I just finished what turned out to be the absolute worst move in the history of moves. Granted I was spared what a college roommate went through when the container ship carrying all his family’s possessions sank, but still hiring movers to help ease the stress of moving did not help!

I have a very hard time not blaming the moving company for all my moving woes, but in all reality I did not prepare for the move myself. I just wanted to weigh in on what I think I did right and what I did wrong.

Let’s start with what I did right:

• While I also try and see booking a week and a half vacation to the middle of the Pacific something that would be good, I now know it is only good when FOLLOWED by said move! I think this should go in the wrong pile.

In fact, let’s skip the what I did right section and start with what I did wrong.

• Booked a vacation to the middle of the Pacific and scheduling my departure within 45 minutes of the arrival of the movers. I think I should repeat that this trip would have been better suited after the move was said and done.

• If you are choosing to use movers, I would strongly suggest boarding any animals. Even if your move is cross country, I now know it is much less stress on the animal.

• Do not choose a moving company based on a lady in a muumuu and some nice gentlemen moving a moose head. I don’t own either of the said items, therefore the moving company I chose was terribly ineffective. I work in a referral based business, one would think I would have asked for a referral or two from friends. If your friends are like mine and still believe movers are their own friends who will work for beer, try Yelp or Austin 360’s web sites, even the Better Business Bureau has ratings on such things.

• While choosing your moving company ask for and research any referrals they have.

• Get a quote in writing of what the charges for the move are going to be. What seemed like a routine move, within the same apartment complex, turned into a nightmare which cost triple what I was quoted and only a third of the work I had intended on having done was completed. My move, which was literally across the parking lot, cost as much as my sister’s whole house move from Dallas to Houston.

• Have a point of contact and ONLY deal with that contact. I had the misfortune of speaking with two different people on separate days and the only instructions which were followed were the ones I typed in the non-optional box at the bottom of the form. The reason I find this important is because when the movers showed up nobody knew what was going on. They flat refused to pack things I had requested to be packed, and could easily justify this because “it’s not on the manifest.” At this point I just shut off my brain and prepared for Hawaii. Luckily I was on a month to month lease at this point and even more luck came my way when the manager allowed me to pay the remainder of the balance so I had two weeks to deal with the rest of the move when I returned.

• Make sure you and your moving company are on the same page when it comes to payment. I left a blank check, which I found was useless AFTER I received a frantic call while frantically trying to change gates in Dallas. It would never cross my mind to write the movers a check and then cancel the check. But hey free move, guess someone has thought about that. I ended up having to pay with my mother’s credit card because there was not enough in my account to cover the move. Thanks again to the ad ons from the moving company. Who knew you had to rent the truck for an hour just for them to get to you and back to home base?

• Renting the truck for an extra hour also falls under finding out just what you have to pay for and what is included in the $96 an hour I was paying for labor. Apparently I was only paying for labor. Luckily I was able to return moving supplies which were not used.

I cannot list every last thing I did wrong, because there are certainly a number more things which didn’t register on my radar. I wanted to cover what I did wrong according to finding a reputable moving company who will put some time into taking care of your things when they are being run down the stairs on a dolly.

I know many of the things I talked about seem like no brainers, but when it comes down to crunch time, some things slip! If I had it to do again I would make a list of the things I needed to do and not just wing it. I would still take a vacation, just not beginning the day the moving truck arrived! I would also make sure my couches were worth less than the move, because that’s what they tried to take when I only had a check to offer!!

In the end any move is going to come with a certain amount of stress. I’m still in awe of the military precision that went into my best friend’s move to Houston, while planning a wedding! So I guess the moral is it can be done. It just takes a bit of planning.

I will say I did get the mail forwarded a week before the move, so technically I didn’t do everything wrong!!