Moving is a Painful Process

And I'm not even the one moving.

            

Photo Credit: U-Pack

I went over to help some new people in the area move into their house, and they had all their stuff delivered in those large moving bins.  I've always wanted to do that. You load them at your own pace, they ship them over for you, and you unload them when they arrive.  You travel in a car or fly, however you want to get there, at your own pace.  We always go the cheaper way of getting a truck and driving it ourselves, but that means doing the loading all in one day. For our last move, we hired movers to do the loading and unloading. It was expensive, but not as much as the additional cost of the moving bins

             

Clipart from the tomatoes,
colorized by me.

Yesterday I discovered that I do not want to go the moving bin method. You see ads for how they are at ground level and you don't have to go up a ramp like you do with a truck.  That sounds great, but I discovered yesterday that it means a great deal more lifting.  With a high truck, you can slide the boxes over to the back and then lift them from knee level or waist level and carry them off to wherever you want them.  With the pods, as the load gets lower, you have to bend and lift each box. 

Photo credit

I took over two hand trucks (handcarts or dollies as they may be known in other parts of the United States) but even with them, the boxes have to be moved to the cart, wheeled in, and then moved back off of the cart.  I think I did about four loads, maybe twenty boxes total, and then the homeowner and I stopped to chat.  I think she was getting tired, because she said "That's enough for now."  I thought I could do a little more but I didn't want to push her too hard.

Photo Credit

While we visited, a young man and his wife showed up to help. He works for a shipping company. He quickly took the flat cart, attached the handle properly, and dug in. They said he emptied the first bin and half of the second in record time.  I left my carts over there and headed home.

I felt like I pulled something in my shoulder, but it eased off after a while. Today I got up and did yoga and ate breakfast, still feeling pretty good. Then, suddenly my whole upper back, shoulders, and neck, are seizing up in pain. I may have to interrupt this day for a hot bath and strong dose of ibuprofen. 

I am in much better condition than I was four months ago, but obviously there are some things I should not do, and moving is one of them.  Next time someone I know is moving in or out, I will drop off the hand trucks, maybe provide food, and leave.  When someone is in the middle of moving, cooking can be difficult and eating out, expensive.  If they could not afford movers to pack and unpack their bins, maybe they would appreciate a home-cooked meal instead of having to eat out or work in a new, unpacked kitchen.