How much does it cost to move?
January 26, 2012Being prepared for oft overlooked costs can make your move go much smoother.
Keep your eyes open for those expenses that frequently get overlooked.
Budgeting for a move may seem simple. Get estimates from a few moving companies, choose the company you are most comfortable with and voila! Now you know how much it will cost to move, right? Well….not quite. There are a few other expenses you may want to factor in:
1. Cleaning/repair costs of current residence—many buyers will request a professional cleaning service be used before they move in, and if you rent you want to ensure the return of your deposit
2. Final utility bills
3. Damage deposit at new residence if you will be renting
4. Utility deposit—some companies will require one
5. Transportation of family and pets:
a. Will you travel by car, air, bus, train? Find out what your fuel or ticket costs will be
b. Will you need to stay a few nights in a hotel?
6. Vehicle registration/transfer—usually only applies if moving to a different state
7. First month of living expenses—if starting a new job, it may be a month before you receive your first paycheck
Also be sure to scrutinize the moving estimates you receive. If you will require storage of some form, have the storage costs been included in the estimate? Is the moving company doing the packing? If not, you will need to purchase packing supplies. Make sure to include these items in your moving budget if applicable.
Being prepared for the true cost of moving will help ease stress and cut down on last minute surprises. Anything missing from the list? Let us know by leaving a comment.
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What a difference a year makes
January 6, 2012So I have started a new blog that I will be updating weekly. It is for our moving brand in Seattle, Accountable Moving & Storage. This blog will receive a new post once each month, but I will continue to post weekly on the Seattle side and link to that article on this blog. So I’m still writing frequently, but some of my stuff will appear in a different spot.
Here is a link to this week’s post:
http://www.accountablemoving.com/blog/?p=19Â It is a highlight of things that have happened this year at our company. It was an eventful 2011.
Let me know what you think!
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Christmas Party for Movers
December 23, 2011Movers get together with their families to celebrate the Christmas season
Kris received this framed certificate with a complete mover's tool kit for his dedication to customer service in 2011.
Kris received a framed certificate and a mover’s toolkit, complete with a drill motor and all the tools needed for assembling and disassembling furniture. His name will also be engraved on the “Employee of the Year” plaque that hangs on the wall at Action Moving. The plaque was started in 2004 and all the employees listed on it are still working at Action: Pat Hale, Gunnar Smiley, Shawn Biggs and Mike Stearns (some of those people have received the award multiple times). That really says something about our company, primarily that we have quality employees and they feel like a valued member of our team.
Action Moving Services is rewarded by Move for Hunger
December 15, 2011National mover of the month recognition for November 2011
I was very excited when I arrived to work yesterday and found that we had been selected as mover of the month for the month of November 2011. There is a link to the article below.
This is our first year with Move for Hunger (MFH) and the program has been received very well in Spokane. We collect food from our customers that are moving and might throw it out anyway. All of our food donations go to 2nd Harvest Inland Northwest, so the proceeds of our efforts stay local.
Move for Hunger has been nationally recognized for their efforts in fighting hunger around the country. VH1 and Chase Bank are a couple of  organizations that have supported MFH financially and through televised promotion.
MFH is located in Neptune, NJ and has hundreds of moving company participants across the nation.
BREAKING NEWS: Our Seattle branch, Accountable Moving & Storage, has just joined forces with Move for Hunger on the west side of the state. We hop that they are received as well as we have been in Spokane. I’ll keep you posted on how things go.
Action Moving Mover of The Month | moveforhunger.org
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Move For Hunger Initiative A Success
December 10, 2011Our Moving Company’s Community Outreach is Contagious
The kids enjoyed their visit to the food bank. Our daughter is the one in the pink jacket.
Our moving company has been involved with Move for Hunger for quite some time, collecting food from our customers that might otherwise end up in the trash during the chaos of moving. The food we collect is donated to 2nd Harvest Food Bank here in Spokane. We also help collect food in other ways by doing food drives at local grocery stores, and even using our moving trucks to pick up food that has been collected by other entities that have done food drives and then delivering it to 2nd Harvest.
Serial Mover Shares His Story
December 2, 2011Moving is tough on backs, belongings, and even friendships.
I stumbled upon this moving article and thought that it was worth sharing.
I recently stumbled upon an article in the NY Times authored by a serial mover. He writes that he has moved 6 times in the last 14 years! Here are are the highlights:
- He quickly realized that asking friends to help you move is a good way to lose them (I have used this line a lot).
- He has a lot of stuff that will sit in boxes until the next time he moves. This begs the question, “Do I really need this stuff?”
- He finally concedes that these things are part of who he was and who he is and can’t bear to get rid of it.
There is also some funny stuff in there about a mover sharing with him, in reference to the sketchy neighborhood, “Not to worry, I have a knife.”
If you have time, check out the article (Serial Mover). It made me smile a few times.
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Nothing Bad Can Happen At A Moving Company, Right?
November 24, 2011My son gives me advice about my moving company every day
As I am saying my goodbyes to my family in the morning we all take turns with words of wisdom or well-wishes for the day. “Have a good day at school” or “Be safe today” or “See you after work” are common phrases shot back and forth. In the last few weeks my 8-year-old son has started saying the same thing every day. “Don’t let anything bad happen at work today.” At first I just smiled (laughing inside)Â and said, “I won’t.”
Now that I have had some time to digest what he is saying, I have questioned why he started saying this. Am I sharing too much with my kids about the challenges that I face at work? Am I an overly negative person that puts this negativity on my family? I felt like I needed some answers to these questions.
Not much that you can do to prevent this...but you can plan ahead, store food, and batten down the hatches. Photo credit goes to snopes.com
Answers started to come as I fleshed out what was happening in my mind. First of all, I shouldn’t over-think this…my son is in 2nd grade and is probably just making an amusing comment that is very similar to everything else that our family says to each other in the morning. After I got past that, I asked myself what a better statement might sound like. “Don’t let anything bad happen at work” is a pretty daunting request. It asks that you protect against things that are likely outside your sphere of influence. It would be like saying something like, “Don’t let anything bad happen with the weather today.” I think that we can all agree that attemting to live by that statement is not setting yourself up for success.
What I would rather hear (and I have started to repeat to myself when my son says his regular salutation) is, “Make good things happen at work today.” This is something that I can do. I have control over the choices that I make and I can certainly do good things if set good-thing goals. I have not shared this with my son yet, but I would like to have the discussion when I think that he is ready.
I am thankful everyday that I have a family whose members love each other and challenge each other to think. It would be a boring world for me without them.
Happy Thanksgiving. Make good things happen. 
Action Moving and Move for Hunger
November 17, 2011CAN-struction Project at Sterling to Benefit 2nd Harvest: Move for Hunger Team to Help Out
GO COUGS!
I had to write about what I saw this week. There is a lot of good stuff going on. I was visiting an old friend at a Sterling branch by the Northtown Mall on Monday and noticed some WSU Cougar propaganda near the teller line (see picture to the right). It is a football field complete with goal posts made from canned food. Super creative, great cause, and I always love a cheer for the Cougs (my alma mater).
After some prodding, I found that Sterling held a competition this fall between all of their branches in Spokane to see who could come up with the most creative creation made solely from canned food. Then all of the food goes to 2nd Harvest Inland Northwest. This charity is near and dear to my heart as well since 2nd Harvest is our Move for Hunger partner. When the competition is over, the winning branch gets movie tickets for the entire staff! My vote is for the Northtown branch. Nice work Kim and the Northtown team.
I know that this time of year is busy for 2nd Harvest since there are a lot of people in the giving spirit right before the holidays. So I offered our staff and trucks to go around to all of the Sterling branches and take the food to 2nd Harvest, thereby saving 2nd Harvest a trip. Sterling loved the idea and 2nd harvest was thankful that we could help. We are running around to all of the branches on Monday to swoop the goods. I’ll be sure to post what the total contribution was when we drop it off.
I have been working on finding worthy team-building exercises lately and I think that this is a great one. I am planning to hold a drive like this at our company to benefit Move For Hunger and 2nd Harvest and I’ll be sure to post the results. I hope that we can put together something BIG!
Posted in Community Participation, Fun Stuff, Mover News, Mover Team Building, Moving Topics | Leave a commentHappy Veterans Day
November 11, 2011
My son is in 2nd grade and decided to create a poster this morning when he woke up. I love the saluting soldiers.
And, albeit a less momentous event, it’s also my birthday.
I attended a well-put-together Veterans Day assembly at Wilson Elementary in Spokane yesterday. I got to meet some interesting veterans and thank them for the work that they have done. The kids did a fantastic job singing too. My son (part of the program) was inspired to make a small poster this morning and I wanted to share it with my readers. It is pictured to the right. I am proud of his attitude toward the holiday. He has a cousin named Joel that has served overseas. Joel is one of his heroes.
Happy Veterans Day to those who have served. I thank you for the important work that you do to preserve our way of life in the United States.
When I was a kid I had conflicting feelings about having the day off from school. November 11 is my birthday too, you see. So I never had to go to school on my birthday, but never had the fun of an in-class party. I’m over it now and my birthday has never been that big of a deal to me as an adult. This year was different since my staff made a big deal out of it for me.
I think that this “big deal” stems from a discussion that started a couple of months ago when I noticed that my birthday this year would fall on 11.11.11 and I would be turning 33! Quite the coincidence. I think that this gave some people the impression that my birthday is a big deal to me. My whole on-site staff stormed my office at 11:11 AM to sing happy birthday to me. I was overwhelmed. Not since I was a kid had anyone (outside my family) made such a big deal about my birthday. I had a rough morning calling to collect on some old receivables and this turned my day around.
I have read that many couples have chosen today (11.11.11) to get married. That took some forethought and planning. None of which tops my parents planning in 1978 to make this my 33rd birthday! Thanks Mom and Dad.
After a networking event downtown and a nice lunch with my wife and kids, I returned to the office to find a birthday cake waiting for me in the conference room. After getting over the idea that the presentation looked like I may have died (the picture of me on the table threw me) I made a wish and blew out the candle. I’ve got the best moving team that a guy could ask for.
Thank you to everyone that made my birthday special. I truly appreciate your thoughts and actions today. I don’t think anything can bring me down again today!
Posted in Fun Stuff, Mover News | 2 CommentsAnother Mover Team Building Exercise
November 4, 2011The Original Mover Numbering System 
“Seriously, I’m not trying to scramble your brain.” I had to say this after trying an exercise with my staff in our most recent office meeting. I told the crew we would start our meeting by playing a game. The game would try to decipher an out-of-date numbering system. They were all ready with pens and paper to “crack the code.”
- The sausage-looking things in the bottom of each quadrant are my fingers on the side of the conference table.
I used coffee stir straws to create cryptic symbols. I gave the instructions to look at everything that is presented to you and try to decipher what number you are looking at. I show four examples to the right. The only thing that was not revealed to the crew is the answer in red. Can you crack the code?
If you have played this game before, it is pretty easy to tell. But none of the staff caught on. I heard statements like, “I feel really stupid,” and, “This doesn’t make any sense.” Even after ten iterations of codes (I ran out of fingers) everyone was still trying to look back at their notes and decipher how this numbering system worked. Finally I told them that they were not looking at the right area of the table and that my discreetly placed fingers were the item that dictated the outcomes. “Remember,” I said, “look at everything that is presented to you.”
After I let them in on my secret numbering system, I wanted to use the exercise as an example for our industry. There are many nuances to the services that we provide. None of what we do is overly difficult, but someone from outside looking in (e.g. a new employee) may struggle to see why things are the way they are. In most cases there is a simple solution, but you have to be looking at the right items. I implored my team to help each other out when you notice another team member struggling. It is way easier when when you know where to look and the experience that we have on our team should be shared.
I have heard people say so many times that, “It would be easier if I just do it myself.” How many times have you heard this yourself? My retort to this statement is, “Give a man a fish, he eats for a day, but teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime.” That may seem annoying to hear, but it’s true.
For nearly any task, the learning curve is lessened if you do not have to go through the school of hard-knocks and learn by trail and error. Unfortunately, most people are afraid to admit that they do not know how to do something and will not make the statements that were heard in this game…I feel stupid -or- I just don’t get it. At least not outside their personal thoughts. If we let people know that we need help and those people are willing to point us in the right direction, we’ll be a better team after the interaction.
Have a cool team building exercise that you have participated in? Let me know about it. I may try it with my staff and then let everyone know how it goes.
Posted in Fun Stuff, Mover Team Building, Moving Topics | Leave a comment ← Older posts
