The Move

We are officially all moved in and residents of sunny Queensland.

The delay in posting may be a good indicator as to how busy, and as it turns out, rather stressful, the last few weeks have been.

We decided to do our own removal. After discovering that a one way truck hire came with a whopping $1300 fee, we decided that was not for us. Fortunately, my dad volunteered to hire the truck in Brisbane, drive it down to Newcastle, help us load, help drive it back to Brisbane and help us unload. This saved us paying the fee and we certainly needed his brute strength as we had a lot of things that I was unable to lift.

Just the beginning…

We were able to get some free boxes from a friend of Poopsie’s who recently moved. In the end, we only had to purchase one Port-a-Robe, four boxes and packing paper. Not too bad considering the amount of stuff we appear to have!

We packed in dribs and drabs over the last month, before doing a final burst the weekend before we were due to move.

It’s tiring work this packing thing.

To add to our stress, we offered to dog-sit for a friend during our final packing weekend.

Tuppence, the site supervisor.

Finally, we had everything packed and we were ready for my dad to arrive on Wednesday night. He did, at around seven o’clock. As he pulled into the driveway, I gave Poopsie a worried look. The truck looked very, very small.

When we hired the truck, we were told it would fit a three bedroom apartment into it. As we only had a two bedroom apartment and less stuff than the norm, we thought this would be fine. It very nearly was.

With Tetris skills to rival no other, Poopsie and my dad managed to pack the truck to its absolute capacity that night. Unfortunately, there was still a reasonable amount left over, certainly more than would fit in my car.

On Thursday morning, we sent my dad off to Brisbane in the truck, figuring we’d leave a couple of hours later and catch him. We didn’t end up departing until about four o’clock that afternoon.

We made arrangements to store the excess stuff at Poopsie’s friend’s house. Unfortunately, this was a forty minute drive away. So for each trip to drop stuff off, we lost about an hour and a half. In the end, Poopsie had to make three trips out there, which really ate into our day.

Finally, at four o’clock, we packed the car one last time and left Newcastle. We were tired, stressed and annoyed at ourselves. If only we had gotten a bigger truck, the move would have gone very smoothly, especially because it turned out my dad and Poopsie were very fast packers.

Fortunately, we had an uneventful drive and arrived at my parents house at approximately one o’clock in the morning. We quickly went to sleep but were up early the next day to drive the final one hour to our new house. My dad and Poopsie left in the truck.

About half an hour later, I was ready to depart in my car, but couldn’t find the car keys. I called Poopsie and we both realised he had them in his pocket. What else could possibly go wrong?!?!

Unpacking went fairly smoothly and we both love our new house. It was a public holiday on Monday here in Australia, so Poopsie borrowed his dad’s ute and trailer and drove back to Newcastle to collect the last of our stuff. He called me late on Monday night to tell me he couldn’t get the ute started again. He had stopped for petrol about four hours from Brisbane and it wouldn’t start again. As I know nothing about cars, I was unable to provide any practical advice, but somehow, while on the phone to me, the car started again.

Poopsie arrived home absolutely exhausted and we had a long morning of catching up on sleep. After unpacking the ute and trailer, we got ready to return it to his dad. It wouldn’t start.

Following a visit from roadside assist who couldn’t ascertain the problem, we ended up having to get the ute towed. Thank goodness it had got Poopsie home and he wasn’t stranded four hours away. The ute is currently in the process of being fixed.

Relaxing after the drama that was the move.

As you can see, it has been quite the whirlwind. We saved a fair amount of money by doing the move ourselves, but the stress was high. Mindful that we don’t ever want to become cheap, was the savings worth the stress? Yes, I think so. I have had stressful moves before where a company took care of everything. Indeed, this was more stressful, but I think in the end, it was all for the best. Poopsie and I got the opportunity to work together, to be stressed together and to problem solve our way out of an annoying situation.

Most of all, it meant we didn’t have to pay a $1300 one-way fee. I have gladly spent $1300 on many things before, but there is no way I can justify such a ridiculously high fee for something so simple as driving a truck one-way. I understand why there has to be a fee. But this high? This fee alone was almost twice what we paid to hire a truck for four days and drive it from Brisbane to Newcastle and back to Brisbane. So yes, to me, the stress was definitely worth it to avoid such a silly fee.

We are both so relieved it is over and that we’re in Brisbane!