Is being considerate really that hard?
I just got done moving a friend and I am just amazed how applestrudling ridiculous the whole thing was. First, this person has known about moving for over a month and does not work, have children, or any other pressing events in their daily life to interfere with pre-moving planning. Showed up to find almost nothing packed and lacking moving supplies-- the dishwasher and fridge/ freezer packed full.
Second, there was a week within which time this friend had to move from one place to another. Initially, moving was happening during the week and was changed to Friday on account of home availability problems-- okay, nothing to be done about that. We were all good to go with moving all the small stuff Friday and Saturday in cars and we were borrowing a trailer for large items on Sunday. Then, moving was happening Sunday and Monday, because there were supposed to be volunteers who were going to show up to move all the heavy things into a van that was being rented for those days. Then, moving suddenly had to happen Friday and Saturday again for large items, because the van rental was scheduled for those two days even though possession didn't happen until 3 PM Friday night and my friend needed to stop moving at noon on Saturday to go accompany one of their other friends to a volunteer event that ran the rest of the day. The items that were moved on Saturday weren't even large, heavy items, but the van was filled with small items that could have been easily tossed in a car completely negating the actual need for the van in the first place. Not to mention, all the heavy items that were left had to be carried by people strong enough to move them-- which were only actually available Saturday for moving. I have no idea what happened to the volunteers.
Now, today being Sunday, our hapless group, now vanless, had the fortune to still procure a small trailer. Somehow one able bodied man and one old dude with a bad back managed to stuff a giant sectional and another full size couch into this thing. Trip number two moved out the remainder of goods that were all dump-packed while that load was being dropped off. Then, once everything was off-loaded, we get told there's a giant bookshelf unit with glass doors we have to go pick up from a seller, which means a call has to go out to someone who is now working that day to leave work to help move this giant thing, because it's just not happening with the group we have already assembled.
Next, we can't even get a hold of the people to pick the thing up from, which means this guy who had to leave work is just waiting for this to happen so they can go back to work and hopefully not get yelled at for leaving. Due to some general grumbling and suggestions we should all just leave and forget this bookshelf, our friend offers to buy us all food while we wait. Mind, we have been moving since 9:30 AM (We were all told to show up at 8:30 AM and had to wait another hour for the trailer), one of the other group members brought us all breakfast out of kindness, and it's now about 2 PM. So far, there's been a few sodas in the fridge and some old, cold pizza, if we're feeling lucky enough to go for it, on offer. We finally manage to pick up the bookshelf and move it and then realize no one knows where it's going and it has to be measured, the room it needs to go in tetris-ed since we've just been dumping half packed boxes everywhere, and finally all the big stuff is in the house. Our group also cleaned up the old place after all the furniture was gone because it was absolutely filthy.
I have never ever encountered such a horribly planned move. I don't even know what to say. I feel like this was just horribly disrespectful of everyone's time and other commitments. When I move, I have everything pre-packed and labeled, even if I'm working full-time or splitting my time between work and classes. I have drinks and snacks for people during the day and they already know I'm buying dinner when we're done, even if it's cheapie pizza. I have a van set up for the day we are moving and we get the whole thing done in a day. Everyone knows when we're starting and where to show up at and I know who can make it and who can't. I'm just absolutely floored! I hope this friend likes their new home, because I'm never again moving them out if they don't!