Moving Tips I WILL Remember Next Time!

Next time we move (which I hope is not for a few years! Did you hear that, Mr. Navy Detailer?!), I need to remember a few things. So for posterity (and sanity's) sake I am going to record them here:

1. WATCH Mr. Packer and MAKE SURE he labels each box in detail. Do not be deterred when he tries to get rid of you by insisting that he has worked for the packing company for 110 years, is a veteran of two wars and promises with his hand over his heart that he will label your boxes correctly. DO NOT BELIEVE HIM!!! No matter how much he looks like your husband's Uncle Bill or whatever. If you believe him then you deserve to find your cookware in the box marked "HOMESCHOOLING SUPPLIES".
2. Hold on to your pots, pans and utensils until the end and pack them in the last box yourself. Then label it clearly "LAST BOX ON<>
3. Put the kids' bike helmets in the FIRST BOX OFF, because they WILL get bored and want to go explore their new neighborhood as soon as Mr. Unpacker gets their bikes put together again.
4. Don't let the unloaders stack boxes 10-high in a dark corner of the garage where you can't read them and you have to unstack the whole thing to get to the one with the bike helmets:<
5. Insist that the unloaders also stay and unpack EVERYTHING and carry off every box and piece of wrapping paper with them when they go. Yes, I know they will look surprised, they will go super slow hoping you will get fed up and tell them to go home, they may even tell you a sad story about missing their 3 year olds birthday party. Dont buy it. The military pays them good money to stay and unpack every single box and even put it where you tell them to. Don't get short changed, even if you dont have a place to put all of it right away. Just stack it against the wall. At least it will be out of the confounded box and the box (and all the paper) will be their job to get rid of! I repeat "DON'T GET LEFT WITH ALL THE BOXES AND PAPER!"
6. Don't take lip from the truckdriver/unloaders about how they cant carry stuff to the attic or they can't put the dishes up in the cabinet, they just have to leave them on the counter. This is a clever ploy to make you so disgusted that you will send them all away. Instead, just smile and call the number for the military Liason who has been assigned to your move. Let them handle it. Soon, your stuff will be in the attic and your dishes will be in the cabinets:>
7. Don't feed the movers (on either side) PIZZA. Be creative. Everyone gives them pizza.
8. Give them a big tip - both packers and unpackers. If they do the job they are supposed to do, these guys work HARD. They deserve it.
9. Be prepared to spend a LOT if not ALL of your dislocation allowance (and most of what you thought you "saved" by eating bologna sandwiches and staying in cheap motels on that cross country drive).
10. Moving is expensive. Actually, its the getting settled that costs so much. A new house always means new spaces to fill and new storage needs to accomodate. It also means new curtains when your new house has 20 windows and your old house only had 10.
11. I don't know why, but moving always means a new bookshelf or two.
12. It also means eating out longer than you thought because: Mom did not follow advice #1.) or #2.) on this list. She failed to insist that her cookware be packed in the FIRST OFF box because she THOUGHT that the packer was correctly labeling each and every box. Sigh...So by the time she rifled through twenty two boxes labeled only "K-ware" (the pots and pans were, of course in box #22 with the beach towels), well, Mom was too darned tired to cook anything! So be prepared to eat out a few extra times.
13. I can't think of another one. But I'm sure I will in about 30 months...Thank you Uncle Sam.