This is my first request post! As you all know my husband and I are both military and most of our friends are also young military couples. Since military families generally have to move every two or three years, it is important to understand how the system works and how to accomplish these moves with as little stress as possible. My husband and I both grew up in military families and have experienced many moves over the years, including two of our own as a married couple since 2010. We arranged those moves ourselves, known in the military as a Do-IT-Yourself move (DITY move).
There are a few different ways to do a DITY move. What you must know when doing a DITY move is that you take it upon yourself to move your belongings from point A to Point B. You also have to pay for all of it up front. Keep your receipts because once you’re done you turn them into TMO and get reimbursed.
In our first DITY move we hired a professional moving company to come out, pack our stuff and move it in a truck to OH and then unload it. We ran into a lot of problems on that move. The movers arrived in the middle of the night instead of mid-afternoon on the packing day, so Alex and I had to do much of the packing ourselves to stay on schedule. Our stuff was then loaded onto a truck that had household goods from several other families on board. You run a risk when loading your belongings onto a truck that moves more than one family. The risk being that if they had any bed bugs there is always a potential that your stuff could end up being infected by the time you get it. In addition, there is no guarantee that this will be the only truck your stuff rides in. They might transfer it to a second truck along the way if logistics demand it. Nobody will be watching the movers to ensure they are careful when transferring your belongings. Well, our stuff was loaded and driven to OH, where unbeknownst to us, it was unloaded and put into storage. Because of this we did not receive our household items until a week after we planned. The only thing I love about this move was that someone else had to move all our furniture and boxes into our apartment up three flights of stairs, meaning less work for Alex and I.
As you can see from the amazing diagram, there were a lot of transitions between points A and B, which meant more potential for things to break.
We decided to give PODS a try for our second DITY move. This experience was significantly better than our first. They have a military discount and often work with military families so they know that you need the empty and full weight tickets. We basically packed up all our stuff put it in the POD and then did as the directions said and set off a bug bomb so that if there were any bugs that got into the POD they would be dead and not a problem when we got to our final destination. What we really liked is that our stuff stays in the POD till we ask for it to be delivered. It stayed in an air-conditioned storage warehouse in Pensacola until we asked for it to be dropped off at our new home. That way we could take our time with the home search and buying process without worrying about our household goods. The only downside is that they charge a flat rate for each month you have the POD in storage beyond the first month, and they don’t pro-rate so if you go over by one day you must pay for the whole month.
One of the only challenges with this type of move is that you must pack the POD yourself. The alternative is to get a bunch of friends to help out and buy them all pizza and beer, or hire a labor company for a few hours. However, you can take as long as you want to load your POD, so Alex and I packed ours over a span of four days and were able to move all but two items by ourselves. The best part about PODS, at least in our experience, was that the service was excellent and everyone was easy to work with. Also, the only way any of your stuff will break is if you pack it poorly, and you never have to worry about anyone else handling your stuff. Nobody else has a key to the lock on your POD except you.
Here is a picture of our POD almost fully packed.
Just in-case you were wondering here is a list of everything we were able to fit into the POD. It was their standard large size.
Number | Item |
1 | Twin mattress |
1 | Large twin wood box frame with three drawers |
1 | Full size futon and frame |
2 | Decorative chairs |
4 | Kitchen Chairs |
1 | Kitchen Table |
1 | Coffee table |
2 | End tables |
1 | Side table |
1 | King size headboard and foot board (purchased the kings size mattress in FL) |
1 | Large Dresser (seen in pic) |
1 | TV stand |
1 | 32” tv |
1 | Decorative trunk |
1 | Storage bench |
1 | Wingback couch |
1 | Large bookcase |
1 | Wingback chair (going to re-upholster soon) |
4 | Plastic boxes |
2 | Plastic drawer storage units |
32 | Small cardboard boxes |
11 | Medium cardboard boxes |
7 | Large cardboard boxes |
1 | 45lb bar (the following are all components of our garage gym) |
4 | 45lb plates |
2 | 35lb plates |
2 | 25lb plates |
2 | 10lb plates |
1 | Plastic crate full of charger plates |
2 | Workout sleds |
6 | Sandbags |
1 | Bench press stand |
2 | Stall mats |
We also filled every drawer with items too so there was no wasted space! For the military members who are thinking of doing a DITY move, consider PODS. It’s super easy and the reimbursement process is simple and fair.
.jpg)
