10 Things I Learned During Our Third PCS

 

 

 

 

When we moved to Fort Bragg, it really wasn’t  a PCS.  It was two college sweethearts who had just gotten married and were throwing all of our clothes and 3 beat up couches into a UHAUL in a 48 hour period.

 

Our move to Fort Benning was a bit more classy.  A real moving company.  Real boxes and stickers.  A pregnant lady vomitting during the car ride down to Georgia.  (*waves* hi everyone).

 

So when our “third” move rolled around (which is really our SECOND official move), I was like: “piece of cake.”

 

And then we actually moved.

 

For the record, this is my overall 12th move.  As in the 12 days of Christmas kind of 12.  I’m an Army brat.  I’m a PCS veteran.

 

And apparently I’m an idiot.

 

The biggest “logistical” issue in this move was that we have two vehicles and I can’t drive either of them on the highway.

 

Like I said I’m an idiot.

 

I’m also an idiot with serious driving anxiety ever since we got in a super serious accident back in 2016 (both cars were in the accident, our 6 month old was covered in glass, our stroller was trapped in the trunk…the works).  Needless to say, my ambitions to drive on the highway kind of died in the accident.  Thank goodness, and I really mean it, that’s the only thing that died that day.

 

Back to PCSing…

 

The other big logistical “issue” was that we weren’t doing a door-to-door.  For anyone new to that term, basically we weren’t moving from one house into another.  We were moving OUT of one house, taking a 4 week break to be homeless, and then were moving IN to the new house.

 

And those 4 weeks weren’t optional.  (They never are).

 

So instead of our goods being loaded into a truck and LOCKED up, they were loaded into a truck with two other families’ goods, unloaded into a warehouse with who knows how many other families’ goods, and then reloaded onto a truck and then unloaded in our new destination.

 

You guys, adding an extra load and unload is a really big deal.

 

I think I’ve given enough of an introduction of this PCS to come right out and share the hard life lessons I learned during this PCS. Without further adieu…. I invite you to shake your head.

 

 

1. Stand Beside the Movers and Ensure They Pad your Furniture

 

This is coming from someone who will stay inside or turn off my phone completely if it will help avoid conflict.  I am NOT a bossy person by nature.  But I learned the SUPER hard way this move that “trusting” the movers to take care of your things the way you would naturally do it is a really bad idea.  If you see your furniture simply has a blanket draped over it, not secured, not folded, not tight– SAY SOMETHING.  I promise they won’t “pad it better” once it leaves your living room.  This PCS, anything with wood was utterly destroyed.  It was like our movers didn’t believe in covering wood.  I will never let that enormous dining room table slip under the radar again.  Don’t let it be you and your goods!

 

2. Look Under Your Furniture During the Final Walk-Through

 

Usually before your packing company heads home for the day, they ask you to approve that your house is indeed fully boxed so that movers can come the following day.   A non-confrontational person such as myself just kinda glances around the room I’m standing in going, “Wow, great job!!” and then thank them and say goodbye.  A SMART person, not like myself, will peek under the beds and couches to avoid having a landslide of items hiding under there with no box to put them in.

 

3. Disperse your Guilty-By-Association-Items

 

My first real PCS (last move), the packers didn’t even TOUCH anything if it was associated with something they weren’t allowed to pack.  Example: they opened my 3 cabinet vanity, saw shampoo in the front, and closed the cabinet and said it was “unpackable” items.  Which required my husband and I to bring (IN OUR CARS) boxes of TOTALLY packable items like empty soap dishes, toothbrush cups, hair brushes, etc.  So this time, I emptied our “unpack able” looking cabinets and dispersed the empty soap dishes etc. in places like the linen closet.  Totally worked and the items got packed!

 

4. The Packing Team and Moving Team Aren’t Always from the Same Company

 

And they don’t always get along.  Our packers were a totally separate company from our moving team.  The motto of our packers was, “unless its small, we don’t box it.”  And the motto of our movers was, “unless it’s in a box, we don’t move it.”  You can imagine the issues that arose.  In fact, the discrepancies were so big that the packers had to be called back the same day the movers were hauling stuff to “repack” some things.  Tension was high that day.  I knew there wasn’t anything we could do about it, but it was still an awkward situation.

 

5. Your Dates Might Be Flexible

 

I thought everything was set in stone and that there was no hope of altering our plans.  Our drop-off date was originally a Sunday.  Then they changed it to Monday.  I called and asked them to move it and they gave me two different options.  I thought I’d be pulling teeth just to get them to considerate it but they were more than happy to accommodate.  Lesson learned: just MAKE the phone call.  You never know til you try.  Same thing happened with our house.  We were told for two months that it wouldn’t be open until a Saturday.  I called and asked if we could have it earlier and they gave it to us 3 days earlier!  (It made a differnce)  MAKE THE CALL.

 

6. Sometimes Saving Everything is Worse

 

I am a packrat by nature (if you check out my Pinterest you will see my boards dedicated to minimalism.  I’m a work in progress!)  And I have this condition where I try to save things for later (it’s a condition from growing up as an Army brat I think).  But after “saving” everything and packing “extra” for our last two moves, this time I decided to go BARE BONES.  One bag of toys.  On small bag of clothes for each family member.  A tiny box of valuable jewelry.  The rest I just ENTRUSTED to the movers.  Yeah, it’s a little risky.  But traveling light (with two kids and a dog for three weeks) was actually really, really nice.  Even if I can’t conquer minimalism in my every day life, I think I can at least pull it out during PCS season.

 

 

7. Write it Down

 

As your items are being carried off the truck (or falling out of it if it’s in a shipping carton…lucky us), write down the issues you see.  When your mover refuses to carry something upstairs, you might make a mental note of “I’m totally going to tell the supervisor that my team was uncooperative!”  And then they straight up shatter your bedroom mirror right in front of you.  And then you realize you’re missing an end table.  The list goes on and on until you forget things you shouldn’t. Write it down there on the spot so when the dust settles and the paperwork comes out, you will have all your claims, complaints, and comments ready to file.

 

 

8. You Can Ask Them to Stop

 

If your move is going horribly wrong–things are getting dropped, unmarked, lost– (real moment here: our window was shattered), you can just issue a big STOP.  Tell the movers to stop everything.  Tell the packers to drop their tape.  Call your moving supervisor (the person who you coordinated the move with).  That supervisor can settle arguments amongst your teams (like when our packers and movers were fighting), and can send in reinforcements if things aren’t getting done on time.  Unfortunately, I didn’t know I should have done this until it was too late, too many things were broken, and items had already been lost.  But now I know, and so do you!

 

 

9. You Can Ask for Extra Empty Boxes

 

This is GREAT if you want to eek out an extra night in your house rather than a hotel.  Since your mattresses aren’t boxed up either, just ask them to leave a few empty boxes to stuff your bedding in the next morning.  (Hint: a great place to put any last minute items that you find lying around unboxed).  IMPORTANT NOTE: Make sure the boxes are labeled and stickered BY the packing company.  Otherwise they will be unmarked, unclaimed boxes and won’t make it to your final destination!!  Which brings me to my final point…

 

 

10. Double-Check EVERYTHING has a Sticker On It

 

Because this move, stickers were apparently optional.  (truth: stickers should NEVER be optional).  When my goods arrived, things without stickers came tumbling out of the truck.  Luckily, they were my things.  But unluckily for me, some of my unlabeled items just never made it.  The packers never stickered them.  The movers never notated them.  And I never got them. 🙁

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People like to say “3rd times the charm” but clearly that wasn’t the case with our third PCS.  Of course I know it could have been much worse.  Unfortunately, someone always has a worse PCS story.  (If you have a PCS horror story, share it below!)  One time, I heard someone’s couch was sawed in half in order to fit it through the door.  So I can’t complain.  But I can get out my paperwork and file a big stick of claims.  Which I think I ought to do right now….

 

*Check out the things I learned from my PCS before this one!*