Moving stories

A friend on Facebook recently asked for recommendations for moving companies because he was moving his family from this area to London (Ontario, not England). His request reminded me of our last couple of moves. Since the last one was to this great neighbourhood I thought I’d write a short entry about them.

We lived in Hamilton for several years and after spending time in the west end, near the university I attended, we bought a house downtown on Wentworth street. It was really cheap and pretty decent. So we decided to hire movers instead of roping in all our friends. I looked through all the ads and listened to horror stories told by friends (one friend had hired a large “reputable” company who arrived several days late with their truck, somewhat inconveniencing his family who had no furniture, dishes etc. in their Ottawa apartment). So we hired “Father and son” movers because it sounded like we’d get that genuine family attention. Ha! When they arrived I asked if they were part of this “family” and the head moving guy said “well, I’m a father, and I’m a son, but I don’t have any relationship to the owners”.

We’d hired three movers and it was a good thing I was the fourth because they were not exactly professional. They were guys who got hired to move things rather than “movers”. They complained about the weight of some things and I had to show them how to get one of our bookcases over the back balcony. The “lead” guy spent all his time taking things apart to fit into their one trailer. I was really surprised they did not have a big 26 foot truck like this one:

I was able to continue carrying boxes when they had their smoke and coffee breaks. So that was a pretty frustrating move and it was only from one end of town to the downtown area!

When we moved to Kitchener we got some good advice from the agent who would rent out our Hamilton house after we left. She said to pack up everything in the basement first and take it as a separate load because we’d never miss it, and that was true. A friend and I moved the stuff in a cube van and it wasn’t too hard (and we are still friends on Facebook!). And she said that instead of getting “movers” she knew some guys who needed money and would move things for us. In fact, I found out that “guys who need money” are far better than many so-called “movers”! They didn’t complain and were fairly energetic. The most polite and mature member of our 3-man crew had just been released from jail and seemed to be a decent guy.

I rented a 26 foot truck and drove it from Hamilton to Kitchener which was pretty interesting since it took up the entire lane. The final move took about 8 hours (the time frame for which I’d rented the truck) and we are still here after 12 years! I hope we don’t have to move again because, as everyone knows, it just gets harder and more complicated.

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