((((Deeby))))

I wish you were close by, I would help.
My horror story? Due to a miscommunication the water in the the house I was moving from was shut off before the lady I hired to clean it got there.
She did the best she could, the house sold, but it was one more worry.
Take time to do something nice for yourself: a bubble bath or a nice dinner.

We were renting a home for 6 months while our new home was being built. A week before the move a deluge of rain and a failed sump pump resulted in a flooded basement, soaking all the boxes which we had been storing down there for the last 5 and 3/4 months. Lots of things had to be thrown out. We tried putting things outside to dry off, but oh, did I mention it was January? They didn't dry out, only froze. We tried spreading all our belongings throughout the house. That whole last week in the rental we spent drying out the boxes, flipping them over to use the tops as the new bottoms, and repacking them. Thank goodness we had purchased renters insurance..., but oh, did I mention that we found out that didn't include sump pump failure??

Keep 'em coming !! That was sweet, Lucille.

My moving horrible experience was losing my dad and then my mentally ill mother that wouldn't do anything and no help at all and SIL who kept emailing nasty emails to me and telling me things and I was so totally exhausted first to pack up and put into storage as I was supposed to stay at the house and my mother move into condo. Then the long weekend in september she killed herself and I was told you are moving into the condo and so I had to move into a condo unsight seen and when I did see, no choice you are moving and that is it and then no movers and more stuff I was cramming into storage unit. Rented a bin and huge amount dumping into that on top of still taking things to storage unit. I could barely put one foot in front of the other and my mind couldnt concentrate in coping with losing pets and two parents, one that killed themselves and sil being so nasty. and then finally you can have movers but only ten boxes,? what. Well, the movers was fantastic and just what I needed, there was three of them and they got me to laugh and helped me for those hours and didn't want them to leave after the treatment I had, had.

I locked myself out of the building first day moved in and was stuck and had to call parent's gardener who helped and she came and buzzed and buzzed places and finally got someone to answer and let me in.

It may not be horrible to anyone but it sure was to me the whole thing plus losing everything in my life.

kathy

My moving story isn't that terrible. I arrived at my new house at 6 a.m. to open it up for the movers that were scheduled to arrive at 6:30 a.m. and I couldn't get the door unlocked. I swear I turned that key every way I could. I was panicked that the movers would come and not be able to unload. Luckily, the 24-hour locksmith I called based on directory assistance's connection (pre-smart phone) arrived quickly and was able to get the door open for me. However, that was a $150 expense that I really hadn't planned.

Moving is stressful even if everything goes smoothly. Gut your way through it and then give yourself a big reward for making it to the end!

Moving is simply never pleasant. I've moved so many times that I actually started to get good at it but the thought of moving again just makes me sick. Honestly, if I never have to move again it will be just fine with me!

We moved in stages from CA to ND. After we had the property and built a garage/+bathroom with washer/dryer every time we went there, we filled a old converted horse trailer. And I mean LOADED!!! One time in AZ an axle on the trailer broke and we lost a tire, did not even know it until someone flagged us down. No phone service on 395 in the middle of nowhere, over 100 degrees, open range, finally someone with a satalite phone did call in a service call,but AAA would not tow the trailer, so we had to turn around and go back to the city about 15 mph. found a motel, and thank goodness a young man living there out of work, but had tools was able to replace both axles on the trailer. Got to ND and weighed the trailer and found out it was over 12,000 pounds of stuff and it wasn't suppose to have over 2500. pounds. WE did make several more trips and still have stuff in boxes we really don't need.
And there are the numerous time we used that same trailer to move out kids when he got assigned to another as a park ranger in CA--but that is another book --opps--sorry, another story.

Is there someone who can help you? The thought of doing it alone would be overwhelming.

Arriving at my sister's house to find she had packed NOTHING. She had a week's worth of dirty dishes in the sink, food in the fridge and freezer, dirty laundry everywhere. She had to be out that day, we were expecting to pick up finished boxes and bring them to the new place.

The new place had not been cleaned at all from the last tenants. My sister made a deal to get half the cleaning fee to do it herself. Of course, she had cleaned nothing. Each bedroom was packed with abandoned papers and clothing and items (including a broken bed and dirty matresses). The kitchen was disgusting, old food in the cupboards and mealy bugs.

The basement was full of old laundry and items, and at one time had a sewer backup that was not cleaned up, so everything was contaminated down there.

THREE bins of stuff came out of that house before we could move a single thing in. Then we had to clean and disinfect everything, while at the same time packing and cleaning the old place. If it were not for my baby nephew....I couldn't let him go there with it in that condition.

We also discovered that her freezer had been uplugged (possibly for months) and was full of old rotten food.

Fun times!

Dances.

We moved into this house 21 years ago today! We moved from Maryland to Virginia (75 miles). The house was only 3 years old, but it was dirty...and they had two cats (I'm allergic to cats). The contract stated that they would clean and paint the house, and shampoo the carpets. Two days before the movers were to bring our furniture, the man had a heart attack (stress over losing his "dream house"), so no cleaning was done. So we came here the day before the movers to shampoo the carpets and do a basic cleaning before the furniture arrived. Unfortunately, there had been an ice storm the day before, and we couldn't get the car up the driveway...so we carried the carload of stuff halfway up the drive (about 200 feet)--slipping and sliding. We were up all night, cleaning. On the bright side, the realtor came here and worked with us until 3 AM!!

The next morning, the moving van came...and they couldn't get up the driveway! They stopped about 60 feet from the door, and carried everything up the slippery hill! They did not complain and not one thing was damaged in the move!! Needless to say, they got a very nice tip, and their company got a nice letter, from grateful customers.

I have never not worked. I realize that's a double negative, but that's how I want to say it. I had gone from 8 years at Willis Corroon straight into to 10 years at HIS, and at the end I had not had vacation in many many years. We were so broke we had to sell the house and move to an apartment. They shut down HIS the same time we sold the house. I did get a job immediately (I have been there 10 years now!), but when they asked me when I could start I said two weeks... never thinking about packing and unpacking the house. It truly never entered my mind. So the two weeks inbetween jobs, I spent unpacking the entire house by myself and crying the entire time. It was awful. I still didn't get to stop working!

Deeby, so glad you found a place to live! I have several horror stories but they're too long. Just know that I can relate.

A tenant of mine tried getting the sleeper sofa out of the lower level. It opened while he was shoving it up the stairs....got stuck in the stair well, punched a hole in the wall! We had to cut it into 3 pieces to get it "unstuck".

He purchased cardboard boxes from HD, stuffed them with linens, put them outside on the patio where they got rained on. He put his sectional sofa on the front lawn then went to rent a trailer. While he was gone it got drenched!

When I checked the attic, after he'd left, it was FULL of college books/disks/computer programs, he said he didn't want. FIlled my truck bed to the top! I had to dump it. He just got tired of moving...

This post was edited by nicole__ on Thu, Jan 15, 15 at 11:41

My horror story isn't so scary, although it was disconcerting at the time! I had arranged a mover to move us (DH, me, baby son) to our new house. New tenants were moving into our soon-to-be vacated apartment the same day. The mover didn't appear. I called him and a babysitter at his house said that he was gone out of town for the weekend. What? It was a popular moving day, so an alternate mover couldn't be found. I kept calling rental companies and finally got a large truck into which all our belongings would fit and we moved out just as the new tenants were moving in.

My friend just moved from Boston to Colorado. She hired a nationally known van line to move her stuff. She drove cross country with just what would fit in her car, expecting her belongings to arrive soon after. Turns out the van line left her stuff in a warehouse until someone else might be moving to CO, too. They would not move her until they had a full moving van. She sat in an empty condo for several weeks with an aerobed and one table and chair. She was new to the area and only knew one other person. Horrible experience.

Good luck to you.

These are all so comforting, haha. What's really horrible is that I soon get to move and go through this again. The trailer is only a deal-I clean up the former tenant's hoarding and filth, in return for a temporary roof over my head and my cats and rabbits. I've cut my hands with bleach and bumps trying to wade thru this nightmare. Stumbling over my bags and boxes too. There's a really nice neighbor next door and I'm giving her stuff I don't want to re-pack and take with me. Some things are brand new. I plan to get the hell out of here with ONE BOX per room. One kitchen box, one bathroom box, etc. I'm going thru several bags and giving stuff away. Like why do I have unused lotions? Pots and pans I don't need or care about? Clothes I never wore? Things I brought with me are just more enemies now. This trailer is so bad I feel polluted. Just polluted. I'm going to use the time here as rehab-quitting smoking, paring down stuff I never should I spent money on, etc. This was never meant as permanent. Just a layover until I get to where I'm going. It's hard. Not knowing where I'm going is hard. I feel lost, lonely, and "unwieldy". At the same time, I feel constant guilt because I'm griping and complaining. Not a happy place emotionally...

This happened when I was in university. Drove over 700km with my boyfriend, best friend, brother & one of his friends in a car and pickup truck loaded down with our stuff we needed for a year at university - furniture, luggage, etc. My friend, brother and I had rented a house a few weeks earlier. The lady we rented from was very dtizy. She said she would be on vacation when we moved in, but the key to the place would be at her house with some students who were going to rent the basement apartment in the house we were renting. They were going to house sit her house while they were away on vacation.

So we went to get the key after driving all day and the students couldn't find it. They didn't look hard. So we had no way in the house. We had to break the window in the basement door and get in that way. They we had to change the lock so we could get it and out and lock the house. And board up the broken window.

There were no fridge or stove in the house even though we rented it with one. We had a microwave and a small Coleman cooler. We were poor university students and couldn't afford to eat take-out for a week waiting for our landlady to come back from vacation. So we survived on whatever we could microwave and keep cool in the cooler for a week.

Deeby, so sorry. I thought you really wanted this trailer and were happy about it.

You did mention that you had a new job, I hope that it will give you some piece of mind.

We started out in a mobile home. We had purchased a home while I was pregnant with our second child. We couldn't get in the house so we moved in with my husbands parents. One good thing is we didn't have tons of stuff. My husband moved a truck load at a time for several weeks. I went into labor and he took me to the hospital. While I was there he finished moving us to his parents. When he picked me and our new daughter up from the hospital we went to his parents. We were there for about 45 days. My FIL was wonderful but MIL was not!! Thankfully she worked evenings. We finally got into the house. It was a long 45 days. My moving wasn't as bad as some but with a 2 year old and a brand new baby it was stressful. My poor husband worked almost 2 hours away from his job. He never once complained..

Guess what else? I dropped a can of Comet INSIDE my car. Today I went to the car wash so they could vacuum up the worst of it. I just now finished with Q-tips, wet rags, dry rags and I used cooking oil on swabs to get the Comet out of crevices. Never again will I roll some Comet in a towel for moving-a sealed plastic bag or live without Comet until I buy more.
The first two days my cat screamed loud Siamese screams all day and half the night. Finally calmed down. This is hell. I'm angry that my life has taken this turn. Like it wasn't bad enough already. My sister chose this time for one of her temper tantrums, screaming and swearing and the usual because I won't pay her bills. I have before and a few days later she didn't want to chat on an IM, and there came the get out of my life rage. I'd just paid her rent, car, insurance, grocery money and had a new bed delivered. This time besides the usual rage she unfriended me on Facebook. How 8 years old does it get... She's a nurse. I remember when she got her degree. My Mom said, "I wouldn't want her to be MY nurse !" No matter what she does, I will never tell my sister that. I won't hurt her like that. It's true though.

So sorry you are going through all this crap...
My problems seem small...
My moving story. We had a mobile home here and were building a house. It was around Thanksgiving when we moved the trailer to a very nice park (I hated to leave!). The electrician and the town disagreed which should be contacted first and we thought all was well. We had no power, no heat (had snow). My cat was lost for 2 days and we thought she had gone outside and it turned out she was trapped in the recliner. Heat was brought in with an extension cord and plug in heater. Bless the neighbors who didn't want any payment for their electricity!

We moved from our home on the farmplace to newly built home about a mile away on Friday the 13th of December. It was a cold, icy day, but the forecast didn't look good for the week ahead and then the holidays would be there so hubby said let's do it now. We borrowed a new horse trailer from a local manufacturer and loaded an assortment of furniture and finally the piano, then stepped back in the house to look things over. When we came back outside the pickup and trailer weren't there.... it had gotten so icy they had slid down the hill and fortunately stopped upon reaching a line of concrete feedbunks. We got by lucky as nothing was damaged, but it could have been a disaster.

Oh Hilltop, I can only imagine what you guys first thought when you came out and found the truck and trailer gone, then realized they had slid down the hill! You were very lucky nothing was damaged. Have to admit that your story is also a little funny - and your GW name fits your story to a T:)

We were moving from a duplex to our current house, and had several friends helping pack the rented truck, and our pickup and horse trailer, and were ready to leave but couldn't find our dog anywhere. Occasionally he would go over to a neighbor's house and bark at their Jack Russell through their fence, but always returned immediately. We called and searched and drove around the neighborhood -- nothing -- no sign of him.

We decided to leave, before all our helpers had to leave, and unload as quickly and possible, and return to look for him some more, and then decided to leave the basement sliding door open so he could get in when he came back.

As I was doing that and heading to the stairs to leave, I heard low whining, and found that he had been closed in the closet under the stairs the whole time.

Another time when moving from Ohio to Minnesota, we were using professional movers since my wife had negotiated a relocation package as part of her job offer. The way that moving company worked is the driver would come to the local moving company office, and pick up local employees to handle the packing and loading. The crew he ended up picking up even he referred to as "Larry and his brother Darrell and his other brother Darrell". Strong, but disheveled looking, and not the brightest. They declined to use the appliance dolly seemingly because they didn't understand it. One of them simply tossed a strap around the washing machine and hoisted it on his back, and lumbered toward the door. Outside the apartment he continued to the end of the breezeway and started to make the turn to the stairs, and momentarily lost his balance, and banged the bottom of the machine against the metal railing, and looked to be close to either dropping it backwards over the railing to the ground below or sliding down the stairs face first, with the washing machine atop him.

At the other end of the move, we discovered that one box had been off-loaded in Iowa rather than Minnesota, and quite a number of my wife's grandmother's antique Czechoslovakian crystal stemware was chipped or broken due to shoddy packing.