Getting Help with Moving

You've decided to move. Whether you're moving because your family has grown and you need a larger house, or you're getting married and bought a home with your new spouse, or your kids are all grown and gone so you need to move to a smaller home, moving can be stressful, expensive, and time consuming. If you've a large network of friends and family, you can enlist their help. Even if your family cannot help you to move, you can ask for help from your church or community organization, or place an ad in the paper for help with moving. When recruiting help with moving, follow these guidelines:

• Make a list of everyone you think might be able to help with your move, and call them or visit them in person to ask the favor. If you have friends with teenagers, you might offer to pay them $20 each for a few hours' help the day of the move.
• Give your friends, family, or association members ample notice of your move date. Plan your move date for a weekend, if at all possible, since most people have weekends off from work and they will be more apt to commit to help if they do not have to take time off work.
• Make sure that everyone knows what time you are going to start, and give a possible end time. Send emails or make phone calls the day before the move. Email or call the day of the move to remind everyone of the start time.
• Make sure that you have the moving van there on time.
• Create an organizational flow chart, and assign different task to different people. If you've asked Bob to move all of the furniture from one bedroom, ask Chuck to move everything from another bedroom. You've already asked Karen in advance if her teenage sons can move packed boxes from the study, so keep them busy moving boxes until they are all on the truck. In other words, assign one person to one room, and have them move things out of the room until they are finished.
• Once you've gotten firm commitments from people, make sure that you start on time. You don't want people standing around waiting for you to tie up loose ends, so be courteous and make sure the day flows well.

You should supply everything needed to move; water, gloves, tape, markers, extra boxes, two-wheeled dollies, twine, soda, snacks, tools, and anything else you can think of that would be useful for a move. Remember, you want to keep the day flowing quickly, and you don't want to have to stop to send someone to the store to pick up this or that.