What I Learned from Over 25 Years of Moving

In the end of 2019 my family and I finally bought our first house.  But before the day that I finally was able to call myself a home owner I lived in:

·       2 dorm situations (one is now the Restoration Hardware in Chicago that gets all the Instagram love. Ever eaten by that fountain in the courtyard? Bet I have more times than you)

·       With my sister in her condo in the 90s

·       2 studio apartments (Lincoln Park and Andersonville)

·       4 two bedroom apartments (Ravenswood, Wrigleyville, Albany Park and Edison Park)

·       In the basement of my in-laws (hey, many have had this time in their lives, I just did it with a rambunctious toddler too)

·       Plus, I did own a business in the early 2000s that I had to move in and move out of, and helped move a culinary school, no biggie

All in all that adds up to a crap load of packing, moving and stressing.  Plus, I always moved in the winter as it was a way for me to sign leases for lower rents than those with September or June start dates.  Many locations in Chicagoland require you move in via back stairs.  That would be outside back stairs, prone to ice and snow, not always constructed with perfect proportions so quite hazardous one might say.  Since I know you must be curious here are some of the methods I used for moving over the years:

·       Using a monthly all you can travel pass to take trips with boxes and bags full of your items on public transportation to your new residence.  Rating: zero out of ten, I do not recommend.  I also may have bout a ten ride pass to use to recruit others to assist me on these rides (can you tell the broke college student method)

·       The old pizza and beer for those strong friends with a rented truck/van method is an old standby.  Rating: three out of ten, the stress levels are elevated here.  Someone always flakes out, getting the vehicle you need at the times you want can be a crapshoot and I cannot tell you the number of times my rental was too small for all of my stuff.

·       Hybrid moving – packing all of my items on my own then hiring someone like labor movers in Chicago to take my items from point A to point B with a load in and out.  Rating: nine out of ten if you have confidence in your own packing skills.  But you still have to pack and secure all of your items which, sorry to say, most of us are not experts at.  But I do love that I don’t have to think about the relocation of a couch, or mattress or my tv, but I always wonder if all of my alcohol, skincare and makeup are going to make that trip ok with my haphazard packing style so I would opt for the last choice.

·       Then there is the full Monty - hiring a licensed and insured moving company such as JC Movers & Lumper Service Inc  to pack and relocate your items can really save your sanity.  Rating: ten outta ten baby. Plus who doesn’t want to use a Better Business Bureau A+ rated company?  They can come in and pack up all of your items from my bottle of Aperol and the Axolotl squishmellow to Cassie’s Zoo Playmobile set and that Zombie face mask. 

After looking through all that JC Movers & Lumper Service Inc  offers I did note I may need to keep them in mind for when we are going to renovate the kitchen, or the bathroom, or if we decide to blow out the roof and add the second floor suite (I have some big dreams for our house).  They even can assist with packing and moving items into a POD or temporary/portable container during the construction period.  Yaaasssss!  I know my anxiety would be high so having someone to help is always a win.