A quick question about movers

[SteveinMN]

This is what friends are for! You cant pay us enough!

Years back, my first wife and I helped another couple move. Talk about expectations: when we arrived (along with other couples we knew), the rented van already had in it (most of) a small car. It was a restoration project he would get to somedaymaybe. It had arrived in that condition year earlier when they moved in and it was leaving the same way. I'm glad we weren't around to have to move that into the van. We were there, however, long enough to move several business-grade steel file cabinets of mostly-outdated brochures and other ephemera from their basement (no culling done before we arrived) and a big chest freezer which was full of food and still plugged in (in the belief that, kept intact, it would keep the food frozen for the couple-day journey to their new place). While I was helping the other guys wrestle file cabinets into the moving van, though, my wife went to help the wife of the couple empty out their bedroom -- and was very surprised (and quite embarrassed) to find the drawer in which the couple stored all of their -- umm -- toys. A move to remember -- and a promise to never have a place unready like that when we moved.

[Miss Cellaneous]

I’ve heard of movers even packing up a trash can full of paper!

Growing up in a military family, we moved a lot. The running joke was that you needed to empty your kitchen garbage can before the movers arrived, because once they had packed someone's garbage! And by the time the moving van arrived at the new home, everything in the van stunk to high heaven.

Getting back to the OP's question, the moves we made--the movers came in and packed everything and loaded it all into the van. My parents would pack what the family needed to survive during the move and put that in the car and lock the car. Because there was this one time when all the suitcases were loaded into the van, despite the fact they were all in a closet and the closet had a huge sign on it saying "Do not touch. Nothing in here gets moved." Once the movers get started, if they know everything is going, they just don't stop.

One thing to consider is breakables. Check with the moving company--my parents were told that if they packed the china and glasses, the moving company would move it, but if anything broke the moving company would not be liable, because they didn't pack it. And stuff does get broken on moves, no matter how careful the movers are. In the military, the saying was, "Three moves is as good as a fire," for destroying your stuff. I wouldn't go that far, but it did seem as if something got broken with every move. One time it was my bike.

[Quade Keller]

Though the thread is old but is somewhat ok to share experience of how I was thinking of permanently shifting from Gulf to US. We were living in the Emirates back in 2009 and had to move on urgent basis. We had compiled a list of movers and packers in Ajman using references, browsing and multiple other sources but I can tell you that it is not easy to move from one country to another provided you hire a professional people who know their jobs, and are dedicated in their stuff.

[Quade Keller]

Growing up in a military family, we moved a lot. The running joke was that you needed to empty your kitchen garbage can before the movers arrived, because once they had packed someone's garbage! And by the time the moving van arrived at the new home, everything in the van stunk to high heaven.

Getting back to the OP's question, the moves we made--the movers came in and packed everything and loaded it all into the van. My parents would pack what the family needed to survive during the move and put that in the car and lock the car. Because there was this one time when all the suitcases were loaded into the van, despite the fact they were all in a closet and the closet had a huge sign on it saying "Do not touch. Nothing in here gets moved." Once the movers get started, if they know everything is going, they just don't stop.

One thing to consider is breakables. Check with the moving company--my parents were told that if they packed the china and glasses, the moving company would move it, but if anything broke the moving company would not be liable, because they didn't pack it. And stuff does get broken on moves, no matter how careful the movers are. In the military, the saying was, "Three moves is as good as a fire," for destroying your stuff. I wouldn't go that far, but it did seem as if something got broken with every move. One time it was my bike.

A kind of similar experience.