Don’t Move with the Wrong Setup Again

If you are on the house hunt then this article is for you.  My family has done a lot of moving over the years and we have also helped many friends and family members move over the years too.  With the housing boom going on with interest rates super low and the housing market selling like crazy I want to give some advice on moving.  Moving is a big deal and moving days can really have an impact on how you feel about your new home as well.  I have been surprised at how having a good moving setup or moving crew can change an entire experience.  The feel of moving into a new home is just as important as doing it, but it is really how you do it that makes an impact on this. 

So what do I mean by moving with the wrong setup?  I mean that you need to start with the best vehicle for the purpose.  Many people instantly call everyone they know who has a truck in hopes that they can guilt or convince them to help you out.  This really is what most Americans do and it is the basic task for new homeowners.  They think that they must do this and that having a truck is the only answer for moving.  I am here to tell you that trucks make really bad moving vehicles.  I don’t like lifting furniture up that high to get it in the bed.  I also don’t like tossing cheap moving boxes over the side of the bed when these trucks can be up to five feet high on the bed walls.  I have seen so much damage happen to people, items, and yes trucks while moving.  Lots of people end up causing more damage all around getting things into trucks than any other vehicle.  It takes more physical strength and endurance to workload items into a truck and I think its the worse thing you can do.

The next setup people use it to buy a Uhaul or rent a large truck with a walk-in bed.  Now If these trucks have a long ramp then I would say they are pretty good.  But some do not and you have to lift all the items up again just like a pickup truck.  Yet again this is only slightly better than a pickup truck because it is at least covered from the elements. This helps you not get your cheap moving boxes wet and all the things ruined inside of them.  So this option I will put as number two in the scheme of things.

The best option I like is a walk-in trailer.  This is simply because it is low and people can use a cart or a hand cart to wheel furniture and packages in.  The ability to wheel items in, has saved many injuries and many broken or damaged items from occurring.  I have seen people have great moving experiences with a low walled trailer.  They can pull it with a minivan and it allowed people to simply have a fast and nonpainful move.  The truth is that I have seen people smile when they moved with a trailer versus the stress that comes with a truck.  Lower stress means a better move and a happier time for everyone around.

Halloween Treats for Trick or Treating

This year is going to be more complicated for all social gatherings or festivals.  It is unfortunate because one of the most social events is going to be looked at differently this year due to Covid-19.  The fun times of Trick or Treating may not be what they once were.  People are now fearful of even being around other people more or less touching something that someone just touched.  So I think there need to be some rules when it comes to handing out treats this year to all the young ones who should still be able to expereince this fun tradition.  That is what I want to go over today and it is the rules that you should consider for handing out those treats this year. 

Now I am not a professional treat giver or healthcare provider so these are just my thoughts and opinions on ways to keep people safe and to still enjoy a fantastic holiday.  You should always run health issues by your own healthcare provider to make sure they are up to your local standards.  I think the best thing to do this year is to focus on social distancing.  Even if you are not a believer that it really will make a big difference, it still does to some.  The goal is for kids to have fun and to be able to enjoy their favorite candy boxes without having a political or healthcare debate going on.  So my goal is to work on keeping everything distant.  That means not actually handing candy out to kids directly. 

In my opinion, I think we should also eliminate the need for knocking on doors and getting that close to your own or other people’s homes.  This is because the distance is the key to social distancing and 6 feet is most likely not going to be possible from a doorway and with all the knocking you may not want hundreds of kids knocking on your door and touching your knobs and bucket etc…. That is why there are some clever and fun ways to hand out treats safely.

I think the best way to do this would be individual packages or treats.  That means making a lot of little gifts or separating our candy so it is spread out on your porch or driveway.  That is a really cool thing to think about and do.  Having the ability for kids to not touch anything but the direct treats is a really cool idea. 

The need for specific packaging is going to be key this year.  Many parents are going to want to clean the candy boxes and packages before they are given to their kids to eat.  That means you should get candy that can be cleaned.  So look for plastic packaging that can be sprayed with COVID-19 killing agent and then be opened and safely injured. That is going to be the biggest part of this year and it will be edible candy.  So work on shopping wisely and understanding that not all of us think or believe the same things.  But we want the kids to all to have a fun and enjoyable time trick or treating this year.  That is the main thing to think about. I hope you have a fantastic holiday and a fun time this year.

How we saved our home with boxes

This year my wife and I decided to take on a really complicated task.  We decided to take on a new place to live and saw an opportunity to make our lives a little bit better with a whole lot of work.  Due to the housing marketing being so good before the COVID-19 pandemic we moved into a super nice neighborhood at the lowest price that had ever been available in it.  This also came with a caveat of moving into a non-move in ready home.  We ended up with a timeframe to fix up the vast majority of the home and also we ended up with a giant mess doing so.  We ended up using cardboard boxes to organize and save our ability to live there.

The best decision we made was to work more organized.  Moving into a new home was going to be an exciting thing and at first, we were super happy about the ability to move into a great place with such a low cost. We didn’t have a ton of stuff moving from a small apartment into a large home but what we did have was still a bit too much for the location due to all the work we are doing with it.  I think that our issue was we were constantly working on the majority of the house at the same time.  By the time we moved in we only had really one room that was finished and able to be lived in and that was our bedroom. 

With the entire house being under construction we found that we simply didn’t have a lot of space to live.  It was livable until the winter started to kick in hard.  The issue that we had was that we could no longer work on projects the yard and we only had the space available in our garage to do messy jobs such as cutting wood and staining.  This left us with a big issue because our garage was so full of items and products.   This was where we had to organize in order to find room to work.  The house was already too full to add the garage stuff to ti so we had to be cleaver.  What we did was order a bunch of high-end cardboard boxes and we started to get to work.

We began by organizing all of our items by type and use.  This was important because we need to still be able to get to the items that we used constantly easily.  We decided that we could use the vertical space in our garage in order to save space.  We started packing up and actually building our towers vertically as well. 

In order to do this correctly, we ended up creating a system to know what we were stacking.  We stacked our packages by the type of items that are in it and the use we will need it for.  So an item we will use most often we will put a 1 on and a 5 on items that we wouldn’t not use much.  Then we would stack the packages in that order 1 on top so we could grab it out easy.  With this, we had more room to work and a garage we could continue to use. 

Getting the Right Tape

I never imagined that some situations would happen in 2020.  The movement from brick and mortar business to eCommerce has taken the entire country by storm.  The reality is though that with all the lockdowns and regulations that it is much safer to be an eCommerce company in 2020 than any other.  This is simply due to the demand for shipping.  People are not going out of their homes nearly as much and in many cases, they are not allowed to by law.  This means that the demand for online shopping has skyrocketed.  It has also meant that the need for shipping has increased and the products that are needed to do it.

If you are getting into the shipping industry or your company is now finding that its most important department is shipping then there are some good lessons to learn and know.  The big thing to know is to make sure you are staying competitive in the market.  This is hard to due because technology is so vast and people can learn anything.  But having good relationships with companies is a big way to stay on top of the competitive nature of eCommerce. 

One major area that you need to be competitive in and can really crush competition is having a most efficient shipping supplies supplier.  It is more important to make sure you have good quality contact that can get you the gear you need and on time.  There is no way to ship without product and having a company fail on delivering the things you need is not good.  That is why having a great contact is a good thing and being able to buy products in bulk is a big part of having a great contact.

Shipping supplies are simply expensive and you need to be able to find a place to get them at a good discount.  I have to say that being competitive is more than shopping on Amazon versus going to your local store.  Yes, Amazon will be cheaper, but it will also be way higher than a major store that only sales these items and gives bulk discounts.  Bulk Discounts are a huge part of this industry and making sure you know what you need is part of it.

You need to know every amount of each item you use per shipment.  This is tedious and can end up saving you tons of money. My business found a big problem with spending when we were packing up boxes to ship.  Our packers were using about 10 strips of packing tape per box.  To all of us this seemed normal and was needed to hold the weight of all these items.  But when talking with a specialist in the industry from our supplier we found that our tape was thin and not capable of sustaining our competitive nature.  So he started to inform me and my company of thicker tape that could do the job in 3 strips of tape.  This was shocking but we figured that it would just cost more.  It did, but not relative to the project.  The tape costs 25% more, but also we would be using 200% less of it. The savings were incredible and once we trained our staff they were happy they didn’t have to tape nearly as much. So I hope this tip helps you and your company!