My family moved when I was 14, didn't hire movers, it was a nightmare. By that point I'd stopped reading comicbooks, just about, and my mother put my boxes of comicbooks in the trash pile. It was by accident that I saved them.

My wife and kids and I moved some eight years ago, hired movers, and it was pretty smooth. Nothing broken except a lamp that *I* busted when my wife insisted it's fragility could not be trusted to the movers. Oh well...

One time when we moved from Massachusetts to New Brunswick the moving company misdirected our items to Alberta. Not sure how that happened. But we were without many items for almost 2 weeks before they got the situation corrected. Luckily I was 17 and I kept my stereo system in my car when we moved. So at least I was able to rock out during the wait! 

Hopefully your move goes well. Best of luck with the change too. 

 

I rented and drove the moving truck which was about 25 feet long. That alone was an adventure.

Now, what helped with the stress is that family was helping and half were male and the other half female.

The males did the heavy lifting and the females did the assembling and unpacking. My wife was the headmaster: "this goes in the bedroom" "That goes in the kitchen", etc.

So that, the only boxed items left after I returned the truck were my books. They're still unpacked, by the way.

The big secret is just that, assemble, unpack, and store away immediately as items get into the house. An even bigger secret is involving as many females as males. If the move had been carried out by an all-male team, 95% of my stuff would still be in boxes, not just my books.

And the first thing I would have unpacked would have been the beer!!!