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Not a rant, not massively a tail of woe (yet) just a few comments others may benefit from.

I find myself relocating with work, which I am very happy about for a range of reasons not relevant here.

I also find myself with a lot of models on shelves in a back bedroom, a kitchen work area thats somewhat cluttered etc, none of it stored in travel cases.

Ok the first step was to consider going through all the many boxes, some are still sealed so obviously unbuilt, others have part built models or "bitz" in them on the frames. After crying for a while I discarded this idea, its all going, I'll sort it some other day, possibly after hell becomes a skating rink.

Boxes are easy though, ordered some 20 archive boxes which would easily be enough (have since ordered 20 more...), and managed now to get the various boxes largely packed - just the larger full sized game boxes remain as they don't fit in the archive boxes, which I have now run out of.

Models that are built but lack storage cases, you know the stuff like a Bretonnian army in shoe boxes that don't close, High Elves in trays etc are going into the plastic "really useful boxes" with bubble wrap in layers. So far the contents of the kitchen table have gone into about six such boxes, I need probably another ten for the back room to handle the various flames of war armies, elves, goblins, horses etc.

The leopard mobile is in the shop for repairs following and argument with a Mitsubishi Outlander (which left on a lorry, the leopard mobile was drivable), we have been given a Toyota Aygo as a replacement.... ummm... yeah..

The house itself is being packed professionally, but I'm moving the models and gaming stuff myself simply for the sanity of packing it.

Fortunately the paint and stuff in the kitchen largely lives in plastic drawers which will be easy enough to tape shut and let the removals people pack, they can survive being treated as such.

Can see some models being simply sat on bubble wrap in open trays and driven north, there are simply impossible to pack any other way sensibly without taking a massive amount of space, GW High Elf dragon I'm looking at you among others. the CoD buildings I have, fortunately not many, are similar, can't see a sensible way of packing them. Thankfully my FoW terrain collection was designed with being transportable in mind.. Just have the slight issue of the boxes its in not fitting in the car.

Everything takes a lot longer than you think it will, fortunately we're going rented to rented, and have a four week overlap where we have both (to allow decorating etc the cost seemed worth it), so I have time to do multiple runs, trying to do it all in advance of the main move so the removals bods just have the dismantled shelving and a few taped up plastic boxes to shift


Lessons so far
1. however many storage boxes you think you need, you need more
2. try to avoid crashing the car shortly before you move for the replacement will be useless
3. its well worth dealing with empty boxes and sorting "bitz" out as you go...
4. Terrain takes up a lot more space than you think, especially the GW CoD buildings
5. some of the nicer GW models are a royal PiTA to pack for transport
6. Planning is worth while, as is trying to do stuff early, last minute sucks
7. I'd hate to be a doing a normal house move and trying to pack it all to be professionally moved in one lift.


Anyone else got any hints, tips or advice for moving with models?

Hard back books weigh a ton... Use hard plastic milk crates to move them.. Even if you need to make multiple trips..cardboard boxes just don't cut it.

The other would be if you have a large permanent gaming table to sale it or give it away... you can always rebuild bigger and better..

I just moved too. I also had a lot of models that were built but no travel cases or even foam trays for them. What I did was I ordered 2 egg carton foam mattress toppers on Amazon. They were like $20 each. I cut them to size to fit inside plastic storage bins and I layered them models inside like army men lasagna. Worked great, not a single piece broke too

 Genoside07 wrote:
Hard back books weigh a ton... Use hard plastic milk crates to move them.. Even if you need to make multiple trips..cardboard boxes just don't cut it.

The other would be if you have a large permanent gaming table to sale it or give it away... you can always rebuild bigger and better..

Not even daring to try and shift the books, Pickfords can handle them... They tend to put a few in the bottom of a shallow box then fill the rest with other stuff (like Mrs L's mahoosive collection of tatty teddies)

Agree on the table though, same dilemma years back with model railways, much easier to either sell it or salvage what you can and scrap it as you'll never get it to fit right. Guess with gaming tables you can probably find a club or maybe a shop that will be glad of it.

Hoping to have space to built a table though.. but already decided its a custom built that will be considered as a throw away if I move


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Necros wrote:
I just moved too. I also had a lot of models that were built but no travel cases or even foam trays for them. What I did was I ordered 2 egg carton foam mattress toppers on Amazon. They were like $20 each. I cut them to size to fit inside plastic storage bins and I layered them models inside like army men lasagna. Worked great, not a single piece broke too

Oh thats genius, pure genius, using bubble wrap here but that idea is wonderful

 Genoside07 wrote:
Hard back books weigh a ton... Use hard plastic milk crates to move them.. Even if you need to make multiple trips..cardboard boxes just don't cut it.

The other would be if you have a large permanent gaming table to sale it or give it away... you can always rebuild bigger and better..

Hit up the local copy shop or office supply store and get the half-case boxes some of the paper comes in. Then a quick wrap around the top with packing tape (one pass is sufficient) gives enough reinforcement to handle the stress.

Full case boxes wind up being too heavy when filled with books, but work great for game boxes.

I was lucky with my move earlier this year, as I was only moving about ten minutes away from my old house. I made two trips with a UHaul van, with all my stuff spread over the floor of it one or two layers, carefully positioned so nothing would shift or squash anything else.
I'm always reminded of this comic strip, though.


Why, yes, my computer did make the move resting securely in the front seat of my car.

My god i dont even want to think about what i might find if i moved.

all the more reason to try and get my gak done.

Back in February, I had to pack up my "game room" for a renovation. It took 120 "banker's boxes" to pack everything up to place in storage. Less than 60 has been brought back into the house, the rest is to be sold off (mostly D&D, 1E-3E; I burned the 4E stuff ).

I agree with the lessons above (though didn't have the car issues), and will add:

1) 95% of your stuff will fit neatly into boxes. The remaining 5% will take an extra 15% space. Have a couple of extra "junk boxes" ready for those things that won't pack neatly.

2) LABEL EVERY BOX, and on more than one side. If you can, while one person packs, have another fill out a inventory sheet with contents. Especially if you won't be coming back to unpack for some time (more than a week).

3) Get a foldable/collapsible handcart to move book-filled boxes. After moving it becomes a great tool for taking your collection to tournaments or clubs and will save on your back tremendously.

 Stormonu wrote:

1) 95% of your stuff will fit neatly into boxes. The remaining 5% will take an extra 15% space. Have a couple of extra "junk boxes" ready for those things that won't pack neatly.

I don't know why but this comment reminded me of when I was moving from my apartment to a house my wife and I bought.

Years ago when Cthulhu items were hard to find, long before Cthulhu flavored chewing gum. Back when no one would ever think a big squid monster could be some type of franchise.
I found a vinyl Cthulhu model that I considered rare at the time and had a local expert painter guy that was very good at putting vinyl models together and painting them. The final model was a master piece..
Fast forward to just a few years ago.. moving day came.. I didn't want to box him up and want the model be be one of the last things out of the apartment.. I didn't want to move him in the
moving van and wanted my wife to hand carry the model from the apartment to the house.. As with most couples; we argued about everything happening... as the final truck load was finishing;

I took the Cthulhu to the truck and placed in my wife's seat..And went in for another load... Being mad at me, she came along and placed it on top of the truck cab...We finished loading
and we left.... Lucky we only drove a few minutes to a friends house; when I asked where it was... Then shock set in...it had fell off the truck on a very busy road by a local college and I had to dodge
traffic trying to pick up the pieces in the middle of the road at night..Found out poor Cthulhu lasted about three blocks.. Ended up taking a box with the pile of broken pieces back to the guy that did the model
originally and he looked at it and asked "what did you do??" He worked on it for about a month and found out I was only missing a tip of a finger, which he sculpted me a new one.. Of course my wife paid for
the repairs.. She is no longer allowed to touch him...

This thread could easily turn into gamer moving adventures also... just to warn others of what happens when you do things wrong..

I just moved a few months ago and am still along way from unpacking.

Good to see the OP covered most of the major issues (more boxes and book weight) but I'd add a couple more;

Bubble wrap anything of value/fragile even if in a box. My movers were decent enough but when it got beyond 5pm (delay in exchange for me, could also be down to a long haul) but they will tend to be less delicate if time is against them.

You have more stuff than you can possible imagine ergo the extra boxes, but there is a point were you and indeed you significant other will notice that you have boxes (and boxes) of gaming stuff that has never been opened let alone used. My "office" at the old house was a box room but I had over the years cleverly installed much shelving and secreted not a few boxes in the loft. When I arrived at the new house and all of the boxes were put in a room 2.5 times the size of the old one it pretty much filled up with not a few comments from the Mrs. Horrible words were used by her like "too much" and "sell on eBay". I weathered that storm but you need to steel yourself for such things.

leopard wrote:
The house itself is being packed professionally, but I'm moving the models and gaming stuff myself simply for the sanity of packing it.

Indeed... models are always packed by me, and moved in my own car, just for my own peace of mind

 Genoside07 wrote:
Hard back books weigh a ton... Use hard plastic milk crates to move them.. Even if you need to make multiple trips..cardboard boxes just don't cut it.

Boxes are fine for books, so long as they're decent quality and packed neatly. Exhibit A:

As notprop noted, bubble wrap is your friend and can be useful in both wrapping delicate models and layering models in a box. When you fill a box, add some soft foam or more bubble wrap on top to make certain the contents do not get bounced when transported.

My two cents,

CB

I moved house twice, from Richmond-on-Thames to Kanagawa in Japan, then from Japan to Henley-on-Thames. Both times I used the "Black Cat" removal company whose proper name is Yamato Logistics
http://www.kuronekoyamato.co.jp/en/



They had lots of experience of moving model soldier collections and did a great job both times. The packaging materials used were heavy duty cardboard boxes, brown paper (which was used for layering, and scrunched up for padding,) and bubble wrap.

First and most important step is to meditate and free your mind of the curse known as "Nostalgia".

After that, moving your hobby stuff is way easier as you can get rid of a lot or sell it!

 insaniak wrote:

leopard wrote:
The house itself is being packed professionally, but I'm moving the models and gaming stuff myself simply for the sanity of packing it.

Indeed... models are always packed by me, and moved in my own car, just for my own peace of mind

 Genoside07 wrote:
Hard back books weigh a ton... Use hard plastic milk crates to move them.. Even if you need to make multiple trips..cardboard boxes just don't cut it.

Boxes are fine for books, so long as they're decent quality and packed neatly. Exhibit A:

Spoiler:

Those boxes are not aligned

 Desubot wrote:

 insaniak wrote:

leopard wrote:
The house itself is being packed professionally, but I'm moving the models and gaming stuff myself simply for the sanity of packing it.

Indeed... models are always packed by me, and moved in my own car, just for my own peace of mind

 Genoside07 wrote:
Hard back books weigh a ton... Use hard plastic milk crates to move them.. Even if you need to make multiple trips..cardboard boxes just don't cut it.

Boxes are fine for books, so long as they're decent quality and packed neatly. Exhibit A:

Spoiler:

Those boxes are not aligned

lol Cover and Alignment that's my assignment!

To OP I feel you, I dread the eventual move coming up in a few years when I buy a house and stop renting. I have thousands of minis, like a 100 board games, and things hidden away in the dark recesses of my game room I don't even know exist. I also keep buying more for some reason.

I just chuck it all in a box. Been fine so far. Not hugely precious about my stuff - only toys, after all

I ordered several hundred poundsworth of storage and foams from a well-known manufacturer who advertises how comfy your figures will be in their boxes... started packing...

And then had to go back for a second and then a THIRD round of storage. That array still forms the core of my miniatures archive in proper long-term storage boxes.

We were aided a bit by my ordering a tonne of huge storage boxes for the "oddly shaped" things like terrain and crockery. They came straight from the factory, on a couple of pallets. And, brilliantly, the larger boxes came in cardboard boxes... which we Did Not discard...

Storage like that is Really Useful because you can leave things in them for extended periods of time -- pile them up in the garage, unpack over the next.. er... so far... decade. They stack safely, there's actually shelving solutions for them (which are good), they're waterproof, spiderproof and dustproof.

So that's my recommendation -- Comfy figures in foams and loads of Useful boxes.


The movers hated us. They moved 1 sofa, 1 bed, 1 fridge, 1 washing machine which is apparently sort of normal but then there were boxes containing a several-tonne comic collection (his), two several thousand book collections (his & mine), a several-tonne lego collection (mine), a massive RPG book collection (his) and only THEN got started on the literally boxes of lead...

I just moved, and packing my hobby room took over a week, three dedicated car journeys to move, and has only just been unpacked into some semblance of order. Small boxes, lots of bubblewrap, clear labelling, and starting on it early all helped, and everything seems to have survived the trip. I wished I could have decorated the room before unpacking, but apparently the room isn't a priority.

Update!

Have been decorating all week with no interwibble access, many wonderful updates on here though.

Previous house move saw me consider KR for the Imperial Guard, gave up upon realising I needed some £200 for that army alone..

Most of the boxed stuff has now been moved, in archive boxes, just the unboxed miniatures on the shelves now, which will be bubble wrapped in "Really Useful Boxes", there are various oddballs that are in boxes that can't be closed, these will be transported carefully by the virtue of putting them on top of other boxes, possibly with a bit of tape to stop them sliding.

Thankfully the roads round here are perfectly smooth and have no speed humps or pot holes... oh... cries slightly

I will however be repacking a lot at the new house to render it a bit more sane and keep an eye on storage and packing in future.


+1 on labelling the boxes, this is a really good idea, a lightly less good idea is getting board though, I know have a few dozen boxes labelled "misc", which it turns out is not overly helpful.

The itty bitty car isn't helping...

Grocery store banana boxes work well for cheap way to get boxes. Most markets have huge bins of boxes they recycle and will give you for free. Just stop by the grocery store and talk to the manager.

 Chute82 wrote:
Grocery store banana boxes work well for cheap way to get boxes. Most markets have huge bins of boxes they recycle and will give you for free. Just stop by the grocery store and talk to the manager.

Not quite so easy here, but do have s few of them. Bit of lining paper to cover the holes and they are wonderful. Stackable too

The I've moved house twice in thelast ten years; from living with my parents to sharing a 2-bedrom flat to a 3-bedroom house of my own. Both times, I moved my miniatures myself. Most things went into boxes, the big awkward items like Imperial Knights for 40k, or Forge World's big dragon, went on the passenger seat of the car.

 AndrewGPaul wrote:
The I've moved house twice in thelast ten years; from living with my parents to sharing a 2-bedrom flat to a 3-bedroom house of my own. Both times, I moved my miniatures myself. Most things went into boxes, the big awkward items like Imperial Knights for 40k, or Forge World's big dragon, went on the passenger seat of the car.

I got my wife to hold the box with the most valuable stuff on the final trip. She wasn't overly impressed, luckily it was only a short drive.

 JamesY wrote:

 AndrewGPaul wrote:
The I've moved house twice in thelast ten years; from living with my parents to sharing a 2-bedrom flat to a 3-bedroom house of my own. Both times, I moved my miniatures myself. Most things went into boxes, the big awkward items like Imperial Knights for 40k, or Forge World's big dragon, went on the passenger seat of the car.

I got my wife to hold the box with the most valuable stuff on the final trip. She wasn't overly impressed, luckily it was only a short drive.

My wife's a moving veteran, and is well used to having boxes or assorted valuables in her lap for trips between properties... when I pack a car, it's packed.