Packing tips

I used to ride a bike and packing for a camping trip takes on a perspective all of its own. Though I expect hikers know what I mean. For example, you can pack socks inside shoes, and shoes can go inside other things. You quickly learn to fill every nook and cranny. The following tips don’t go to that extent, but if you have the time and want to minimise space and cost that style of packing may be worth considering.

1. Packing may take longer than expected. It’s also not something you can work at continually. It drove me nuts after too much of it, and I found I needed rest periods to get my sanity back before I could go at it again, and anyway you will have interruptions that eat away at your time. Unless you have experience, plan for thee or four times your initial estimate of how long it might take to pack.
2. Get a supply of small cardboard boxes to help with your packing. Hardware stores often throw them out. Small boxes are really useful for packing delicate items, and they will pack better and safer than simply wrapping you small precious items in paper in a large box. The vegetable markets have some very study boxes used to pack fruit. These boxes can be greasy, but are just the right size for hanging files, from the filing cabinet.
3. Your removalist company will have a supply of butcher’s paper for wrapping crockery and delicate items. Paper is essential. Rolls of paper are unsuitable; get a stack of individual sheets of butcher’s paper. Old newspaper pages are not nearly as good, but of course they will do at a pinch.
4. Pack several boxes at the same time. Something that is a poor fit in one box may fit better in one of the other boxes. Don’t leave any empty spaces in the removalist boxes to prevent things from moving around, but never force anything inside. If there is a risk of things moving around and getting damaged and you don’t have anything to fill the gap in a box, place a few socks in the space, or if it’s a large gap fold up a towel or two and put it into the space.
5. Try to use standard sized boxes; it will keep the removalist people happy. Get them from your removalist company, or pick them up second hand. People who have moved previously might have them available as giveaways.
6. Don’t pack your removalist boxes too heavy. Think about the people carrying them. And think about your own back too. The heavier they are the greater will be the chance of them being dropped and things getting damaged.
7. Delicate items can be placed inside kitchen containers. Sturdy sealable plastic or metal containers and saucepans make great containers for fragile items such as ornaments. Of course, ensure your delicates are suitably wrapped to prevent them from rolling around inside the container, and don’t forget to tape the lid shut unless it’s a click seal plastic container. And when you pack your circular kitchen containers you will have a lot of gaps between them. Those gaps are just calling out for tea towels, socks, underwear, t-shirts etc; firstly, to fill the gaps between them, and also to stop them from being damaged by rubbing against each other.
8. Mark important boxes clearly to make them easy to find. Such things may include perishable items or clothing for the first day back at work. A clear mark might be a splash of red on all sides of the box to make it stand out. The last thing you want is to identify your kitchen items in a week or so after you get to your destination by the number of ants crawling over the box.
9. Boxes full of crockery will travel well if each item is carefully wrapped. Bubble wrap may be best, but butcher’s paper works very well and doesn’t take up as much space, and I’ve had few damages to crockery using butcher’s paper.
10. Pack dinner plates and larger ceramic plates at the bottom of the box on their edges. Plates can be wrapped in groups with each one separated by a sheet of paper. To wrap a group of four plates, place the first one in the centre of the pile of butcher paper, fold one sheet of paper over the top of it, and place the next plate on top of the first, and fold the second layer of paper on top of that one, and continue in this way until the fourth plate has been placed and fold a sheet over on top of it, then finally, wrap the lot up as you would an ordinary parcel. Fill the bottom of the box with these parcels of plates on their edges, and if you don’t have sufficient to fill the bottom, pad it with something to prevent any movement.
11. Wrap cups and other items individually in one full sheet of butcher’s paper. There is no need to tape each item when wrapping them. If the paper wrinkles that can be good as the air gaps will act as a buffer from the other items. Pack the heavy items at the bottom, and place the lighter items on top, leaving no or few gaps.
12. If you don’t have access to boxes designed to carry books, distribute your books between several boxes to spread the weight over many boxes. Paper is very heavy.
13. Buy an industrial type tape dispenser to seal the removalist boxes. They are inexpensive and help seal the boxes well. Your removalist company might have tape giveaways or a cheap supply.
14. Label the boxes appropriately so that the boxes with fragile items don’t get dropped or packed underneath boxes of hardware. Don’t forget to put your name and a contact phone number on each box.
15. Linen and clothing can make excellent padding for breakables, and I found it useful to pack both together.
16. Make sure garden tools are clean, and empty the garden hoses of water well in advance of moving day.
17. Have a look at some of the removalist company web sites for a check list of other tips and tricks. Some of them are quite useful.
    

Some reflections on the move

Now that the shift is over, well mostly, I can reflect on the various experiences. I hope my experience will help you avoid some of the traps that caught me.

Here are a few things that might be useful to do months before you pack. These things all take time, but they are worthy of consideration.

Trash or treasure
Have a look around the house and work out your valuables from the junk. Transporting stuff to your new home that will get thrown away after a few months might as well be thrown out before you go. It can take a lot of time going through stuff. Make a realistic assessment of all your stuff. Start doing this early. Try for three to six months early. You’ll need a long time because you don’t want to get rid of good stuff.

Garage sale
You should consider having a garage sale. I’m not keen on them but I’ve heard of them working for others. The best garage sale ever I went to was organised by the street residents, and about a third of all homes in the street had stalls. It was great just wandering up and down. They may have got more people there because everyone was close by with less need for driving around.

ebay sales
I found ebay worked remarkably well for me, but of course these sales take time with photographs and the write-ups you have to do, and because of that should be organised many months before moving day. Ebay got rid of some large items that would have caused me a problem, and included an old rusty car with a blown up engine. I also had a rusted out trailer which also sold. Why anyone wanted them I don’t know, but they brought in a bit of cash when I would otherwise have had to pay someone to take them away. Ebay was also useful for getting rid of some left over mild steel that I had (recycle merchants won’t pay for steel unless you have a truck load, so you might as well sell it; they will pay for copper and aluminium etc), a motorcycle and cement mixer were also sold, along with various other stuff. It didn’t all sell, but most did.

Damage and insurance
Think about insurance if you are doing your own move. If you are being moved by your employer the chances are high that you will be covered by the company insurer, but check.

Take photographs of your valuables to help with that insurance claim you hope will never have to be made. Digital cameras make this so easy. Just think about it. If you get your furniture to your destination and find your antique dresser has been gouged by some mishap you are certain occurred during transit or storage you’d be disappointed and angry if the insurance assessor knocked back your claim. An accident could happen during transit, and some employee not wanting to upset their boss by their incompetence may have kept quiet about the incident and rubbed some dirt or stain into the fresh scratch to cover it up. The insurance assessor might reasonably assume it was you who had damaged the item before the move. A few suitably date proven photographs before and after may help with your claim. And if you are going to do this do it well otherwise don’t bother. As well as a distance shots of the items, get your camera close up and cover all surfaces, and have good lighting on the subject.

Some logistics planning

I spent the day looking at a few more utes, private sales this time. Canberra used car buyers have the benefit of a great operation here. Around town on the weekend, various car parks in popular locations are set aside for the presentation of cars for sale. Anyone who has a car for sale may pay a fee, and would-be buyers are free to browse. It’s a very nice idea indeed. I spotted a couple of utes at a couple of these used car markets that took my interest and subsequently contacted the owners to arrange a test drive.

It’s been a while since I’ve been this close to newer utilities. Most of the newer utes I’ve looked at seem to be built with a lot more plastic that I’d like to have see on them. Constructing a commercial vehicle with a plastic tray seems darn silly to me. Sure it won’t rust, but will it be able to hold a load. Will you feel confident in throwing rocks and boulders into a plastic tray, as opposed to a steel tray? There doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of choice whether you buy a Holden or Falcon.

I need the ute to transport a camper van that’s parked on the block at Warrandyte. This is the type of van that fits into the back of the ute – if you think of a caravan with no wheels, your half way to thinking of what it looks like.

Actually, there is a lot of transportation to be done in getting our stuff from Melbourne to Canberra, and not just our furniture and personal items. I got out a pencil and paper and began to go through the logistics. It may be difficult but not impossible. Here is one scenario. We’ll see what actually takes place when the time comes. Stuff has gone wrong all over the place so far. Anyway, the aim is to get our things to Canberra, and includes our:

• Stuff from Melbourne


• Ute from Melbourne


• EXA (which is in Canberra, with me)


• MR2 from Melbourne


• Camper from Melbourne


• Elsa and Squeak from Melbourne

So, here's my plan:

1. Assuming I buy a ute in Melbourne, I’ll drive the EXA to Melbourne on one of my trips from Canberra


2. Buy the ute, load the caravan on top of it, and drop it off in Canberra, and then drive back to Melbourne with the empty ute


3. Pack up the MR2 with as much stuff as it can carry, rent a truck and pack that up too, and both S and me will set off for Canberra together in separate vehicles


4. The MR2 gets left in Canberra, we unload the truck, and we both drive back to Melbourne in the empty truck, return the truck to the rental company, and drive back to Canberra with me in the EXA and S in the new ute with more stuff and our two pussy cats.

The problems will come with timing, bad timing, that is. If the lease of the ute can be worked out quickly and I get the caravan shifted early, that would help markedly. But if it takes ages, clashing with when we should be in the truck, then we will need to rethink everything. Or if I have difficulty getting the caravan on the ute that could be a problem too. If there are any problems such as this we may have to shift our stuff to one of the neighbours places for a few weeks. We don’t want to be renting this truck and getting in the way of the removalists.

I don’t have a photo of my own van, but here’s one I spotted on the web that gives an idea of what I have. These units are fabulous things. There’s no trouble carrying them really, except that they weight the vehicle down a bit. The only real hassle is getting them on and off the ute. They come with four heavy duty jacks that raise them to a suitable height to allow the ute to slip underneath. You then lower the jacks and the van sits flat on the floor of the ute, and you secure the van to anchor points that you have previously placed in suitable positions on the vehicle. And this is one of my problems in buying a ute. I will have to spend time fitting the anchors to the ute before I can attempt to move it.

I’ve done this work before on two other utes I’ve had, but manufacturers keep changing things. Each one has been a whole new experience each time, and it’s a very fiddly task. The last thing I want is to have hassles at the end.

Finance

I paid a visit to my local Belconnen shopping centre. I was in search of a Westpac bank, for no other reason than because the house in Warrandyte was financed though Westpac and I thought it might have made the finance easier to organise. With the auction coming up very shortly, I thought this might be a prudent measure. That’s an understatement. Had I any idea I would have been attending an auction I would have done this earlier; a lot earlier. It’s not a good idea to leave finances until the last moment, like me.

In auction sales you generally have to put up 10% of the selling price at the fall of the hammer. When I was looking through the Macgregor property the agent had mentioned the availability of a bond guarantee that can be used to cover the deposit. I’d never heard of this. Apparently, this method is commonly used, particularly in the eastern states, and used in some states more than others. It is used in place of a cash or cheque deposit. It sounded interesting. So, I enquired about it with the Westpac loans manager. He said he was familiar with the service and would be happy to arrange it for me. I also earlier expressed my interest in the property with the agent and whether a 5% deposit would suffice. He said yes, which was good.

There seemed to be a lot of fees required for home loans this time around, that I don’t recall from my previous experience. Perhaps I’d just forgotten. I seem to suppress the worst issues. The Westpac loans officer also made reference to a draw down facility that can be built into a home loan from the loan’s inception. Westpac had made reference to an offset account some years ago when they were financing my Warrandyte property, but I didn’t like it; in fact it seemed like a waste of money in the way it was structured. In so far as I recall, you deposited your spare cash in the loan offset, and the interest generated was deducted from the loan. The exact details escape me, but it seemed pointless. It quickly occurred to me that if you have spare cash, make extra payments to reduce the principal. Anyway, this new arrangement was different and seemed okay to me. You borrow more than you need for the purchase with the difference remaining in the offset and available as cash whenever you needed it, you make repayments against the borrowed amount, but interest is calculated on the outstanding amount minus anything that’s in the offset.

I explained my interest in the Macgregor property to the loans manager, and I explained my situation in having a buyer for my Warrandyte property. I put to him the question of the possibility of being able to purchase the Macgregor property. And his response: yes, it could be done. It would require the bank needing the title of the Warrandyte property for the duration of a bridging loan. That would involve some set up fees ($200 - $500 based on the value of the property), then there would be about $680 in interest, and $750 establishment fee. All this just to cover a period of 10 days when technically I would own two properties.

I suggested we attempt to match the settlement dates. Matching the settlement dates would avoid the need for a bridging loan. He said that would be good. I wonder why he didn’t offer this suggestion himself.

Private sale or no private sale

Now there's a question: to sell your property privately or go through a real estate agent.

At home, the Landfield real estate didn’t call by as expected. So, we chose another agent. That’s the way it goes. In many ways your life choices are not made as a result of careful weighting of the pros and cons of something; those of agents in this case. It was more about who was there at the time. There’s not often a lot of personal experience people might have on which to base a decision.

In actual fact, with this property being located on a relatively busy road, I was inclined to sell it privately. I was thinking of doing little more than sticking a sign up on the front and waiting for the punters to call. Real estate agents don’t have your best interests at heart. Well, of course they don’t, they are in the business for the money. The best they can do for you as a buyer is put you in contact with sellers, and you have to resist being influenced by anything that might sway you from your goals, like paying more than you want. The best they can do for you as a seller is bring in the punters, and you have to resist their persuasive tactics of lowering your asking price.

I’m reminded of a Canberra real estate company, though the name escapes me for the moment, that had a really obscure advertising strategy. They were aiming their advertising at property owners. They said that they consistently obtained higher sell prices than any other agent for equivalent properties, and this was the reason you should use them rather than any other Canberra company. Hmm. Sounds like a great thing if you are selling your property; we all want as much as we can get. Suppose you are shopping for a property. The slogan doesn’t sound nearly as good. Why would anyone want to buy through an agent that boasted of fleecing its punters?

There is quite a lot of information, on the web, and books that specialise in selling privately. Basically, the main reason for not doing it was that I was in Canberra and S was in Melbourne with the house. It may have been awkward. If you have time to browse some of this literature before deciding how to sell it will be worth your while. There was one book I had a look at, which was quite interesting to read, particularly some of the experiences some agents get up to. It was a real education. It described various scams real estate agents have used to squeeze more money out of a deal, and how to go about selling privately. If I can find it I'll edit the post.

Presentation

Presentation is important when you’re selling your house. Don’t people know that? A coat of paint where it’s needed can do wonders to a place, which gets back to my ‘make it sparkle’ notion, but for heavens sake, do the job right. If your window frames have weathered, a coat of paint may brighten them up. Here’s the important bit: if they need to be sanded – then sand them, undercoat them, paint them properly. If there are a few pits in the woodwork – fill the holes with putty, sand it back, and paint properly. If the wood is rotten or so badly weathered that it looks and feels like a sponge then rip it out and replace it before paining. A coat of paint over rotten timber looks like the rough job it is. When I see it I tend to wonder what other botched jobs have been done on the house. This type of work does nothing toward presentation.

Showing your hand

I came across a place in Evatt that was up for auction. I’m spending a lot of time driving around the suburbs. With the street directory in hand, steering wheel in the other, I’m slowly ambling along the quite suburban streets looking at the lie of the land, looking at the houses, and the environment. Just getting a feel for what’s out here. I think it’s all very well to check out the newspapers, but until you drive down the street and see the neighbours fighting over the side fence, see the houses with dumped car bodies or engine parts in the yard, and eye the cheeky looking kids (and adults), and depending upon what you see you might mark the suburb as one to avoid or one to keep an eye on if any new properties come onto the market. This detail can’t be picked up from newspaper ads. I’ve been marking my street directory by pencilling circles around streets or areas that I think might be nice areas to live, should something come up. It’s also good to note things you spot in the newspaper, that you might otherwise forget, like suburbs where the mobile phone coverage is poor, or where broadband hasn’t reached yet.

I was driving in Evatt, as I said, and was noting the auction details from the for sale sign of a house I spotted. As it happened the owner was tidying up the yard and he came over to chat. He must have spotted me making some notes. He said he’d bought a place interstate and had to sell this house, and invited me in to have a look around. I declined, saying I’m not ready to buy, which was true. Our house wasn’t on the market yet. He said his house felt like a millstone around his neck. (To me, this is like telling me he was desperate and might well accept any offer. I think it’s a mistake to say anything like that if you’re selling. I don’t think that sort of information should be told to anyone, including your own real estate agent.) It was a nice looking place. With the details duly noted, I’ll return to see how the auction goes. Could this be my new house; with the benefit of this ‘insider information’ I might get a good deal.

Real estate hunting

One of the difficulties in coming to grips with a new city is getting to know where the various suburbs are located, and their relative position to one another. In one of my early scans of the real estate section of the newspaper I spotted a house that was very reasonably priced, and generally sounded quite good. It was a definite contender, or at least it was until I spotted it on a map. My failing was that I didn’t realise that Bredbo was a small township about 80km south of Canberra and not actually a Canberra suburb. Any local would have known this.

My Saturday mornings developed into a routine. With my lack of experience of the Canberra layout here’s what I found worked well in making a few property visit open inspections. I got up early and grabbed a copy of the Canberra Times, which has an excellent pull out real estate section, and with a notepad and street directory in hand spread everything out on a tabletop, usually with some fruit toast and coffee to help get me through.

1. Mark the properties that you clearly want to visit by reading the ads. Isn’t that what you do anyway.
2. On a page of the notepad, make very brief notes of the advertised properties, and be sure to include the address, inspection open and close times, and page number that you saw the ad. (you can seldom find the ad after you have closed the paper, and you usually only want it when you are in a hurry.)
3. Number each property on your pad sequentially.
4. Look up the street directory of each one, noting on your pad the map number and its grid coordinates. This saves you doing it later when you don’t have time and are a bit flustered. Doing this now makes the day much more pleasant.
5. Now comes the mildly artistic part. Street directories usually have an index page displaying the locations of all the individual map pages. This index map is essential for getting a bearing on where the properties are in relation to each other. Find that page.
6. On another page of your notepad, sketch an outline of the area you want to search for properties and mark the map numbers on the page just as it is on the index map of your street directory. This takes 30 seconds. If you can’t do it within a minute you are spending too much time.
7. Now, refer back to your first page of notes and mark on your sketch index map on your second page of your notepad where each property is located. Don’t write much. The property number you used and the inspection times may be sufficient. Try to do this as near as you can to being accurate within each map, but it doesn’t matter a whole heap, you just need approximates.
8. When you have transferred your brief notes to the even briefer notes on the sketch map, sit back and have bite of your toast, sip your coffee, and consider what you’ve got.
9. Study the open times and their locations that you’ve got on your sketch map, and work out a sequence of visiting them. Doing this will prevent you from doing too much backtracking, keep your petrol costs down, and you might even see more properties in the one day.
10. When you’ve got a sequence worked out you might write it down somewhere because you’ll forget it otherwise. You might even like to draw arrows all over your sketch map.

This is just the sort of project that some whiz kid needs to develop on a computer to make the job simpler for the punters, but the method I’ve outlined works for me.

You could just scan the newspaper and if you spot something interesting just go and look. There’s nothing wrong with that, but if you are like me and want to see as much as possible you’ll need to get a bit more efficient. The last thing you want is to be doing is wasting time looking for an address with only a few minutes to get to a property, or having to drive half way across town when you have only just been there an hour ago. Anyway, enough of this.

I went to another auction, this time in Evatt. It sold for $365,000 at the auction. Its great to see an auction go to the end and see it sold, rather than being passed in. The house was on a small block of land. It had a small lounge and dining room. It also had a small kitchen and family room. The bedrooms were a reasonable size. It did have a nice bathroom, but no bath. That seems like a contradiction in terms to me. There was a good deal of decking outside. It had a garage designed for a mini because part of it was used as a room! It was a well kept property but was just a very ordinary place, and small at that. $365,000 - house prices seem so inflated in Canberra, for what you get.

I had a look at Duffy and neighbouring suburbs. The occasional vacant block where houses used to be can still be spotted. A result of the bushfire, of course. It’s sad to see garden remnants, retaining walls, garden paths and steps at the front of the empty block that don’t go anywhere. The house was gone, just traces in the dirt where the foundations used to be. Though, it’s interesting to see the number of new houses in the area. And not just ordinary looking places either, but large, luxurious houses. I gather that some people won as a result of the fire, and by the look of some of those new houses did very well indeed.

I discovered the Woden shopping centre to the south of Canberra. Now there’s an unusual name for a place: Woden. I can’t help but wonder if the individual who coined the name had a speech impediment. I laugh to myself whenever I hear someone refer to it: “I wink I’ll wop wound to Woden wopping wentre to wet a woo wings.”

Presentation is everything

I had a list emailed to me, of things to do before the house gets put on the market. Things were getting organised at home, and this was a list of stuff that that needed to be done.

• chop fire wood,


• fit a moulding to the laundry door frame,


• fit moulding to the cornice in the study, and spa room,


• secure the lattice on the front decking,


• dump our old dishwasher and fridge,


• tidy the garage and clean out the rubbish,


• organise a trip to the dump,


• paint the bedroom, bathroom, study and spare room,


• get the broken key out of the laundry lock,


• repair hole in the driveway bitumen,


• repair kitchen bench top, and


• decide on the furniture to sell or keep.

A thorough tidy up and clean out like we’ve never done before, that should probably been done years ago.

If you’re selling your car, you clean and polish it. It should sparkle. The punters should be able to see their face in the paintwork. There should not be a single spot of dirt on the windscreen. So, it should be the same when you are selling your house. Give the punters nothing to complain about. Make them go oh-ah when they see your house.

There was an experience when selling my house in Tasmania that is burned into my psyche. The house was on the market for ages and not selling. The whole thing was getting us down. The house had a mezzanine floor. So, it was kind of two storey, and because of that it had huge sloping steel roof. There was also under house parking, and it had huge foundations for all this to rest on. The garden was neat and the block was adjacent to a park, where peacocks strolled on occasion. Actually, this park was one of Launceston's nicer places to be. The roofline of the house was a dominant feature of the building. It was a colorbond steel roof but it was looking a bit jaded and dusty due to oxidation over the years, but it was sound. We wondered that because everything else had been spruced up, and because the roof was such a dominant feature of the building, that it too needed some attention.

You can buy car shampoo that’s a sort of soapy preparation that leaves a shiny waxed effect when it dries. We got some of this wash & wax, donned overalls, and with buckets of the preparation clambered onto the roof, slopped it onto the steel sheets, rubbed and polished off the old oxidised layer and wiped it dry and clean. I’m sure the neighbours must have thought we were nuts. It was a little dangerous, but the view from the rooftop of a two story house gave an entirely different perspective of the suburb that became a bonus to a tedious job. The next day that roof glistened like new. No kidding. And it may have been coincidence, who can say, but after the Saturday open inspection on the very next weekend the house sold.

It was time to work on our Melbourne house, and make it sparkle too, and the list of things to do was just beginning. The trouble is, I’m in Canberra and the house is in Melbourne.

Expect the unexpected

My initial starting point in this adventure was simple. Get myself to Canberra to start my new job. I was leaving the Melbourne house in trusted hands with the task of getting it ready for sale. My more pleasurable task, on the other hand, would be scouting around the Canberra suburbs in search of a spot we’d like to live.

You just can’t plan everything, and allowing yourself extra time is essential to ensure you get everything done before you spiral into a panic. Expect the unexpected is probably a good motto.

Before I could head off I had some work to do on my old Nissan EXA before it would be ready for the trip. The front brakes were dodgy, the CV joint boots were torn, and the front wheel bearings had never been replaced. A front-end job was needed. I could do much of the work myself which would save heaps of money. Although things went to plan by saving on repair costs, I went off the rails due to a delay in getting the specialised mechanical work done. I had been using a small automotive outlet in Greensborough for many years; Deymo in Greensborough. They do pretty reasonable deals. They were a small business that I found I could trust. There are not many of them left. So, I don’t mind giving them a plug, and that’s where I took my bits and pieces to be serviced.

Anyway, because it took me longer than expected to get the components off the car, the person who was going to service them had gone on leave or something. I had to wait an extra week that I hadn’t planned on.