August 10, 2013
Last month, I moved from Atlanta to Chicago. Moving always sucks; that’s a universal constant*, but I think this one went better than most. I’ve compiled a list of what worked and what didn’t, and some notes on what to do better next time.
Sabrina and I planned the move and tracked our tasks on Trello.com. I have to say, the ability to put together dynamic kanban-style task boards on the fly really helped us keep everything straight.
We rented a 26" straight truck from Penske for this move. That’s a big truck, but I decided it’s better to have more truck than you need. It cost me less than $500 renting from Saturday - Wednesday, but what I neglected to consider was, on a move of that distance, I would need around 100 gallons of diesel fuel (right around $300-400).
Another consideration is height – the truck was specified at 12'7". That’s short enough to clear most bridges, but I did come across one 12'6" bridge in downtown Chicago.
Bridges aside, the Penske truck was comfortable and easy to drive. The AC worked great, and the stereo had an Aux input for my phone. It turned about as expected (surprisingly tight for a 30 foot truck), but it accelerated reasonably quickly and cruised comfortably at 70. I was concerned about a mountain in Monteagle, TN, but the truck made it up the grade easily when I dropped down to 5th, and I was never concerned about a runaway on the way down (again, engine braking in 4th or 5th).
It’s a long, long, long drive from Atlanta to Chicago. I made it better by listening to _A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments _by David Foster Wallace, purchased through Audible. Audible made it really easy to pick an audiobook based on length (I didn’t want to buy the 44 hour Song of Ice and Fire), and I actually turned to my Amazon recommendations for the book itself.
The first essay in A Supposedly Fun Thing, entitled “Derivative Sport in Tornado Alley”, is about DFW’s childhood in rural Illinois. It was interesting hearing his thoughts on the Illinois geography through the eyes of a child athlete.
Cardboard boxes suck.
Let me rephrase that: Poorly assembled, poorly packed cardboard boxes suck. A properly assembled and packed cardboard box will bear (most of) the weight of the box(es) above it without destroying your stuff. An over-packed cardboard box means that the weight of the boxes above it is now being supported by your stuff, and when you’re in frenzied packing mode, it’s really easily to get sloppy in assembling and packing.
There’s a company called Rent-A-Crate with offices in several major cities around the country. They’ll rent you these big orange crates for $3.50/crate/10 day period. They’re sturdy, they nest, they stack stably, and they kick ass. I discovered that 20 crates fit into the back of my station wagon – just. I rented 25, and wound up taking them back in batches of 15 and 10.
The only drawback (and some may see this as a positive) is that they force you to unpack your stuff, because you’re paying for the crates otherwise.
I used to live down the street from not one but two Home Depot stores. It was great being able to run to The Home Depot to pick up bubble wrap, tape, more boxes (caveat, see previous section), and even the big god damn truck.