The packers came to the house a week or 2 ago and got the house packed up by 2:30 in the afternoon. Then the moving truck came a few days after that and I was pleasantly surprised at how painless the whole thing was. I had cramps one of the days and I was actually able to lay down and take a 2 hour nap with out stressing out about all of the things I should be doing. Luckily it was a day that I wasn't having to babysit the movers.
But I still left a lot of little things to do until the last minute and I didn't get out and turn in the keys until 9:00 PM. Also, I thought I had been really good about not accumulating too many flammable items while living in Port Hueneme, but I still had so many extra cleaners/toiletries/flammable items that I had to pull out of the bathrooms, kitchen and garage.
Yet while I was cleaning the house I used mostly just powdered bleach and glass cleaner
My things to remember from this move are:
- The cleaners I used were-powdered bleach with an iron handled brush, Oil soap to get off the built up grease on the vent for the stove hood and the built up grease on top of the cabinets, glass cleaner for the windows and mirrors, also the glass cleaner pads on a stick for the outside windows worked great too. And a bucket of water with a few rags. My only cleaning problem was the outside of the upstairs windows. I couldn't remember how to clean them properly.
- try to avoid moving out during your menstrual cycle. I got lucky this time, but the next time it might not turn out so well.
- Make sure to get the baby sitters for the days the movers are at the house and at least 1 day for cleaning
- makes sure to get the hotel room starting on the day before the movers come. It makes life easier. (Note to Sam- the past 2 moves you have said you thought that it was a waste of money, and both times when the day finally came you were glad we had the room a day early so we could get our bags and stuff we don't want the movers taking to be out of the house.)
- Make sure Sam takes the time off work to help out with the move. (Note to Sam-You had me do it on my own this time and I was able to do it, but you still had to take long lunches to go and get lunch for me and the movers and you told me you wished you took the time off so you could help more.)
- You will be surprised at how much you can get done if you clean while the packers are there. Make sure to request that they start in the kitchen so you can start cleaning it by lunch time.
- We had a good bye party for the girls at a near by park and it was SO much fun. It was a great way to say good bye to friends and I didn't have to worry about people messing up my clean house.
- When people ask you what they can do to help, make dinner dates with them for the last week you are in town. It is a great way to say good bye and you can clean your appliances early. Just tell them you would be happy to bring garlic bread, or a veggie platter. (Some thing that you can just pick up at the store.) You will especially want to make sure someone will feed you on Sunday so you don't have to go out to eat on Sunday.
Good luck Bri of the Future. We seem to be getting better at this every time we do it.
