It’s Moving Day
Jun 25th, 2007 by Dan Standeven
One of my biggest pet peeves is helping people move, but even worse is helping people move that aren’t even close to being ready. Now I realize that it is a big chore to pack everything and get ready, but don’t put the burden on your friends and family, they have already given up a day of golfing to help you out. I have lived in the same city for 5 years and in the first 2 years that I lived here I helped 12 people move, some of them twice. Since then I have become very choosy, I have helped maybe 2 people. Now on average that is 1 move every 2 months, and really most people move in the summer so the ratio is even more often. I can tell you that maybe 25% of these people were organized enough where all we had to do was pick up furniture and boxes and put them on a truck. I have also witnessed the extreme case where nothing has been done and the people brought into help end up packing, cleaning and spending their entire day moving someone else’s stuff. I guarantee there won’t be coffee plans anytime soon. I could go on forever about this; I’m just saying have some consideration for your friends when you ask them to move. They are your friends and they will help you, so make sure you’re prepared and don’t make them do anything more than they have to.

It may be time to crack down and start going the fee for service route. You should at least get a frozen pizza and two beer for all the work!
You’re right. These days instead of fee for service, I just provide no service. Really what does it cost to get movers, when you consider getting all your friends to help, renting a truck and then providing dinner and beer at the very least, not to mention all the work you have to do.
I’ll never forget the time I helped a friend to move. His preparation consisted of buying 50 refuse sacks. He hoped just to shove everything in the bin bags. His plan failed when they split open with lots of heavy books in.
I know what you mean, I have tons of horror stories like that.