DO's and DON'Ts of an Army Move

Our Army family is moving to Kansas. One of the benefits to moving with the army is that the Army contracts and pays for your entire move! We have completed Part I of our move: the packing and the loading. For our family the packers showed up as scheduled on a Monday morning and spent two days packing up everything we own. 

With the exception of the No Pack Pile. No one touched the No Pack Pile! 

After two days of packing up everything, the movers came the third day and loaded all of the boxes onto the 18-wheeler. They also disassembled and wrapped up our furniture and loaded it onto the truck.

These three days were my first experience with an Army-move. For Honey, this was his sixth Army move. As a new Army-wife-mover here are my DO's and DON'Ts of an Army move:

DO... Expect your moving company to meet with you in advance of the move to assess your home and tell you how long it will take them to pack and load your belongings.

DON'T... Expect them to tell you everything during your consultation. (Like whether or not you need to unpack your dresser drawers first, or whether you need to take down your window treatments and picture frames, or what time to expect them in the mornings, or what they won't pack that you need to pack and carry with you.)

DO... Expect to live in a maze of boxes until they are loaded onto the truck.

DON'T... Expect them to move a "packed" box. Where ever a box sat when it was packed it where it will sit until it is loaded. 

DO... Expect a LOUD experience. The sound of tape is constant and it is loud.

DON'T... Expect non-smokers to pack your belongings. 

DO... Keep cold water in the fridge for your packers and movers. They work hard!

DON'T... Be rude to your packers and your movers. Your belongings depend on it.

DO... Expect to be asked a lot of questions. Plan to be available to your packers and movers.

DON'T... Plan to sleep in, take a nap, or rest in any way during the moving process.

DO... Plan to spend a significant amount of time prior to the move packing your bags with the things you need during and after the move. This will eventually become your No Pack Pile.

DON'T... Put anything from the No Pack Pile back into a cabinet, closet, or drawer where it would normally belong. Put it back into the No Pack Pile. This will become a constant stress for you (if you are like me) during the move.

Now that our belongings are on the way to Kansas while we enjoy a two-week visit with our families, I am sure I will have another list of DO's and DON'Ts about the other side of moving with the Army: the unloading and the unpacking... We will see how that goes in a couple of weeks!