Packing up garage, any tips?

[softailgarage]

What a pain in the ****, I hate moving. After 7 years of sharing my folks house with my sister we've sold the house and getting our own places (thank God). Now, I don't have a lot of "stuff" compared to most people my age, some furniture, master bedroom, little things. The problem is 4 years ago I found Garage Journal and the 2 car garage that used to house 2 cars has since been converted to a shop and is packed with things like 2 good size workbenches, 60gal. air compressor, KRL-1022 w/ 2 Craftsman 8 drawer top chests on top, 2 Craftsman 5 drawer bottom rollers, a Napa 7 drawer cart, Kennedy 6 Drawer roller, Remline top & bottom roller cab, Pressteel bottom cab, Vintage Craftsman top & bottom roller cab set, 4 vintage drill presses, 4 vintage table saws and more bench grinders than I want to admit to. Not to mention storage cabinets, paint cabinet, wall cabinets (all full of course), 3 intermediate chests and well, you get the idea. Theres also signs, lights, diamond plate and tin wainscotting and another good size work bench in the back yard + a 10'x14' shed full of gardening tools, lawn mower, etc. How the hell am I gonna do this? There are 2 34"x18"x10" nut & bolt cabinets so heavy I'll have to empty each drawer in a baggy just to move it, 48 drawers w/ 4 dividers in each drawer. Damn you Garage Journal
I figure the best thing to do is rent a big *** Ryder truck w/ a liftgate and just start loading up. I know nine4gmc just went through this and looks like he's still getting set back up. Anybody else have to do this and do you have any helpful hints. I have 30days for escrow, 26 days now and still have to find a house that meets my needs. What a pain in the ***

Welcome to my nightmare...

 

[rice rocket]

At least you're relatively organized. I wouldn't even know where to begin on my disaster.

Watch out for the liftgate capacities too, a loaded KRL1022 is probably not gonna fly.

 

[softailgarage]

Watch out for the liftgate capacities too, a loaded KRL1022 is probably not gonna fly.

Damn, that was the main reason for the liftgate

 

[TheEquineFencer]

I'd try to find an enclosed trailer. I think you're going to spend less time moving with a trailer with a ramp than a truck. Both have their "ups" and downs.

 

[zcar751]

As long as its a local move I would go with a medium U-haul truck or large trailer if you have a PU. U-hauls have a lower loading height, and at the end of the day it is worth it. I have moved my shop two time from Tennessee to Maine and Back so I feel your pain. Plan on a lot of packing and prepping and a several trips. You could go with the largest U-haul truck and it would more than likely take every thing but by the time you finish unloading you will be burnt.

 

[Thorold]

I feel your pain. We rented a Pod for the last move. Several weeks before they dropped it in front of my garage (it's at ground level - minimal lifting) and i loaded stuff at my leisure.
They dropped it in front of my new garage on moving day and i unloaded also at a leisurely pace.

 

[OccupantRJ]

On the bolt bins. Remove drawers, load the cabinet. Replace loaded drawers, then stretch wrap cabinet. Stretch wrap is your friend on this kind of move. I placed taller cabinets on pallets, stretch wrapped, then moved with a pallet jack. Smaller tools like bench grinders and such were bolted to pallets to allow moving 4 at a time. I had so much that I bought my own forklift and 40' semi trailer, palletized everything, loaded, moved the two pieces, then unloaded. I have equipment weighing in the ton range, and this made the most sense for me. Pallets can be had for free from small businesses in town that receive supplies on pallets, then have to dispose of them as they are not equpiied to store and reuse them.

 

[GarageWarrior]

How far are you moving? Is the new place going to be bigger or smaller?

I'd start selling things. The more you sell, the less you have to pack, move and setup at the new place and you can buy things back as needed. Large shop equipment like air compressors, welders, drills, saws, car lifts, shop cabinets should be easy to resell.

 

[St-rider]

Hire a good moving company. Be prepared to tell them where to put things when they unload. They work fast.

 

[Techie1961]

I feel your pain. We rented a Pod for the last move. Several weeks before they dropped it in front of my garage (it's at ground level - minimal lifting) and i loaded stuff at my leisure.
They dropped it in front of my new garage on moving day and i unloaded also at a leisurely pace.

Ditto, PODS or similar are awesome and not that much money. They have great lifting capacity as well. So nice to be able to load and pack at your leisure and then take your time to unpack. Highly recommended.

 

[mikec35]

At least you're relatively organized. I wouldn't even know where to begin on my disaster.

Watch out for the liftgate capacities too, a loaded KRL1022 is probably not gonna fly.

I lifted a 1200 lb. safe using an 18ft Budget truck with a lift gate. Just check lift capacity with the rental company. I'm sure you will find it would lift the box, just make sure you have it scotched in place. Just to be safe you could empty some of the heavy items.

 

[kelpaso1]

Ditto, PODS or similar are awesome and not that much money. They have great lifting capacity as well. So nice to be able to load and pack at your leisure and then take your time to unpack. Highly recommended.

+3 on the Pods. We moved from Calgary to Atlantic Canada (BIG mistake but that's another story). We got a 20 foot one for the house stuff and a 12 foot one for my garage stuff. Very convenient. Loaded the house one on the street and the garage one right in front of the garage door. Didn't have to rush as we had them for 2 weeks before we had to move. Only problem I had was the garage pod had an 8000 pound limit and I think I was wayyy over that. They use flat deck tow trucks to pick them up and take to their storage yard untill we found a house. Well the tow truck picked up the house pod first with no Problems. Came back for the garage pod and they couldn't even move it. They had to call the BIG assed flat bed tow truck that had a 30,000 LB winch to get it onto the truck. That pod also broke through a few deck boards on the transport truck flat bed trailer for the move

 

[Rentawrench]

Time to put all the stuff NEATLY in the center of garage floor in a taped out diminisons of eight ft wide by??? then you'll know what size trailer to BUY. Since you have no house to move to. in long run cheaper then 2 moves. To storage place then back to new house, in a hurry cause your in rented truck. Good Luck

 

[Lassen Forge]

Worst case scenario, you may have to double move - once to a secure storage locker, then to your shop. You could sell your stuff and buy all new, but I did that with some of my stuff and have yet to find it available on this end of the move... bad decision. (As in -anyone in the sticks have a cheap bridgeport mill and/or a toolroom lathe (south bend preferred) for sale that is set up for 220?)

Other helpful stuff... cut cardboard tops over your tool drawers, pull them, wrap them in plasticwrap and move them separately (much lighter to move that box that way) - just mark (on the cardboard) which drawer goes where!

Stuff in Boxes - Don't overload them. And MARK THEM with whats in them. I'm still (2 years on) playing "hide and seek" with my stuff.

If I *ever* had to do it again, I'd hire movers. They're good, fast, and while not cheap, saves you set up time, your back, and a logistics nightmare on the other end. Nothing like telling someone "This goes here" and there ya go. Just get GOOD movers if you go this route... for every good one, there's 10 schlocky ones. Buyer Beware!

 

[turbowoodworker]

We used Packrat for our crosscountry move PHX to NC three years ago. But I did not trust the containers with my heavy stuff plus letting them out of my site (sofa no problem, mig welder, nope). Besides firearms, reloading stuff, they don't seem to like.
So I did my shop myself with the Penske 28 footer. Went well but I sure am getting too old for that.

 

[rice rocket]

I lifted a 1200 lb. safe using an 18ft Budget truck with a lift gate. Just check lift capacity with the rental company. I'm sure you will find it would lift the box, just make sure you have it scotched in place. Just to be safe you could empty some of the heavy items.

A quick Google search shows the Penske/Ryder rentals with liftgates have a 2000-3000 lb. liftgate capacity. The 1022 isn't your average box, it has more storage than the wider but shallower Classic 96s, and weighs 600+ lbs alone, with a max capacity is 6800 lbs. Of course not every box is at max capacity, but it's probably worth doing some quick math beforehand before you end up having to replace the hydraulic cylinder on their liftgate.

 

[Smiliesafari]

We get use to where everything is in our shop. When I moved I first took lots of pictures so that I could set up the new shop in a similiar way. I can't tell you how big of a help it was.

 

[coljar]

Might as well just leave everything in there and let the new homeowner deal with it. You can get a fresh start. Yeah, right. This coming from the guy who told his wife the kids were going to have one hell of a yard sale when we croak.

 

[George in Rancho Cordova]

When the company moved me, the movers had 3 teams of two.
I ended up spending most of the time in the house, rather than the garage.

I ended up in a short-term rental home with 53 boxes labeled "garage".

Two weeks later the babysitter (& now ex-relative) lunched the engine in her Capri. Guess who got to explore for tools, then fix the car?

The charge light was on, but the system was charging.
Two miles later, the engine self-destructed due to lack of oil pressure.
The bulbs were plugged in bass backwards under the dash!

 

[softailgarage]

Some good ideas guys, especially the stretch wrap and cardboard covers. Part of the problem is I haven't found a place yet, put apps in 2 different houses,each within a mile from here. I am trying to avoid a storage unit, simply because I dont want to do this twice. My realtor also suggested PODS. Depending on cost, that may work, however, I rarely see these things in use which leads me to believe its expensive to do, But I'll check it out.

 

[619DioFan]

I sent you a pm.

 

[J.A.Varela]

Hold it. Get on the phone and BUY a used 20 foot container and have it delivered.Load away When they move it to your new house you can set up the shop leisurely and then sell the container when you're done or put racks in it to store iron and hardware.
A 20 footer is chump change(at least here). $600-$800 or so.

 

[gkring]

Www.unitedmayflower.com
Just rented a 8x8x16 foot pod for one month. Total cost including dropoff, moving to the new house, and pickup was $330. New house was about 45 minutes from the old one. They will also store it for you at additional cost at their location if need be. Cool thing is we scheduled it so we had two weeks to load and two weeks to unload. Alot better than a weekend rush with a rental truck. POD brand was about $150 more, so shop around. You can get online quotes easily.

 

[wnstwolf]

Moved from Chapter 2 to Chapter 3 (this is what my wife calls my barns) a few years back. Had the blessing that work assisted in the move. What happened, and seems like you may run into, was that they paid to pack then unpack my stuff not store. We sold house and took a huge loss so rented for a while until we could start over. Took 18 months to get the new barn built. Called the movers and said ok bring all my stuff. They said it was in a warehouse and wondered if anyone was ever going to call on it again. Cost of storage was more than my house rental. After a very long battle we got all our stuff back from storage and a $9k bill. Not sure of the tonnage but it was ¾ of a 53’ semi worth of garage stuff (refrain from **** reference as that means I should have tossed it like the wife said)

So we are at Chapter 4 and house is for sale and we are looking to move again. Rate I am going Chapter 11 is closer every day. Make sure the movers know what you’re getting them into. When they hit my garage they all but passed out. Sales guy did a great job in documenting but he was not the mover. Movers were great and we kept them fed and lots of drinks. Big tip as well.
Good luck and let us know what you do..

 

[softailgarage]

I sent you a pm.

I got it and will be replying soon, thanks.

I got a call from the realtor today, it seems the buyer has backed out, losing their $5,000 deposit and giving me some extra time. I'm taking a serious look at the PODS, although it looks like about $400.00 after pick up, storage & drop off. I think its the best way to go as long as I don't overload it. I like the idea of not having to load a vehicle, make multiple trips and such. Just load at my leisure and let them do the rest, especially seeing as how I dont have a place yet and it can be stored. Took down all the signs, posters, lights, etc. yesterday, bubble wrapped and packed. My girlfriend has a friend that works for Allied moving and he gave her 25 new boxes, tape, wrapping paper and anything else I need under the condition of when I get the Cornwell truck up & going he wants access to shop price tools, which I don't have a problem with, another customer to add to the books.

 

[Cannonball55]

I haven't used pods personally, but several friends have and were very happy with it. If we move again depending on cost, its number 1 to me. There are also other pods like companies that may be a cheaper alternative, though I think pods are the only actual metal containers I've seen recently.

Where about's are you moving? I'm in Oceanside near Guajome Lake Park. If you're trying to off load any garage stuff before moving shoot me a PM, I'm always looking for stuff.

 

[metalhead212121]

softailgarage- sux you're gonna have to move all that stuff. Not trying to rub salt in the wound but have you considered selling the smaller tool boxes (not the big snap on one) and possibly trying to upgrade to possibly 2 snap on boxes or just 1 big tool box? I know it sounds crazy and might not be worth the effort but figured it couldn't hurt to suggest it.