Military Husbands

Or, Learning to Love SMARTWebMove

We've got a PCS (Permanent Change of Station) coming up hot on the heels of the holidays, and, while I'm still filled with anxiety over everything that has to be done between then and now, it all feels like it's coming together a little bit more easily this time.

Part of that comes from experience. This will be our fourth move with the Navy, and we've largely got the situation figured out. Herewith, some pointers:

1. Do It Yourself At least partially. Every time we've moved, we've wound up with our cars full of the stuff the movers won't take. This includes houseplants, domestic pets, dangerous household chemicals, anything flammable. It also includes anything you'll want immediate access to: laptops, reading material, music, important documents, etc. And finally, it includes anything you just don't want the movers to potentially lose, like photos, artwork, Star Wars figurines in their original packaging, whatever.

So, when you fill out all the forms using the SMARTWebMove site, make sure you request both the do-it-yourself option (now known as the "Personally Procured Move") and the household goods option. It involves having your vehicle weighed empty and packed, but it's worth it, since you're going to have a full car anyway. This time, we're renting a U-Haul for the trip, in addition to our two cars. Since we have a toddler, now, the Raptor will be pretty much full of his gear, and the Privateer is too small to haul much. So, the U-Haul. My sister is going to pilot one of the cars, and yours truly has been promised the privilege of riding with the meowing felines in the U-Haul.

UPDATE: Crunching the numbers, I found that we would have to load the U-Haul with at least 2,000 pounds of our household goods to make the expense of the truck rental worthwhile. Since I'm lazy, we modified our plan and are now renting an SUV from Hertz to transport some of our goodies. We'll still have to be conscious of maximizing our weight, but we won't have to move quite as much on our own in order to break even.