When receiving assignments for a new duty station, you must decide if you want to let the government handle everything or take charge yourself and organize the relocation under the Personally Procured Move. Doing it yourself allows for extra funds in your pocket if costs are kept low, but self-management necessitates a plan to avoid total chaos.
Secure Your Paperwork and Storage Early
The first thing on your to-do list should be to visit the Personal Property Office. You must request cash advances for your future expenses. This is vital because it allows you to avoid spending all your own money on tapes and boxes. It’s also essential to understand precisely how to obtain both your empty- and loaded-weight tickets. Remember, if you miss any of these documents, it will leave you in a long battle for your government reimbursement later.
Organizing the paperwork helps you think clearly as you do the actual work. Conventional military moving is usually marked by an all-out mad rush to fill a large rental truck in a couple of days over a weekend. It’s possible to totally bypass this issue by using professional services and getting a weatherproof metal container delivered to your property.
This way, all you have to do is load the container and leave it there for as long as you want. You’ll load and unload it only once, and you can either ship it to your destination or store it safely in a storage facility until you require it. The best part is that once you’ve moved properly, these professional services can mail your weight tickets for reimbursement.
Pack Systematically and Dump the Extra Clutter
Packing will take a long time if there is too much stuff to move. Most of the time, people go back and forth from the kitchen to the bedroom while packing. Packing randomly can leave you with partially filled containers and make you feel confused once you unpack everything at your destination.
Getting rid of the junk truly helps simplify the moving process. Disposing of the trash or hiring a junk removal team will greatly reduce your load; this will save you a lot of packaging effort and the cost of buying tape and wrapping paper. Every single item you leave behind is one less problem to handle during the loading process.
Understand that you should treat your packing phase like a proper preparation drill. For instance, clear one room thoroughly before going to another for organization purposes. Tag those boxes to ensure a clear understanding of their content.
Above all, know what to pack and what to dump to avoid wasting time and money spent on packing supplies. Once the junk is out of the way, you can focus more on protecting what you have packed. For instance, you can wrap your fragile electronics and dishes in heavy blankets to prevent damage during transit.
Endnote
Completing a change of station requires patience and solid planning. Once all your stuff is settled comfortably in your new place, the immediate concerns will naturally turn to appreciating the place instead of dealing with logistics. Together with your family, you can focus on deciding the fastest way to go about things during mornings to work, identify nearby places where you can get food, and enroll your kids in new schools, among other things. And you have that peace of mind only if you plan your military move right from the start.