Final day.........

The day has arrived, our movers will see how much they can shove in each crate today. Just a bit of information for those of you out there who are unfamiliar with PCSing (Permanent Change of Station) for CONUS (Continental United States) basically not overseas.

There are two codes on a military move. Code 1 and Code 2. Code 1 means that they will shove all your household goods in a truck and move it to your next duty station. Code 2 means that they will use crates to pack your belongings instead of a moving truck. If you do not have a door to door move set up, meaning that you are meeting them at your next house, all household goods go into temporary storage. Most people think that code 2 using crates is only used when you are PCSing overseas, but this is incorrect.

Cade 2 in our opinion is a far better way to have your belongings moved because it is packed up and crated in front of you and then the crates are sealed. Those crates are then either placed in storage or met by you on the other end. It is pretty hard for a crate to disappear (although it does happen) but when your belongings are placed on a moving truck, more often then not, they are not the only ones on the truck. Depending on the amount of weight being moved there can be a few families' belongings being driven across the country, or it could have a soldier's belongings on there, leaving those belongings up to chance of being mixed up where they meet on the truck and as they are dropped off, you may lose some of your things. Yeah, I know, they have different stickers, everything is inventoried, but IT HAPPENS EVERY DAY. Not to mention, your belongings are handled by the movers at your end, then they are moved out of the truck by another set of movers and placed in storage, then they are handled by another set of movers who then take it out of storage and put on another truck and bring it to you....that is a whole lot of hands moving your things......you are opened up for theft as well as the increased chance of breakage. So we opt for CODE 2 and request that it be crated whenever we have the chance. It does not cost the military any more money.....although I have had some transportation personnel tell us that it does as they mark code 2 on the paperwork, I just sit there and look at them......like it is money out of their pocket......just be nice to them and remember that if the option is open to you, you are entitled to it......but remember that some installations do not offer this to CONUS moves and if they do and its a busy season OCONUS has the priority for the crates. But do yourself a favor and opt for CODE 2 whenever possible and have your household goods crated for any move.

So now that I have told you about this option, here is how this will play out for us today. Each crate acts like it's own little truck. Our things are put in the crates so that they are packed full and less chance of things moving around. They packed our dressers full, leaving clothing and such in them. I used my chests to place our linen for our beds in them so I know exactly where they are when we get to our next duty station, no searching for THAT box! Also any special or antique piece of furniture I am worried about, I just told them and had them box everything that was in it instead of having it travel with the belongings in them, they were more then willing to do so. They figure that each crate holds about 1000 pounds, but it's a guess because when your sofa goes in, it takes up alot of space, but it no where near comes in at the weight that all my husband's professional gear will come in at. Make sure you have them mark all professional gear as such in case you are charged for being overweight and ALWAYS REQUEST TO HAVE IT reweighed......

And so that is just a piece of friendly information from this Soldier's Wife who wishes someone had shared this information with her a long time ago........this being our 6th move in 7 years.....it will be the 5th one we have had crated.

I'm excited.....we are really moving tomorrow YAY! I definitely will look in my rear view mirror and say goodbye to this place, vowing to never return~I will miss my two friends D&V but otherwise, this is not a place that will go down fondly in the old memory book, fond memories yes, but in the Great Big Book of Everything, it is going to definitely go to the bottom!