The Panel Cart
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” * * DANGER — CLEANING SUPPLIES * * “
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This box shows the problem. A leaky, soapy mess! Often home cleaning fluids will leak right through the box and into the load. Imagine the consequences if the leaky box happens to be sitting on top of say, a leather sofa standing on end! With this particular box, we fortunately identified it as leaking and put it outside in the straw, so it could harmlessly drain. The box was meant to go in the customer’s new basement, and it would not have been nice if it had leaked all over their new basement floor. But the box traveled in the load to the new destination. So it was only pure luck that the box didn’t leak during transit and cause significant damage!
For interstate moves, there is an outright ban on putting cleaning fluids in the load. And it is usually easy for the customer to understand. Bottles of cleaning fluid cannot be bouncing around somewhere in the load for hundreds or thousands of miles. But for local moves it is trickier, since the customer will not think twice about putting cleaning supplies on their truck when doing a Do-It-Yourself-Move in say, a U-Haul. When a Mover tells the Customer the cleaning supplies cannot go on the truck, even when the truck is only going a few miles, the Customer may not be happy. The Customer may not have room in his car trunk, and may not want to make an additional trip back just to get the cleaning supplies!
Since I am always trying to please the customer if-at-all-possible, I have struggled to find a safe way to move their cleaning supplies on the back of the truck. My imperfect algorithm is as follows:
When the Loader sees a box of cleaning supplies approaching the truck–he should immediately remove that box and put it outside and beside the truck. You may put it with other items in the category of “Going-At-The-End-of-The-Truck.” Other items in this category are live plants (also an absolute no-no on an interstate move, but you can get by with moving them on a local move). With the cleaning supplies outside the truck, you can also watch the box to see if it is already leaking, much like you might watch a refrigerator or washing machine for water leaks. This rule assumes YOU CAN IDENTIFY THE BOX AS CONTAINING CLEANING SUPPLIES. This will only happen if
The box was properly labeled. In this picture the box is MOST DEFINITELY NOT LABELED PROPERLY! “Laundry Room” does not tell you there are messy cleaning supplies inside!
When Labeling the box, put something like “* * DANGER — CLEANING SUPPLIES — PUT AT END OF TRUCK * *”
IN CONCLUSION: A purist Mover/Loader will make it easy on himself and just ban the cleaning supplies on the truck. But if he decides to risk it, he must keep the cleaning supplies box at the end of the truck, sitting on the floor by itself to minimize leaking throughout the load.
Marble Table Tops (End Tables)
The vertical pieces on these marble table-tops unscrew from the horizontal pieces. This greatly simplifies moving them. When I first saw them, I originally thought we would need to have crates made to fit the L-shaped table-tops as is.
Guest Post By Rony Mikal–“Advantages of De-Cluttering”
Moving to another location involves packing, unpacking and de-cluttering your home. While moving to a new location, at times you feel that your home is beginning to appear like a hurricane has passed through. The mess in your home can make you feel stressed out. You need not fret, as there are easy solutions to get rid of all the mess. You can work for half an hour daily to clean up mess at home to avoid being stressed out.
At the beginning you may find the de-cluttering job to be redundant and pointless. However, after getting to know the various benefits of de-cluttering, you will either enjoy the job or take up the job forcefully depending on your mood.
De-cluttering is vital, particularly when you plan to sell your home. People keen on purchasing your home generally look for more space and de-cluttering ensures that it looks organized. Too many items placed haphazardly in your home create an impression of a stuffy place in the mind of potential buyers. It is therefore imperative to de-clutter your home to make it appear spacious and boost its sales value. A little bit of hard work is all that is needed to create a good impression about your home to the buyers. This will help you fetch a good deal when selling your home. Besides improving the sales value of your home, de-cluttering has several other benefits:
• Having a peaceful mind through a tranquil environment is the major benefit of de-cluttering your home. By discarding unwanted items or placing them with secure removal and storage companies, more space is created at home, which will allow you have peace of mind.
• De-cluttering allows you to easily manage space and does not consume much of your time. Sorting out things from an entire mess consumes a whole lot of time. However, you can save time if you have lesser items at home.
• De-cluttering allows easy accessibility to items and storing them tidily becomes a lot easier.
• De-cluttering home helps you focus on more important things, particularly if you set up a home office; it becomes vital to de clutter the area by removing unnecessary objects.
• De cluttering is beneficial; as it helps you avoid making duplicate purchases.
• At times you think you have run out of something and go to a nearby shop to purchase the item. However, after returning you discover that you already have the items, but were unable to find them due to the mess at home. If items are properly arranged and well organized, you can avoid buying duplicate items. The money used to buy duplicate items can be spent elsewhere.
Keep your home free of clutter and have an enjoyable time with family, friends by inviting them over the weekends.
AUTHOR BIO: Rony Mikal is a blogger and author of books primarily focusing on storage and self storage related topics. He is an avid traveler and loves spending quality time with family. Besides blogging, Rony is a great cook and a good dancer. Londoners greatly admire John for his brilliant work on storage and relocation. Here the
Primary focus is on Household Removals and Storage
Ramp for Stair Steps
Just a couple stair steps into and out of a house, can really throw off your rhythm or even result in damages or injury. How much easier it is when you have a ramp like this to take out the steps!
In the last month we have comfortably rolled two large studio pianos over this ramp which would have been a b**** to move one step at a time. It is also much easier and quicker to roll–say 200 boxes–up and down this ramp, than to negotiate stair steps each time.
The downside to this ramp is it is rather large and bulky to be truly “portable.” I’m going to check out the lighter “Stair Step Ramps” that you see on the interstate tractor trailers.
An excellent place by the way–to purchase either kind of ramp is at N & N Moving Supplies
Moving A Customer From Chattanooga to the “Ice House Lofts” in Decatur, GA
In the picture above, if you zoom in on the third floor of the stairway, you can see the excellent workers, Dee Shepard and Ricky Jackson, carrying a large piece around the bend.
This picture below shows the truck backed down a sidewalk, for loading. at the Hayden Place Apartments in Chattanooga, TN. The customer was moving from a 3rd floor walkup in Chattanooga, TN to a 5th floor loft with elevator in the “Ice House Lofts” in Decatur, GA.
USING A PANEL CART TO CONVENIENTLY ROLL A LOT OF LONG, FLAT ITEMS
On the two arched bar handles, you see quilted pad covers. They are a new addition and very helpful at preventing door scratch claims. Without the pads, the steel bar handles are out in the open, and when the cart is pushed through a doorway, the bars can collide with and scratch the wood door.
The View From the Customer’s 5th Floor Ice House Loft About 6:30pm in the Evening, Looking West. The Metal Building Below is The “Sycamore Art Gallery”>;;;;;/strong>;;;;;
Viewing the Ice House at a distance from the West (Looking East) from a dirt road just west of Fellini’s Pizza. You can see the Fellini’s Pizza sign to the left, and part of the restaurant building to the right. Fellini’s Pizza, by the way, in in old Greyhound Bus Station Building. The Greyhound sign is still on the wall above the pizza ovens. The brick Ice House complex is in the background.
Viewing the “Ice House” from the front
The view from a 4th floor balcony looking southeast.
A “Tight Tier”
Really the only way to pack a truck for a residential move is in “Tiers.” Tiers preferably approach being flat and go from side to side in the truck. In this Tier, a dresser is the main “Base.” Heavy, flat-top objects are the best kind of “Base,” and you cannot do much better than that than with a large dresser!
Above the dresser are packed five “Levels” for a total of six Levels. These Levels include boxes, suitcases, and a chair.
A quilted pad lays in front of the tier, because a mattress is going to be stood up against the Tier. The mattress will constitute Level 1 of the next Tier as the truck is packed Tier after Tier towards the back of the truck.
Are Chinese Tire Chalks A Safety Hazard to the Moving Industry
Recently in the moving industry, a parked moving truck got away and rolled down the hill into a house. Fortunately no one was hurt, but it was close!
The newspaper article said the moving workers said the truck was chalked, but the tire chalk “broke.” This sounds suspicious except that I’ve seen tire chalks that are supposed to be rated for a box-style moving truck, but seem to bend under the weight of the truck.
The picture above is the type most commonly used on 20′ to 26′ moving trucks (trucks having a “gross vehicle weight” of under 26,000 lbs) I’ve used this type of chalk for 19 years without incident, but 19 years ago they were usually American-made. And now they are all Chinese-made. A few months ago, we were trying to park the truck on a relatively sharp street in the the Oakhurst neighborhood of Decatur, GA. The worker placed the chalk in front of the back tire, and the truck SMASHED THE CHALK FLAT, and rolled over it. I was in the driver’s seat at the time, so I just stepped on the brakes. The worker had to scramble to find a big enough rock nearby to do the job the chalk was supposed to do.
On Sunday we were unloading at a house in Alpharetta, GA. The driveway had an incline, but less than the street in Oakhurst. The picture below is of the the chalk on the tire in that driveway. It held, but it seemed to “bend” the chalk (we also used a big rock on the other back tire) With previous chalks of this type, the black rubber triangle would keep its shape and hold solid.
Are the Chinese practicing “Value Engineering” in the manufacture of these tire chalks? That is, are they “engineering out” value, or this case the density in the rubber–Less dense rubber chalk equals less cost.
The owner of the Moving Supply warehouse where we buy these chalks is checking into it. I wonder if we will have to go to using the heavy metal tire chalks like the Fire Departments use below?
Paint Recycling at Briarlake Baptist Church in Tucker, GA on Saturday, April 14, 2012
http://www.briarlakechurch.org/685888.ihtml
Landfills do not take paint, and Movers do not take or move paint, so disposing of it can be a troublesome and costly problem. I haven’t seen one of these free paint disposal opportunities for awhile, and you should take advantage of it if paint is cluttering up your garage.
I found out about this from the professional organizer, Helen Preston at http://riseandorganize.com/
Grandfather Clock Uncovered
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Grandfather Clock Covered with Quilted Pads and then Flat Picture Cartons, and then Strapped Against the Wall of the Truck
McGregor Moving's Insider's Guide on Moving 