Yet Another Moving Update

We moved in to our Texas home! We closed on our house last week. Everything is unpacked and organized – somewhat. So, our things have moved to Texas but we are back in Michigan – still at the mouse house.

I know, I feel crazy typing it out and explaining our situation. The house we purchased in Texas is a new build, the builders were right on schedule / ahead of schedule. The latest we could close was October even though we weren’t planning to move permanently until November based on my work schedule. Bryan and I decided to make the most of this timeline. So, the two of us drove down, closed on our house and moved in without the kids. It was amazing to be able to unpack and get organized without having to chase toddlers around.

It is so surreal now to think about all of our belongings in a new house – especially a new house 17 hours away. The next 26 (who’s counting anyway) days will go by so fast but as I have said before I really wish this transition period wasn’t quite so long! I already felt so displaced and now that’s just been amplified.

Luckily, our kids have done so, so amazing with this period. I started to feel really guilty once we moved out of our last house but the kids are truly so resilient. We do have a decent amount of the boys’ toys, books, plates, cups and silverware here. Their familiarity with material items helps a ton with their feeling comfortable in this new space. Occasionally, our oldest will tell us he misses the old house. When that happens, I try to show him pictures of the new house and reassure him we will be there soon. I’m so excited for him to see it in person.

The Unpacking with U-Pack

Overall, the actual moving process has been so smooth. As you may recall, we hired U-Pack, a moving pod company. The pods we had previously packed up were delivered to our new house on the same day we closed. We had no issues with this delivery. The pods show up on a big semi truck and the driver unloads them individually with a small fork lift. He placed them right in our driveway. U-Pack also provides info on local moving companies. We hired movers ahead of time to meet us to unpack the pods. A local company provided 3 guys – they kicked butt. They unpacked all of our pods in 2.5 hours!

The only thing I would say is we could have packed up / protected some of our items a little better. Our dressers and a few other pieces of furniture were pretty beat up with this move. Moving blankets may have been beneficial. We used some but not enough. Our items were in these pods for 30 days. I think that length of storage, combined with how they were packed (to the max!) contributed. I’ll take these minor damages though for the peace of mind that came with using U-Pack. For the last month, we knew our belongings were locked in pods and only we had the keys to get into them. Each pod had a padlock on it that we had to provide.

I had read so many horror stories of moving companies online – keeping things hostage, losing items, breaking things etc. The experience we had was relatively painless and stress-free! I will say, I have absolutely no desire to do a move like this again anytime soon. I hope we like Texas!

My Moving Tips…A Running List

Consider U-Pack for a cross country move.

Buy all the moving blankets and padding, protect your stuff!

Try to avoid any lengthy transition period.

Ship your cars – or embrace the adventure of a road trip (we did the latter).

Comment below if you have any good moving tips!