Moving Day Anxieties

Submitted by Sherry Nguyen on 10/03/2020

Moving from one place to another causes worries in all of us, whether you might be a high school graduate going to be on their own in a college dorm, or a old married couple finally moving to the place of their dreams. We always worry if we had forgotten anything while packing, or if can we bring everything we want to in our new place. My own family is moving this summer from one state to another, which is something we’re excited to do, but it does feel sad to leave a house that my family has lived in for at least twenty years.

There are many things that we’re excited and worried about in moving to our new state. I’m personally excited to see my family more often, and to attend a college with cheaper tuition than the one in my current state, but I’m worried about the moving process. I have a lot of things that I consider valuable, or things that I’ve put a lot of my own money towards, and I’m worried about possibly losing these items in the middle of moving between states. My parents decided on using a shipping container to store our belongings, and we’ve already started packing our things in boxes. A shipping container seems to be safe, since it’ll have a lock on it, and it would be sturdy, but somehow, I keep thinking of worst-case scenarios when it comes to moving. My worries range from realistic (my parents’ boxes being heavy and crushing my boxes, damaging my stuff inside) to unrealistic (the boat carrying our container sinking into the ocean).

Since we have to choose a reliable and safe company to carry our stuff, I also have worries that we might find a company that seems like at good company at first glance, and sign up for them, only to find out that they didn’t do good service at all, or worse, it’s a scam company and they now have all of our belongings. Moving made me realize the importance of being careful when choosing trustworthy, reliable companies to move your stuff for you, because having all your belongings in the care of another person, even for a short while, can be a distressing time.

My dad wants to bring his car along with him to our new home. My parents and I right now, live in Hawaii. This state is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and there isn’t (unfortunately) a bridge connecting the islands to the mainland, so we can’t exactly drive my dad’s car to our new state. We’re going to need a reliable and low-cost vehicle shipping company to help us with this problem. Companies who offer safe & reliable vehicle shipping need to be inspected and researched thoroughly so that you don’t end up falling for a scam. A good way of seeing the reliability of a company is to read reviews from other people. The website for A-1 Auto Transport, for example, shows glowing five-star reviews and testimonials from satisfied customers. But it’s not enough to look at reviews on their website, since they could easily create fake reviews (not saying that A-1 is doing this). It’s important to see reviews from multiple sources. A quick google search can show that A-1 Auto Transport has a 4.2/5 on Google Reviews, and that seems like a pretty good score to me. Being picky and carefully choosing a company won’t make all your worries go away, but it can lift some weight from your shoulders.

Another thing about moving that people think about, but not as often as the moving of belongings, yet is just as important, is your relationships with friends and family in the place that you’re moving from. It’s important to spend as much time as possible with these people since you won’t be able to see them as often as you do now. If you’re moving soon, and you still haven’t gone to places with your friends that you guys wanted to go to, take this chance to go and create memories before it’s too late. If you leave your old home without properly saying goodbye to those who are close to you, you may spend the rest of your life wondering about the things you could’ve done when you were still there. If you think there isn’t any time between

now and your moving date to see any friends, an easy way to meet with friends in this stressful period is to invite them to help pack boxes with you. You’ll go through various items from your past that you can reminisce about with your friends. It’s not the most exciting thing to do with your friends, but it’ll help speed up packing, you’ll be able to talk to your friends for hours about various topics, and you’ll always remember who helped you pack your boxes. Often, friends will grow apart over time, and even quicker so if they are far apart. You may not be friends in the future, but at least you’ll have good memories and experiences that you’ll cherish for life.

It’s also important that you look at your lists of costs and try to cut corners wherever you can afford to. It might seem strange, considering that moving is a long and somewhat complicated process, but you’ll need as much money as you can when you first arrive to make it easier to settle into your new home. You can’t skimp out on choosing moving companies, but you can cut costs in smaller ways, such as packing the moving truck yourself (instead of paying employees to do it for you), or (if you were moving state to state) driving yourself to your desired location so that you wouldn’t need to buy an airplane ticket.

In conclusion, the process of moving is stressful, painful, time consuming, and money sucking. But if you do things properly and carefully, while also looking at every possible option you have, you can make it easier for yourself. Though, while I say all these things, I still have worries and anxieties about my moving, but I think as long as I do everything to the best of my ability, I should be all right.

Submitted by Sherry Nguyen on 10/03/2020