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how the hell do i move my stuff?!

hush

hush

Experienced Member
Joined
Feb 7, 2022
Messages
443
Location
MD, USA
so like most of you i've got a decent collection of old computers now and of course they're all various shapes and sizes... i'm moving back home at the end of the month and by far the biggest thing i'll be moving (since i'm getting rid of furniture) is this, so i wanted to ask, how have you guys managed it?

i've been rolling it around in my head and so far, the best solution i've come up with is to grab a pallet from home depot and do it that way. anyone have any better suggestions? :)
 
Moving back can only be solved by downsizing, I'm afraid. I did that in 2013. For the first three or four months my stuff remained in the car park under a tarp and as I remodelled the storage and living spaces I touched everything I owned, sorted, separated and repacked everything.
It's all more or less in the same places it's lived for the last 12 years. I'm sure I'll get the chance to bring it all out again.





One year.





possibly.

:c
 
i thankfully don't have a *ton* of stuff, i think it can be divided up between the truck i've rented and my hatchback but the problem is figuring out exactly how. the largest items i have are my BA23 PDP11 and my double-wide model 170 AS/400 which is a two man lift, but still doable. the other stuff is mostly workstations and desktops of various sizes, a DECmate II, a large IBM PC server 500, that sort of thing. i think the BA23 and PC server 500 can probably go safely in the truck tucked away between my other things and tied down securely, but i'm still not sure palletizing the rest is the best way.
 
definitely, but i'm thinking more about how to pack it all in the truck so that it doesn't move around during the ten or so hours it's on the road.
 
FWIW, the full-size moving trucks/vans have at least two levels of fastening loops on each side wall at ~4 foot intervals. Sometimes they are on rails/slots and can be shifted forwards/rearwards to a cargo-specific position. The idea is to use them to create a temporary wall securing that interval from shifting backwards/forwards. Several layers of corrugated cardboard can be stacked up against the payload immediately forward of the tie straps and then cinched tight. Repeat as the truck fills front-to-back. Side-to-side it's up to the packer to provide appropriate support. So strapping to pallets is one way to accomplish that.

In the end it's a game of Tetris; place the heavy stuff at the bottom and infill with lighter stuff until you reach a suitable level. Then start over with a new (but lighter) layer, perhaps over a new layer of corrugated cardboard.

You might take a peek at your planned moving truck/van to see what accommodations exist. Note that you'll *really* like it if there is a slide out ramp. Gate lift is even even but them we're talking about real money for a rental. But if you're going to palletize then I think that's what you will need.
 
yeah, none of it is particularly rare and the stuff that would be hard to reacquire i already have packed away or have a plan to move, the rest is stuff that would mostly just be annoying to have to go out and get again so i guess we'll see! :)
 
Last time I moved my collection (12 years ago), I palletized everything and it took 5 24’ Penske box truck loads to move it all. Once I had everything on pallets (14 fit in one truck) it took less than an hour to get a truck loaded (I do have a pallet jack so that made moving the pallets fairly easy). It allowed me to make one trip a day (new place was 4 hours away) so I had to do it across multiple days.
 
For me it was about 14 years ago. I did some research and there are companies that specialize in transportation of delicate items - like lab equipment and museum pieces. They are expensive, but then so is your collection. Insurance money cannot replace items that are no longer manufactured. So you have to take precautions. They were pretty thorough. I was impressed with the technique used with the ASR-33 TTY. They wrapped it in thick plastic. Put it in a wooden crate. Then filled the remaining space in the crate with expanding foam. One solid unit when complete.

Contact your nearest metropolitan museum and ask what services they use.

-J
 
hush said:
definitely, but i'm thinking more about how to pack it all in the truck so that it doesn't move around during the ten or so hours it's on the road.
Click to expand...
So in my experience if you want something to end up okay on the other end, pack it like you would ship it. Now to a certain extent since you are determining how it is handled, you can make exceptions and pay attention to the markings on your own boxes like 'fragile!! crt monitor!!' that are completely regarded by movers and shipping companies.

And it's amazing what small boxes will do for this--hard drive here, mouse there--just a bit of bubble wrap and tape the box and done. For other larger items and computers, I'd figure out how to cushion them using the seats in your car and the seat belts to keep them from moving. I generally will put a tower on the seat together with as many as will fit (fully towers may need to be on the floorboard), and then seat belt them in and pull the belt until it's tight on them.
 
ggs said:
Last time I moved my collection (12 years ago), I palletized everything and it took 5 24’ Penske box truck loads to move it all. Once I had everything on pallets (14 fit in one truck) it took less than an hour to get a truck loaded (I do have a pallet jack so that made moving the pallets fairly easy). It allowed me to make one trip a day (new place was 4 hours away) so I had to do it across multiple days.
Click to expand...
oh wow, that's definitely a way bigger collection than i have hahahaha

johnx993 said:
For me it was about 14 years ago. I did some research and there are companies that specialize in transportation of delicate items - like lab equipment and museum pieces. They are expensive, but then so is your collection. Insurance money cannot replace items that are no longer manufactured. So you have to take precautions. They were pretty thorough. I was impressed with the technique used with the ASR-33 TTY. They wrapped it in thick plastic. Put it in a wooden crate. Then filled the remaining space in the crate with expanding foam. One solid unit when complete.

Contact your nearest metropolitan museum and ask what services they use.

-J
Click to expand...
this is a good tip, thank you! like i said i don't have anything irreplaceable though- if i had something like a PDP10 or a lisp machine i would definitely be making proper transport arrangements, most of the stuff i have is just various unix workstations, dos/3.11/9x machines, desktop VAXen, that sort of thing :) would be a little annoying to replace but fairly common!

Samir said:
So in my experience if you want something to end up okay on the other end, pack it like you would ship it. Now to a certain extent since you are determining how it is handled, you can make exceptions and pay attention to the markings on your own boxes like 'fragile!! crt monitor!!' that are completely regarded by movers and shipping companies.

And it's amazing what small boxes will do for this--hard drive here, mouse there--just a bit of bubble wrap and tape the box and done. For other larger items and computers, I'd figure out how to cushion them using the seats in your car and the seat belts to keep them from moving. I generally will put a tower on the seat together with as many as will fit (fully towers may need to be on the floorboard), and then seat belt them in and pull the belt until it's tight on them.
Click to expand...
also a great tip, thanks! i had an ebay seller pack something with a ton of bubble envelopes a while back and they were just sitting for months, i decided to use them for the various expansion cards and peripherals i have and packed them all nice and safe into big plastic tubs, so those are all good. i think the larger workstation style machines will probably fit fine in my hatchback as well.
 
hush said:
also a great tip, thanks! i had an ebay seller pack something with a ton of bubble envelopes a while back and they were just sitting for months, i decided to use them for the various expansion cards and peripherals i have and packed them all nice and safe into big plastic tubs, so those are all good. i think the larger workstation style machines will probably fit fine in my hatchback as well.
Click to expand...
You're welcome! The biggest thing of concern when moving systems with hard drives is the shocks the hard drives can get from just normal road vibrations. So even like towers on the floorboards I'd put on top of a pillow. Towels and clothes also make excellent packing materials--just wrap something well and tape into place. I still have some missing t-shirts from a move and I just realized where they are, lol.
 
I mean if you want to go all-out and you know your new location has the space, purchasing or renting a sea can can help, but they are not designed for long-term storage unless special considerations are taken.
I've considered myself that if I end up moving East, a 50 foot sea can will fit everything in one go and weighing several tons won't be much of an issue beyond the process of getting it on and off the truck.
 
I moved nearly 2000km in a cross country move, everything packed well (as if for shipping) using a moving company- and 3 computers mysteriously vanished and 7 other computers no longer work. (drive failures, random unknown faults, etc.)

I guess the important thing is that I survived.
 
I ended up just putting out a come-and-get-it call on cctalk, last time I had to crunch down and move in a hurry. Thankfully, folks showed up to claim all the really good stuff that I couldn't take with me, and while a few things went to the recycle center, it wasn't anything that would've been a serious loss.

Except my gorram Hohner String Performer. I am endlessly kicking myself over that, even if it did need significant repair work :/
 
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