First Move: I’m so excited!

I was about to shake off the dust of my small Ohio town and head out to see the world! I was so excited!  I’d just graduated from college, become engaged to a Naval officer, and we were leaving Ohio to start our lives in the exotic (and warm!) San Diego, California.  The world was my oyster!  The biggest challenge (other than planning the wedding, that is) was to get all our worldly possessions from point A (my house) to point B (my fiancé’s house three hours away, and from whence the military move would originate) to point C (our very first apartment in Imperial Beach, California.)

     We didn’t have much; a few suitcases of clothes and books; an antique Jenny Lind bedroom set from my Aunt’s estate; and various and sundry bridal shower gifts that would enable me to set up housekeeping in our new home, far far away. 

I personally drove the stuff from point A to point B, wherein I enjoyed yet another bridal shower, oohed and ahhed over the gifts, then left everything there for the movers to pick up and transport.  While there was a list made (for purposes of thank-you-note writing) I didn’t spend more than a few seconds with each item, hence had only a vague recollection of all the wonderful gifts we’d received.

Now, fast forward from the wedding to the newlyweds unpacking the boxes in their new apartment in sunny San Diego.  We found a place for everything, and put everything in its place. After about three hours all the empty boxes had been discarded, and we proclaimed ourselves officially “settled.”

No more excuses to eat out, I was excited to show off my cooking skills to my new husband. I’d cook his favorite Linguine with Clam Sauce and home-made garlic bread. When it came time to slice the Italian bread, I reached for a serrated knife out of the butcher block holder that Aunt Irene gave us as a gift.  Hmmm…no knives on the counter.  Where would I have put those knives?  I looked in every cabinet (all three of them—it was a very small starter apartment.)  No block of knives to be found. Come to think of it, I didn’t remember ever seeing them come out of the box.  Ahhh, husband must have unpacked ant put them in a place that seemed logical to him.

“Honey?  Where did you put the knife set?” I asked.

“I didn’t see any knife set.”

“But I know we got one!” I’d written a thank-you note for the knives, and I remembered unwrapping them and exclaiming how perfect they would be in my new home.  But they were not in my new house.  Hmmm….

So the great search began.  An hour later, still no knives.

“I guess they were lost in the move,” husband said, with the authority of someone who had been through many military moves (which he hadn’t.)

“What, are you saying boxes fall off moving mans while driving across the country?” I asked.

“I don’t know how it happens, it just does.  I’ve heard lots of guys talk about it.”

How? 

Well, I soon learned people with not much stuff (such as us) share a moving van with other people who also don’t have much stuff in order to save the government money.  Sometimes a box gets shoved into a corner of the van and ends up in another person’s house.  Sometimes said box doesn’t get put on the truck in the first place so the follow-on tenant gets an unintended “house-warming gift.”  Sometimes not all of the moving company employees are honest. Stuff disappears.

Over the course of the next few weeks we realized other items were missing:  a deviled-egg platter (from best friend Amy), my new mixer (from college roommate Kim), stainless steel nesting bowls (Aunt Gail) and, well, you get the picture. 

So a box that was filled with brand new, never used items went missing?  Curious that, huh?

We chalked it up to Military Move Lesson #1:  Take a thorough inventory of all one’s worldy belongings.  And when I say “everything” I mean “EVERYTHING”. Open cabinets and snap pictures of contents.  Same for closets, drawers, shelves, and don’t’ forget the attic and garage. If you think about it, do the same for holiday decorations while your halls are decked for the season.

This pictorial inventory comes in handy when you need to describe something that went missing in a move but is also important when,  gawd forbid, there is another type of disaster (think hurricane/fire/etc).  Insurance companies can’t argue with pictures. 

In the “old days” we stored the pictures at a relative’s house (what were the odds of both suffering major disaster at the same time?) but now you can simply upload to a “cloud.”(Don’t think for a second I understand the cloud concept, but I’ve heard the word enough to think I’ve used it in the proper context.) 

Over the course of the next 18 military moves, we had lots of things get broken or go missing, and the pictures saved us a lot of hassle in collecting the moving claim.

I’ve got lots more stories to tell and lessons to share.  So, until next time…

Happy Moves to You!