Moving by Myself
Posted on April 8, 2010
People have always complained about how hard moving was but I was always one that did not understand how that could be true. I laughed at those people that paid moving companies to do what anybody could do. When I was ready to make the move from New Jersey to Charlotte, North Carolina I naturally figured that I could manage to move my entire studio apartment on my own. I drive a SUV so I figured that moving my tiny apartment would be a breeze.
On moving day I was excited to get going but had not begun packing yet. Once I started packing I had come to find out that I had owned a lot more than I previous thought and a lot of my stuff was larger than I anticipated. The size of my apartment was not that big of a deal because the way I saw it nothing was going to stop me from finishing this job. After packing everything into moving boxes, my apartment looked like a shipping yard littered with boxes and packing supplies.
The more I loaded the more my big sports utility vehicle started to feel smaller and smaller. Eventually the boxes barley left any room my furniture. I had already committed to moving myself so I decided to tie my furniture to the top of my car, I was only able to fit my mattress and box set but had manage to squeeze my computer in the passenger seat. At this point I started becoming frustrated because I was not up for making two trips so I decided to rent one of those moving trucks with the flat rates. After adding up all of the fees the insurance and a vehicle hitch it was revealed that there was nothing flat about the cost of renting a moving truck but at this point I had no other choice.
Once my furniture was loaded onto the truck and my vehicle was hitched onto the back of the truck it was finally time to get moving. Nothing could prepare me for how badly the truck ran or the condition of the cab. Driving was always easy to me but after spending most of the day hauling my belongings back and forth it was starting to feel like a nightmare trying to stay awake.
Amazingly enough the truck made the trip just fine but the vehicle hitch had gotten a flat which had me hours off schedule not to mention the fact that I was completely unfamiliar with the Charlotte area. After finally reaching my destination I was too tired to unload anything and decided to wait for the following morning to finish.
It was time to return the rental truck but the return location was near impossible to find so it was returned late with less gas then I had picked it up. The truck company had a policy that stated the flat rate was intended for customers traveling under a certain amount of miles so I had to pay extra.
While waiting for my final receipt another customer sympathetically leaned over and asked if this was my first time moving as if he already knew what I had gone through. He said that the locals here use American Van Lines Charlotte moving services and that he only stopped by to pay a previous balance. He went on to explain how this moving company had nationwide locations and that they do all of the packing and unpacking for you.
My face was red with regret at the fact that I had not even considered using a professional mover and was now literally paying the price. Trying to move myself was not one of my brightest ideas. From now on I’m going to leave moving to the professionals. I had damaged my computer by trying to squeeze it into my car, scratched the finish on my car trying to tie furniture to the roof and had spent a lot more money on moving than I had originally planned. As the saying goes you live and you learn. Now I know better.
