Technical Packing up a garage to move insight needed...

I've just shifted my 40 years accumulation of car and motorbike parts. Well, I shifted what I thought was keepable. yes, I had to be brutal and take some to the scrap yard and some to the tip. I sold off the bike parts to collectors but kept enough to complete the CB750 Nostalgia drag bike I'm planning in my head.
I bought a 12' x 6' tandem axle trailer and loaded it to capacity each time and did the 1200 kilometre round trip to my daughter's property , unloading each time. Ten round trips later I did the last load. This was over a period of 6 weeks.

 

I moved 2 1/2 years ago from Connecticut to Pennsylvania. I was in my former house for 40+years. I found stuff that I hadn't seen in 25+ years. We filled 4, 40 yard dumpsters, plus a few trips to the scrap yard. We had professional movers move the household stuff, and rented a Pod, my wife's idea, but it was a good idea. We also took several trips with my truck loaded. Now we moved again to our own house, with a garage outside, a 3 car garage under the house, and we rent a 10 x 30 storage unit. We are in the process of getting everything put where it belongs, a time consuming task ,but it will be worth it in the end.

 

My wife & I are in our mid-70's and moved 750 miles from Upstate New York to Bowling Green, KY, last May. I was nearing the end of a 10-year build on my avatar car, so I had a 20' car trailer full of boxes of parts, fenders, etc. plus the car to move, as well as a 60-year accumulation of tools, machinery, etc.. The house we bought didn't have a shop and it took 6-months to get one built and am just now finishing up wiring & moving the big stuff (car lift, lathe, air compressor, etc. into place. I had to rent a 12'x20' garage and had our oversize 2-car garage at the house filled with my shop things. We had everything moved by professional movers (12,000# at a dollar a pound), plus I hired a friend to move the car in his car trailer. We rented a 20' Penske van for items we wanted to move ourselves, just to make sure they traveled well. I also took just under 2½ tons of metal to the scrap yard and gave a lot of things to friends. I still have a car in storage up north that I have to bring down in April. Seems like we'll never get settled, but we're gretting there.

Packing up decades of accumulation and deciding what to take or not to take is not only hard work, but is very stressfull to everyone concerned, as is moving to a new area, getting doctors, changing mail, getting new driver's licensees, learning your way around town, making new friends and a thousand other things you need to function, but take for granted. Be prepared and expect life to be a state of turmoil for at least a year after your move and most importantly, keep a good sense of humour, it will all pass.

If you retire and think of moving one day, don't put it off until you're older - the longer you wait, the older you get and the less you can do for yourself and the harder the move is for everyone.

 

Hello,

In our first apartment, it had a garage that was below our place. It was relatively empty, but it was primarily used for storing “stuff” along with the requisite bicycles, tools, and of course hot rods/cruisers. When a Harley came onto the scene, the 2nd car was moved to the parking lot behind our place. But the stuff kept coming in to fill parts of the garage. New motorcycle stuff, old parts taken off and replaced with custom stuff, etc. So, it began.

But, by the time several years later when we moved to our first real house together as a couple, we only had a car port and an elevated storage area under the house. The house was built on a slope and the slope created the empty area below the floor of the house. It was good for storage in sealed containers. In that first move, only what we would use was taken. The other stuff we gave away or sold at a garage sale. When you only have a carport, no storage was allowed to stack up anywhere in that place except for two cars.

Then after 5 years of living, storage was not necessary as we got rid of stuff before we got more stuff. My wife was beginning to get the idea of if you haven’t used anything for a year or two at the max, out it goes. So, when I had to replace a part on our 40 Ford Sedan Delivery, I kept the replaced part with the idea that… “I might used it later…” Ha, what a concept! In thinking about it, we never used that replaced part, so, it was a disease to keep it around.

As the new different houses popped up and the length of stay got longer (24 years in one place) there was more time to store more stuff everywhere inside of the garage and backyard. When we needed more space, stuff went up in the rafters of the garage. Now the hoarding had to stop as it was terrible. We finally bought a new house and it had a 3 car garage. But, as we created a great workplace inside of the huge garage set up, it was known as no more hoarding. If you don’t use it, now, don’t buy it until it is needed.

Jnaki
An example of storing something used for a couple of months, a custom made scavenger set of dual pipes for each exhaust cut outs on the 58 Impala. When I sold the Impala in 1964, I had forgotten all about the scavenger pipes we had custom made for the Impala at the drags and on the street. After they were declared illegal in both places, they were put up in the rafters of our backyard garage. (1960) Then in 1998, when we sold the Long Beach house, those pipes were still there in the rafters at the last walk through. Talk about storing something that would never be used again… hot rodders/drag racers and the need for stuff…

The white, center taillights were in a drawer for many years from 1958 to 1998, too. By then the Impala was already gone and they were given away to a friend, who laughed at the predicament.

So, as the house moves continued, stuff was given away to relatives and friends. Being a minimalist was where we were headed. But, as most people, stuff just happens. So, back to the theory: “If you haven’t used it in one year, get rid of it." Luckily, we lived in an area where the trash company picks up medium to large size stuff for free. The best thing ever, is a clean work counter, the look of the garage being pristine, and two nice cars sitting ready for the next road trip. (Usually to our granddaughter’s house or a pick up from somewhere. Or a long vacation, coastal road trip to our favorite Northern California areas.)

Time to get rid of the accumulated stuff...if it isn't going on your daily driver cars or the project being built in the garage, get rid of it. Sometimes, the local high school/community college Autoshop classes will take stuff they can use.

@MIKEC4193
Unless the source is cleaned out first, using the big box containers in the driveway is relatively useless. You will be just moving the accumulated stuff to the next place. Then, the problem still lingers, only you have a new place to clutter. Give yourself a break by starting the clean out now and continue until moving time is fast approaching.

 

We moved about 45 minutes away 2 years ago. All my stuff went into 2 pods. I found it very convenient, I even had them store one for a couple of weeks in the middle of the move because I didn't have space for two at the new place. I thought all the costs were well worth it.
Another option to look into, a friend of mine rented a 40' semi trailer, the monthly rent was reasonable, and the company charged by the mile to move it on he's schedule.

Phil

 

My daughter told me that I should NOT weigh in on this topic but, as her mother and I have moved 22 times in what will be 53 years of wedded bliss this coming August, I feel that I am indeed qualified to comment. I met my wife in So. San Gabriel, CA. back in my motorcycle riding days when I lived in a two room apartment in the back of a garage. My bedroom was wall to wall bed and my kitchen/living room was wall to wall motorcycle. Spare parts took up all the space in the shower so if I needed one, most of my friend's wives were more than willing to let me use the shower in their houses, especially if I was going to be in their houses more than 15 minutes. The new girlfriend, who eventually became my wife, was actually insistent that I shower immediately upon entering her house. Life was good, I didn't have a water bill.

After we decided it would be cheaper for both of us to live in the same house, I became aware of the mass quantities of things that normal people felt necessary to maintain an acceptable standard of living. I mean, she had STUFF, and she had 5 kids who also had more STUFF. I could fit everything I owned in a couple of boxes from the local Ralph's Supermarket and still have room for more. She decided that my moving in meant that we needed more space so I found out that her stuff was valuable and had to be carefully packed so nothing was going to get broken even though we were only moving a couple of miles. Her stuff made the trip fine but I managed to lose my entire collection of underwear. A trip to the local Doughboy's Surplus store took care of that. I noticed while at the second place I managed to acquire a few more items since there was space for them. Her brother came out from New York City and decided to stay awhile which resulted in another move since there wasn't really room for all of us. That was alright until I found a job building airplanes in Santa Barbara. Since the smog in the L.A. basin wasn't good for the kids, my wife, the former girlfriend who was now the mother of OUR child, decided that we should move to the quaint little town of Lompoc for the health of all the kids. We were there for 4 years until Tricky Dick Nixon killed all the defense spending and half a million people in the aerospace industry in southern California were out of work.

I found a job in Indiana and we made some hard choices about what stayed and what went. Naturally, all the wife and kid's stuff had to go as well as much of the furniture we could pack into the largest U Haul trailer we could get. A

ccording to her, n​

one of the Y block and FE engines and parts I had acquired were worth taking along so an entire 2 1/2 car garage full of those items and my Harley parts got left.

A couple of years and 3 moves in Indiana later, I had started to accumulate more FE parts along with a 65 Galaxy 500 XL and a cherry 64 Fairlane two door hardtop. I had gotten another job building water towers that involved traveling all over the country and being gone from home for weeks and sometimes months at a time. During one of those periods, the wife decided that the farm we were renting was too far out of town so she made the decision, on her own, to rent a much nicer house in town. Her stuff made the trip but unfortunately for me, there was too much of my stuff so she called the local junk yard to come out and clean out the garage of the 4 big blocks, a couple of late model overdrive transmissions, and all the loose parts I had. I was able to keep the Galaxy, with it's 390, factory tri-power, and the 4 speed I had put in it, only because that was what I was driving to work.

I had the opportunity to move to Michigan because there was supposed to be 25 years worth of work there for Boilermakers. We made the move and immediately made two more. The first and second places weren't really fit for human habitation. The third place was fine and I started accumulating parts again when we found out that all the work that I had been promised wasn't going to happen. This resulted in a move to Ohio, another to New Mexico, and still another back to Michigan and three more while we were there. Her stuff always made the trip. Mine, not so much.

While in Michigan, I went to work for a regional trucking company as an over the road driver. An opportunity came up to transfer to the Chattanooga, TN area. Since my plan was to move south when I retired and the company was paying for the move, I pulled the trigger and moved. My shop stuff went in my enclosed trailer and some of the family things my wife considers heirlooms went in her SUV. Everything else got packed, shipped and unpacked by the movers with only a couple of incidents of damage. A couple of years later, we managed to acquire two of our teenage grandchildren and that meant another move to a larger house. Three years later, the granddaughter was off to college and the grandson had caused enough hell that I sent him back to Michigan to live with his mother. Now we had a house that was 3 sizes too big so we looked for a smaller place in the country. Our place sold while we were still looking and we were in a time crunch. Finally found another place but while we were looking, we were paying rent on the house we had sold to the new owners and most of our stuff was in storage. Finally closed on the house we're in right now and got to move all the stuff for what I hope was the last time.

After three years in this house, I've figured out that the wife has way too much stuff as there's boxes in the attached two car garage that still haven't been unpacked. My two and a half car detached garage/shop only has automotive stuff, my shop tools, the 46 Merc 4 door and the 27T roadster that I'm trying to finish before I'm unable to work on it anymore. Worst scenarios I can think of is me laying in a bed looking through the window and watching all my things going down the road to either the scrap yard or an auction going on. I'm really trying to get rid of things that I know I'm not going to need so expect to see some of my stuff in the classifieds here.

I apologize for the length of this post but it's hard to bring almost 53 years and 22 moves down to a manageable size.

 

Don't loose any sleep over this, 45 minutes is like moving something from one side of the room to the other.

 

I was faced with this some time back when I put my house up for sale but the house I wanted fell through. I set it up where I took possession early of the house I wanted to buy so it wouldn't be a mad rush to move on one day and I could move the garage contents first which was mostly the heavy stuff and also using pods. Don't know how it works in your neck of the woods put there is weight restriction as to how much you can put in those pods so I was looking to rent a couple of them. As we all know if you started figuring out the ball park weight of all the things in our garages together it would amount to about the business end of a 747.

 

Should I just hire a POD to get dropped off and then throw all my garage stuff in and then just hope for the best on the other end as far as setting up a new garage??...the garage I am in now was my first "real garage"...before that it was just like open barns and carports and such
...

YOU are responsible for the integrity of the packing in the POD. Ive used them and they are fairly reasonable and convenient. Pack/ stack/ cram every cubic inch and oad /secure so stuff does not shift around.

Sent from my SM-G965U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

What is the time frame between when you can move stuff out of the old place and into the new place? Is there an overlap, like we are moving into the new place, then a month later we need to be out of the old place?
I had that advantage the 1st time I moved. I had a 3/4 ton pickup and an open car trailer. I made sides for the car trailer and hauled 10 truck/trailer loads from the old place to the new place, before I ran out of time. I ended up calling the scrap guy and he hauled 6600 lbs of steel out of my old shop in 2 days.
The last time I moved, I had to have everything out of the old place and on a truck before I could move anything into the new place, that one is a whole different situation. What didn't fit on the truck had to go.

How much space do you have at the new place? If its a lot smaller then what you have now, lots of stuff will have to go. If you rent a Pod, I suggest you load up tools and equipment 1st, the follow that with parts you need for a current project, or maybe daily drivers. After that, purge is usually the correct answer. Sell, give away, or scrap. Gene

 

When we moved my mother from Florida to CT 4 of my sisters went down and helped her pack what she was bringing with her. The realtor they called to look at the home made them an offer very close to
the asking price they had established as is so they had very little time to do it. They packed everything
they were bringing into two uhaul pods and everything made the trip fine.( I had gone down earlier and
cleaned out Dad's garage and the attic.) The pods sat in my sisters yard for several months while I built
an addition on the house for Mom, everything stayed dry and safe.

 

I moved from omaha to denver in sept 2018, started sorting in march. went from 3-1/2 car, 855 sq ft garage + attic storage to 22'x22' ft garage in our townhouse. room for wifes car & my 40 Ford, my driver sits out. sold everything I hadnt used in 10 yrs, had to sell some of woodworking stuff, table saw, etc. put everything in plastic storage totes then in a pod which turned out to be expensive. not real happy with pod usage, but too late now. I have room to work on my 40 by putting wifes car outside, glad the car was done before the move. built 24" shelves from plywood on the side of garage & used metal racks in frt of garage. it did give me enough wall space for my memorabilia collection

 

I moved 500 miles a couple years ago. The PODS solution worked really well for household stuff and a few lighter things from the shop. I would not use them to move any heavy shop equipment or heavier things like a full tool box. The construction of those things is pretty flimsy and they don't have much in the way of tie downs in them. I second the suggestion of packing a tightly as possible to keep things from shifting around. We used two of them during our move and overall it was a good experience...just not what I would do for shop equipment.

I moved all of my shop stuff (mill, lathe, brake, welder, etc.) with a 26' box truck. I rented from Enterprise for that trip. Be sure to rent one with a lift gate. The killer in my situation was they wouldn't rent one for a one way trip...so I wound up renting near the new place, driving it back to the old place, loading, and driving back. Not fun, but it was still the cheapest option. The bigger box trucks have heavy wood floors while allow you to secure things using screws into the floor. They also have E-track around the perimeter of the truck for ratchet straps. I was able to get nearly my entire shop moved in one trip. I did put nearly everything that wasn't on wheels on a pallet, and got a pallet jack from Harbor Freight to move things around...this sped up the process a ton.

Good luck!

 

Hi Hambers

Thank you thank you for all the insight...moving this short distant will be good for me...(yea ole purge time I guess) the bigger challenge will be in 3 years moving from upstate NY to NE Kansas...and keeping stuff at both garages...the plan right now is winter in Kansas and summers in upstate NY...
The funny thing is my wife has only been with me for 10 years and she has more stuff at this house that I do...I don't envy her moving a house full of stuff...

thank you thank you thank you

MikeC

 

Yikes! These stories have me abit scared. I have been planning on rebuilding the two car garage at my place. Raising the roof, etc. Although this is not a 'move's it will require removing essentially everything inside the garage during construction. I may spend more time moving stuff out, reorganizing, then putting it back then the time spent rebuilding the garage. Not looking forward to this.

 

Don't throw anything away......
Does the place you are moving to have a shop or garage equivalent to what you have now ?

Good one......

 

Looks like you have room. How about just building another garage/shop!? Or pour a pad and put up a carport that you can partially or completely enclose later. It would at least contain your stuff out of the weather while you renovate the current garage-without the expense of 3rd party storage or pods.

 

This might be a situation where the Pod may be your best option.
I could be mistaken, but I think a lot of the cost is in the transportation.
It could be reasonably inexpensive to rent one for a month or two, and work out of it, rebuilding the existing garage.