (or as part of the move)?
Inching closer to a decision to move 1/2 way across the country and I'm scared I haven't thought of something
TIA
Those sound like two very different questions:
1. What to consider before deciding to move.
2. What to consider when planning the move itself.
People move all the time and most likely they do it more than once. I'd bet 99% of them can think of something they hadn't considered or would do differently. Despite this, they survived. It is possible to overthink it to the point you freeze and can't make decisions.
Have you done some searches of this forum? There must be hundreds of threads about move planning. Selling a house before moving, selling it after moving. Renting while getting used to the new area, not renting. Renting UHauls and moving stuff yourself, hiring movers to do it for you. Selling boats and other big things before moving, not selling it. Making sure you can still work remotely at the new location. You are being a bit vague about what's most important for your situation OP. Unfortunately no one can answer everything for you.
Last edited by Parnassia; 01-27-2020 at 06:50 PM..
There are lots of factors, many of which depend on individual circumstance.
But I would say the highest thing we didn't take into consideration when we first moved was traffic. We opted to rent for a year while looking for a house to buy. We scoped several complexes and found one that suited us for square footage and seemed close enough to hubby's workplace. Traffic didn't seem bad, but then we were out looking at midday. 7 am traffic was much, much worse than we realized. What should have been a 20 minute drive turned into an hour or more. By the time we were ready to buy we had a better understanding of traffic difficulties and purchased accordingly.
Timely because we are moving 1200 miles in about a month.
This time of year, considering weather is important for driving. I did not consider it on our way out here and we lucked out that year.
I numbered and color coded our boxes so we will see how well that works. I have a notebook with the box list and a quick description of contents. Colored dots - kitchen=yellow, brown=garage and kids are red/pink, adults a color. Even if they don't make it the right room, I can sort quickly.
Do not leave too much for the last minute! Last time, I severely underestimated how much stuff I had left to pack. I've been planning this move for a year and my kids aren't little anymore.
I'm busy making lists of accounts who will need address changes, bill pay changes, etc.
I have another list for things to do like oil change, get vet records, things to carry in our car vs the moving truck, looking up boarding for our pets for a few days when I get there.
Organization! I was digging through boxes way too many times for the first few days after we arrived at our destination, but before we had time to unpack everything.
We moved from sunny California to Western Wyoming over Thanksgiving weekend. In hindsight we should have been checking our route to see how the weather would be on the day we wanted to leave. If there were any winter weather warnings etc. We only checked the weather in our part of California and it showed rain. No big deal. Until in Utah it became snow and then we got a notification that there was a lot of traffic backed up, but instead of stopping to plan a new route, we continued on getting trapped in the traffic because some semi truck had crashed out on the top of Scipio pass. We finally were able to get off the I-15 and ended up in a tiny town called Delta, Utah. Exhausted we stopped for food. We couldn't stay anywhere because we had several large and small animals in our vehicles. We continued on the back roads of Utah before we finally made it to Provo. Again this entire time it was snowing and road conditions were poor. We slept in the Walmart parking lot in Provo, before we continued our journey up into Idaho and finally over to Wyoming. A trip that should have taken 15 1/2 hours, took us 22 white knuckle hours.
So yeah in hindsight we should have checked the weather a couple days before and left a day earlier, or later, but we picked the worst possible day to travel. And for the record I did tell my husband we should leave a day earlier and he shot me down and said that we'd be fine.
This is actually the opposite. Looking backwards, what did you not consider that you wish you did?
I can tell you, though I'm not sure it would be helpful.
We "moved" -- the reason for the sneer quotes will become apparent -- in November 2018 from Silicon Valley to Scottsdale, Arizona.
We were under no pressure to sell the house we moved from and in hindsight, that was a mistake. I should have realized my unmotivated spouse would leave 99% of his hoarded crap -- er, valued belongings -- behind.
This guy was so move-resistant that he only brought a few things with him to the new house. Then he would return to the old house, 750 miles away, and bring back 4 or 5 more things, mainly computers, radios and other devices. Lather rinse repeat. When he left me a few months ago to go back to Silicon Valley, everything he'd brought fit into his car: A PT Cruiser, not exactly a commodious vehicle. It's almost like he planned a temporary stay from the beginning.
So I guess the moral of the story is: If you're moving, really MOVE. Don't leave things behind in storage or at a relative's place.
we continued our journey up into Idaho and finally over to Wyoming. A trip that should have taken 15 1/2 hours, took us 22 white knuckle hours.
So yeah in hindsight we should have checked the weather a couple days before and left a day earlier, or later, but we picked the worst possible day to travel. And for the record I did tell my husband we should leave a day earlier and he shot me down and said that we'd be fine.
Ah, the grass isn't always greener.......one can end up in amazing traffic jams in the most rural areas. Maybe more so due to only one or two ways through.
When we were younger we'd often drive from the NE or Mid-atlantic to Florida. My memory is that we'd be cruising and maybe one car would be ahead of us a couple thousand feet.
Remembering those times I tried the journey a couple times in the last decade....WOW, traffic almost the entire way! Driving through NC was packed and when we got to Florida it was backed up from Jacksonville to Tampa.
My advice: Don’t move 2/3 of the stuff that you think you need. It’s often cheaper to buy new replacements than to pack/move/unpack the old stuff. Donate, donate,donate.
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