Letting the movers unpack?

[amaristella]

Hi guys. I'm alive. I'm here in the new place, just me and the fur balls. It's been a stressful week but I'm happy to say that I managed a full night's rest and then some last night.

But on to the question, has anybody ever let the movers unpack their stuff instead of doing it on their own? Usually I do it myself and I'm really worried some small item wrapped in paper will accidentally get thrown away or that it will be a huge mess with only one of me to give directions and several of them bringing stuff in.

[pesci]

I am at my fourth base and have never had the movers unpack. I just have them put the boxes in the rooms they belong in. It's not fun to me, but I would rather do it myself.

[brandienee]

I let them do two rooms and it took me weeks to get them cleaned. Never again. They just unpack and leave it where the box was placed. I would rather go through the boxes myself and organize one box at a time. You will live in boxes for a while, but have the peace of mind that you can go through each box on your own.

[nsl]

Nope, I unpack everything myself.

[amaristella]

My reasoning was that I wanted to get the house in order before DH comes home from underway. That was supposed to be my special surprise for him. Maybe I'll get his car washed and detailed instead.

I'm also a little worried about disposal of the boxes and packing paper as I lack a dumpster here and I've noticed other people trying for weeks to get rid of their boxes with no takers. Maybe I'll just do like you guys said and make sure that all the boxes and items end up in the right room and call it a day.

[meltoine]

You can call them when you're done and they will come back and get the paper and boxes.

I made them unpack when we got to Egypt because the Egyptian moving company told me they wouldn't come back and get the boxes. They put random stuff everywhere and it took eleventy billion years to get it in the right spot. Never again. When we moved here I unpacked myself and called them to come get the paper and boxes 2 or 3 days later.

[amaristella]

Thanks Mel. I didn't even realize I could do that. I will definitely try although I'm not sure what they'll say. Summer moving season blah blah blah.
They acted like they weren't even sure how soon they could deliver my stuff then turned around and said they could deliver on the exact day I asked for with less than the 5 business days' notice that they said they needed.

[NomadicMama]

In the past, we've had them unpack the kitchen, while we stood there and took what they unpacked and put it away immediately. That way, you get one big set of boxes unpacked, and the kitchen is usable almost right away.

Good luck! Get his car washed, and put some good beer in the fridge--your DH will think you rock!

[brandienee]

I am sure that there is a recycling center on base you could take boxes to as you unpack. I did that once. I collected them as I went and when a room was done, I took them to the recycling center. It was like a small reward, seeing them go room by room.

[dancingpanda]

We have them unpack the kitchen, and some of the living room stuff usually. I don't have a problem with it. Plus, then I don't have to deal with the extra boxes. I usually just start putting stuff away while they are are unpacking or unloadning. The last move they unloaded, and I unpacked. They got tired of me coming out with boxes for them, but I needed the space to work and having ten billion boxes all over wasn't helping with the unpacking process.

[audette]

May 20, 2012 23:26:59 GMT -5 meltoine said:

You can call them when you're done and they will come back and get the paper and boxes.

Not always. When we moved here I asked for a number to call, and the movers told me that a pickup of packing materials was not included in the service package the military paid for for us. They stated very plainly that they would not come back to pick boxes and paper up.

I was fairly frustrated by that, but thankfully we have a major recycling center <2 miles away, so I did what I normally do - unpack and put all the collapsed boxes in the garage, and then one afternoon I spent the whole afternoon packing as many empty collapsed boxes into the car, and getting them to the recycling center. It took about a half hour for a full trip to pack the car, get there, unload into the appropriate bins, and return home for the next set.

[basilosaurus]

Of the 4 shipments to arrive in Hawaii, I think only 2 would come back for the boxes. I have no idea the difference.

As for unpacking, we had so much space in Japan it was easy for them to unpack and dump in piles. However, our place in Hawaii is much smaller, so I had to put things away as I unpacked. It took days (weeks). There was no room to just turn out boxes onto the floor. So, I did my best to unpack as they delivered the boxes so that they could take as much as possible, then I called them back a couple weeks later.

I also live in a condo, so our dumpster and recycling downstairs took the remnants of whatever was left. Our building manager just asked that we wait until the day before the pickup before crowding the trash room.