The Big Storage Unit Move

September 15, 2017

Today was our big move, getting lots of our boxed items transferred from our second floor over to a storage unit. Our goal is clear out our second floor as much as we possibly can, so that we can start to do more significant work on the floor and walls in the master bedroom, guest bedroom, and (eventually) our front office.

For movers, Liz researched several companies that had gotten strong reviews in the Chicago area. We went with Pack-Men movers, and I cannot recommend them strongly enough.

We had a three man crew (Miguel, Roberto, and Elvis) who really powered through things. Starting at around 9:30 AM, I want to say that they moved out about 90% of all our things within an hour. It was amazing to watch.

The room, half-cleared.

The truck was pretty packed, and all three guys had to shift things around to close the truck door.

Starting the packing in the storage unit. Miguel was the lead for the project, and did all the masterful Tetris work to get our boxes packed in.

A steady stream of boxes. As Liz and I were standing nearby, we’d sometimes pull off some boxes (marked in tape) for storage near the front. But mostly, I was just watching in awe. And wondering just what in the heck we had, in all those boxes. And were they even necessary?

The wall of boxes, growing.

Hanging out. We’d sometimes try to help ferry flatbeds and hand carts, to/from the elevator. But mostly, we just watched as Miguel did all the work.

A small set of sewing/knitting project boxes, dubbed “the essentials.” These would be kept near the entrance, for easy access.

Standing in line, in wait to get stored.

The majority of our boxes in, we had a good little bit of space, near the front. As we were doing our packing prior to the move, we started to get concerned as to the amount of stuff we had, and whether our 10×12 unit would hold everything.

It had felt a little tight, but ultimately we did have room to spare. So yay, to us avoiding packing this thing like a Tokyo train pusher.

Liz, taking a break and looking up at all our “stuff.”

The storage unit, full with everything including the essentials boxes. And our suitcases.

Funny story: Liz looked at an old tag on the suitcase, and wondered if we should remove it. Her thought was that she didn’t want someone to find out our address, if they happened to break into the unit.

On reflection, we both realized that if someone broke into our unit… there would really be no need to come to our house and steal things. Because pretty much all our stuff would be here!

We left the tag on.

Back at home, the guest room and office are really opene no. I decided to keep the tennis racket I had in high school, because no matter the setbacks, I’m still considering a pro run in the near future.

It’s been a long, long while since the rooms have looked like this.

The main office, all clear.

Looking at the bare floor again, I was reminded specifically of this day. It really has been a long while since this area has been clear.

Looking back towards the fireplace. Truly amazing how open things are now.

In the coming weeks, we’ll be setting up shop in here, turning this room into our staging area. Imagining we’ll be bringing up a lot of items from the basement, up here.