RE: http://www.military.com/opinion/0,15202,169451,00.html

Sarah, that article was hilarious! And so true. I have found many times the packers packed trash cans full of trash. Lovely, huh?!

This past move was interesting. I have all my Christmas decorations in many rubbermaid boxes. The packers, unpacked every single Christmas decoration out of my rubbermaid boxes and repacked them in cardboard boxes. They then stacked all the rubbermaid boxes and taped them together with packing tape. I didn't realize they did this until I was unpacking at our new location. I had to unpacked all the boxes with my Christmas decorations (because of course, they were packed with other miscellanous items)and repack back into the rubbermaid boxes! Moral of the story...watch the packers very carefully!

I could go on and on but we all have been there and done that. Thank you for the laugh!

Totally agree! lol....this was absolutely hysterical!
My folks were just here this past weekend, and my dad happened to see our stickers that I hadn't taken off yet. This sent him and my mama down memory lane, telling us how some of the tables and dressers still had stickers on them after our final move. There were stickers of all colors on some incon****uous spot--usually the backside--and that they just never took them off because it showed how many times they'd moved over the years.

Yesterday I discovered that the movers had packed our landlords' toilet seat and sent it with us! lol....I now have a box of things to send back to our old landlord since some of the things are not ours....

Hmmmm, I posted a reply here a couple days ago and it didn't get released.

BAW, those stickers are a pain. Our PCS was 7 months ago and I am still taking them off things.

Ohhh, the stories of the moves.....lol

LOL ~~ Girlie you a hillarious. I bet having a few glasses of wine with you would be a night to remember!

I myself have also fallen victim to the trash in the trash can move. The last time I allowed those giants to pack all of my stuff, I ended up unpacking a box that included the following: frisbee; baseball glove; 2 video game controlls; a paper plate; crumpled napkin; and of course the half eaten PB&J. Oh and did I mention the juice box that exploded? That was the last time I allowed them to do that to me. Anything I felt I didnt want thrown into a hole I packed myself. Which left, um the towels. No I went my route and packed pretty much everything myself. I've gotten it down pretty good to. The last three moves I do the following.

Step 1: Have my kids, and myself, take everything that has not been used in three months and put it in a pile in the living room. That is the garage sale/donation pile. That usually eliminates a good amount of stuff believe it or not.

Step 2: I create an entire meal plan from the day I found out about the move until a week after I move. Sometimes this is 2 weeks or two months. Trust me it helps relieve SO much stress.

Step 3: Make a list of what is going in the car. If it's not going in the car. It's going in the box.

Step 4: Go to grocery stores and craigslist.org looking for boxes. Free boxes = happy hubby. Although last time I couldnt find enough and bought them from some place called usedcardboardboxes.com. they give military discounts by the way.

Step 5: Pack anything that means anything to me. Although the thought of leaving boxes unopened in the garage would make things easier, I really am trying to keep some sense of stability for my kids. This means I have EVERYTHING unpacked within a week. This is not for the faint of heart. This means I get about 20 hours of sleep in a 120 period. But when I am done it is so worth it. Only once did I regret it.

Step 6: Make an itemized inventory. This is extremly important when it comes to those things that make a detour in the middle of your trip.

Once I have all that done, I am in pretty good shape. These moves are a busy time, but this little plan has really helped keep the stress level down. Organization is key. The more organized you are, the less likely the trained gorillas will mess things up. :-)

My husband had just gotten married right before we were going to be sent to UPT. We thought it best just to keep all the gifts in their original boxes and packing for the move. It was our first move and we didn't exactly know how carefully they packed so we packed most of our own stuff. They told us they couldn't just put a sticker on our boxes even though we assured them everything was secure. They took our labeled and packed boxes and wrapped them and then put them inside of their boxes and re-labled them.
I remember how fun it was to unpack at our first PCS. It was like Christmas. It really only took about 3 hours. We were newlyweds with nothing. In 6 months our next PCS took about 6 hours. In another 6 months it took an entire day. And in another 6 months it took a week-it wasn't that exciting anymore.