Projects Moving tips! Need solid suggestions!

Forklift can be a lifesaver, but pack/stack/load on Pallets! There's a reason they are under all those loads taking up space and weight in heavy trucking!
A pallet jack too, if this is going in and out of a trailer.

 

Yes, a pallet jack would be great for an enclosed trailer. I was going to suggest buying one and reselling when done, but @MARKDTN already did that. Like he said, provides storage until ready to unload.

 

Ugh, I'll be moving soon once I close on the property, which should be in the next few weeks. I keep procrastinating the packing and boxing of the little things around the house and garage. I estimate I'll have 5 trips with my 18' open deck car trailer full of vehicles/parts/tools/equipment, and 1 trip with my friends 20' enclosed car trailer for the furniture.

I was hoping to be able to buy some land and build a big shop and it be my final and forever home, but with the current market it's just not possible for me. However, I did find a nice mid century ranch with a wrap around driveway and a garage out back in a nice neighborhood so it should work out for a bit.

 

Down to the last three days, movers are here to start packing and start loading.
I didn’t think that leaving this place would have such an emotional impact.
I love the mountains, and the small town we live in.
Lots of great memories from sixteen years here as well as an emptiness from dreams not finished, nor even started.
My wife, and the daughters and granddaughters, finally got me to realize that we weren’t getting any younger, but the clincher was the great granddaughter due in December will be named after my wife. That made it five to one, and I knuckled under.
See you in middle Tennessee soon!

 

Well it’s official.
We are at the new residence in Murfreesboro, TN.
The movers are unloading now.
As far as leaving East TN, “Parting is such sweet sorrow”. This area will never replace the East TN
mountains. It’s really going to take some gettin’ used to. SIGH!

 

Welcome to Middle Tennessee, we are in the flatlands of West TN. After you get settled and you get a wild hair, contact me and come for a visit, its only about two and an half hours from us.

 

I’ve been getting rid of “stuff” the last five years since my wife passed in 2020. Just after she passed I decided to take on another project. Ended up selling it two years later. The buyer made 4 trips (8 hrs each) to haul away everything. He had a pickup with trailer and and E350 van with a trailer. I learned then, only one project at a time. I plan on downsizing/moving within the next five years, and the plan is to take very little with me. When it’s time to move, that’s when you find out who your real friends are. lol!

 

Just read this and I believe the THP was checking out the width of your lift. Max width limit without a permit is 102". Over 102" you need a permit, wide load signs and flags at the widest points. I bet if you check the total width of the lift at the outsides of the base pads, you'll find you are over. Not to worry now that you've got it home, but just a word of warning for anyone else considering a move like that.

 

Congrats!

I'm about 50% packed up, myself. On Monday I'll start the back and forth of loading and emptying my 2 trailers over the next few weeks. Doing it all by myself, as usual. My new house is 200 miles away, so it's gonna be a challenge with a M-F work schedule.

 

Jeff, that is a spot on****essment! Its been, just 4 yrs since I retired and moved from Texas. I liquidated a lot of stuff before moving and it was still "an emotional and physical nightmare"...

 

The best thing (IMHO) is to start looking a while before you will put your house up for sale. Make the NUMBER ONE requirement that it has a large garage or shop. You will probably find that large shops are often a turn off for many (other) buyers wives and probably a little harder to sell. Remember, the general population of the US is not mechanically inclined and park their car in the drive or on the street. They have few or no tools. My grand daughter got married a couple years ago. Really nice guy and seems pretty intelligent. He had a wall plug quit working and was going to call an electrician...........
Anyway, a large shop is often a turn off for the average couple, they would rather have a larger house with lots of wasted space.

So start shopping in advance and make that large out building priority one. Then when you do move, you have a place to store everything until you can resort it all out and make a nice shop again. It seems that most people on here who move resign themselves ahead of time to not finding a place with a good shop. I have a reasonably new neighbor (3 years). He's about 40, is 5'1 and weighs less than a hundred lbs. We have become really good friends. He told me that the reason they bought the place across from my house was because of the large metal building behind it. (Used to belong to a guy with a large motor home) I think its maybe 50x50 with high ceilings. He has it full of cars . We found some pallet racking for a good price and put it along the back wall and made a really nice 10 ft work bench with a steel top in the rack. He just got a 2 post lift the other day and I unloaded it with my tractor and helped him and his brother stand it up and bolt it down. I promised him I would help him erect an overhead crane like the one we built at my son's house, using the lift as a support.

Oh, and my son did the same thing. Couple of disappointments when he thought he found what he wanted and didn't get it...........but something better always comes along. He loves the place he ended up with. Lots of acreage, a beautiful shop, and 3 other reasonably new metal buildings as well. You just have to look in order to find.


My son's shop already had this 2 post lift. We put the pallet rack up and built the crane. My neighbor wants his to be like this one.




My neighbor is living his dream because he refused to buy a house without a large shop. He's not rich, just determined........and I'm gonna help him. You won't find one if you resign yourself to not finding one. And because of our common interests we became good friends.

 

I would add that you need to check the area for zoning and a big one, electrical service.
If you are hoping/planning on 220V stuff and the infrastructure isn't there, a big building is not the big cost.

 

Recently finished moving 7.5 miles. I’d haul a pickup load every time I’d go over to the new house, lost track of how many loads. Had a towing company move my coupe an a tilt back, which was quicker than renting a trailer, loading and unloading. Final big stuff I moved in a U-Haul. Now I can start getting the shop set up and organized. Plan to get a lift eventually.

 

Well, we’re now officially residents. Movers finished up today.
Here’s a good example of 10 pounds inn 5 pound box. Wife said it couldn’t be done. HA! Take that! Right to the door, but it’s in. Of course no room to swing a cat, much less do any work. Time to line up a metal building guy for the addition.

 

Get a ton of 4-drawer or 5-drawer file cabinets for free or cheap off marketplace. There are often many available in cities. Load all the heavy miscellaneous stuff into them, then wrap with the stretch plastic. It goes easily onto a hand truck from the side, and is equivalent to having several stacked boxes that would likely collapse, tip over, or tear open by comparison. Plus when you get there, there's nothing to unpack. Just line them up against a wall wherever you want them and cut the plastic off.

I use "chalk writer" pens from the dollar store to label the drawers. Wipes off easy with windex when you want to reorganize.

 

I moved from my 1600sqft shop in California to North Texas. My main advice is PURGE!!!!! Get rid of all the 'stuff
you know you will likely never use. I left my 2-post lift, 5hp air compressor, for the new owner. Gave my steel and wood stashes to friends. Those can be replaced cheaper than moved in the final*****ysis. Then bite the bullet and pack everything possible into moving boxes and label them. I'd rather take a beating with a claw hammer than move again!!