keeping tabs on items during removals

Having moved house nine times and used storage twice, I am pretty experienced in moving! I don't recall anything going missing other than after my last move when a bag with last minute odds and ends did not appear after six months of storage. However, as there was a bit of confusion at the end of the process ( new owners arriving too early, removal firm disappearing for a long lunch break, my solicitor unable to confirm the money transfer immediately as she was in a meeting ) and it ended up with my last few boxes being taken out as the owners stuff was being carried in! The bag could very well have been left behind.

However, I have experienced quite a lot of breakages and damage, the worst being scuffs on a brand new leather suite from the rough sides of the packing crate! After several emails, I ended up paying for the repairs as there was an excess on the insurance policy which was greater than the cost - I should have read the small print!

After one move when I had three pre school children so kept out of the way during the packing, I laughed when I unpacked at the new house to fine the removers had carefully wrapped the waste bin full of all the rubbish!

I moved in April but didnt realise my Christmas tree and box of decorations was missing until December. It was full of sentimental items that had been bought when the children were small, or made by them. I had to replace everything with new, but it was never the same.

Craftyone if you use Facebook could you try searching their marketplace for your items that are missing as you said the chap sells things on it? If not ask any family members or friends who use it to search. Just a thought and no idea what you would do if you found any of your stuff - offer to buy it and appear at his door - just kidding but I have heard of people doing this.

I got that churning again, wanted my precious gardening gloves, my beautiful leather gloves and my winter gloves, I can manage without the full pack of costco gloves but those other 2 pairs!! My soil testing kit, my moisture meter, my dibbers, on it goes

My friend used the same small company removal van for her packing (un be known to us) it was shear coincidence.

Anyway once we made friends she told me about few missing items a trumpet and couple of other things.

Maybe a good idea for anybody thinking of moving is not only to number boxes but also get out the mobile and take photos of contents.

I would certainly pack and transport precious small items myself if possible,

When we came out to New Zealand, we shared a container with my inlaws.
Many things didn't arrive but most heartbreaking of all was that the cradle, made by my husband for our first baby, was totally wrecked. It looked as if it had been crowbarred apart.

Apparently many thousands of containers are lost overboard every year, so I guess we were lucky.

Almost 6,000 in 2013.
gcaptain.com/number-of-containers-lost-at-sea-falling-survey-shows/

I must have picked an excellent removal company. I used it when we moved from London to Darlington – a process that took one day of their packing and one day of travelling and unloading. Nothing was missing and all boxes were labelled with their appropriate rooms. I used them again when we moved three years later to New Zealand. Not only was everything securely packed but they were numbered and the contents listed because of insurance and customs. The associate New Zealand company which delivered the container from the port to our house could not have been more co-operative and, once again, everything was there and intact. That I still have difficulties laying my hands on certain things is because I moved to a much smaller house in the expectation of its being only temporarily so the garage is chock-a-block and I am still here six years later.

We moved countries and insurance was HUGE. The same as the cost of moving. It was thousands of pounds. We insured electrical things and furniture and most of our clothes were missing, I have never got over it! I had so many t-shirts, tops and my husband lost all his t-shirts and polo t-shirts. Slowly replacing them but at a huge cost!

It was a small company, the owner and a friend. I have to forget about it, draw a line across. It could have been very much worse, luckily I brought all the important/valuable/cherished things myself. Its only money, not like Daisymae`s wallet.

Different with a big national company when I would say something but I had to use a low van because of access and of course on 3 days they did stop somewhere for lunch while I was at the new house. Life goes on, anyway I am never moving again

This is awful for you. I moved three years ago and everything went into storage for several months because new home was delayed and I’d already given notice for my rental. Lived with DD2 in the gap. When I moved into the new place nothing was missing from storage and the firm we used, who had been recommended (not a national firm) were so helpful and efficient. It never occurred to me that I would lose anything
So sorry for you

Craftyone, was it a removal company or a self employed man? If a company I think you should mention it to the office. Not that you have any proof but just to raise their suspicions. And if they get other comments they may be able to do something.

We are short of at least one box, containing a record player, and other items that could not fit into the junior packing boxes I had used for preference. I believe there is a junior box missing too.

These were the last boxes to leave our flat, so they did not go into storage with the rest, as the container was fetched two days before we finally moved. They were stored with a friend who emphatically denies that they were among the things she put in her box room for us.

There is nothing I can do about it, and I really should stop regretting the loss of things like a wire tray for cooling the baking on, but I miss it!

That is truly awful Daisymae

I don't know how many things went missing in our move but one item I know for sure was the wallet that my uncle had in his pocket when he was killed in WWII. Somethings you just can't price. The idea of numbering the boxes is excellent.

I don`t need to go back Maw, the van appeared to be empty each time, I packed everything myself, no white goods came with me. It was just 2 men and a van, 6 trips in total .

Whiff in hindsight, I would have put a number on each box, even if I had not written the inventory down. I think it was a deterrent. Nothing has still to be unpacked, everything is done and on shelves or in cupboards, was a lot of work but I have worked non-stop for weeks

I can’t be the only person to find “missing” items weeks after completing the unpacking!
A pair of antique silver picture frames with DH’s great grandparents turned up in a linen box, packed in with net curtains! (We always got the removal firms to pack anything fragile or valuable as that way it was covered by their insurance for damage and breakages). TG I hadn’t got as far as an insurance claim.
Have you been back to the removal firm?

Sorry this happened to you Craftyone. I will make sure I number my boxes. I had only written what was in them and where they had to go. Also I put my name on them.
Thanks for the warning that things can go missing. As organised I am didn't think of the possibility that things could go missing.

Annoying, isn't it? On a past move I said to DH, "Tell me before the chaps leave as I must do a last minute check." Sadly I got a bad migraine and felt very sick. I was made to go and lie down in the bathroom - nowhere else suitable at the time. After a while DH came to me, "We've finished now, the chaps have gone." I reminded him that I'd wanted to check, "Too late," I could have cried. That was in the October.
Come December I said I'd put the Christmas tree up - where was it? The loft? The garage? It was nowhere to be seen. It must have been left on the removals van. We only had two weeks after the move to complain abut lost items - but who is going to think about a Christmas tree in October?
I felt rather miffed as it was a nice one, quite bushy which was put together in two halves and was a bit more expensive than the amount we'd normally spend on that kind of thing. It should have lasted years but was never to be seen again. It would be too big for my present home but I sort of hankered after it for a while.

yes I am absolutely certain that they are missing from here, it does leave a bad taste and in hindsight I have to say that I am very glad that I made so many trips myself in a fully loaded yeti, I had even taken the back seats out so I could carry more. All my precious carving tools, expensive crafting equipment, bose radios, scrollsaw and so on. I watched them load much stuff onto the van but could not be there all the time, I can only imagine the wheel arch lid being quickly lifted for the shallow le creuset box

The garden stuff, when the open end of the van was facing away from the house, no-one but them there. No numbered box disappeared, I wish I had numbered all of them. The le creuset pot, in a shallow box, easy to flip into a hiding place

Why when we were chatting over a tea, did he tell me about all the selling he does via facebook. I am grateful that I was able to buy one house before completing on the other, most things were safe because I made sure of it. Doesn`t stop that gutting, let-down feeling, that nasty taste

Our last house move we did ourselves with the help of sister in law and her husband, and a freshly laundered cattle wagon. ? We only had one breakage which I thought was pretty good for four inexperienced house packers.
The move previous to that went smoothly. We employed a company of local removers, known to the family. It really must be rotten to lose stuff. I hope your missing things turn up craftyone.

I mislaid an expensive fountain pen in a move and it turned up in the peg basket. I can only assume I was writing a last minute card and left it on the worktop where it was packed with laundry things?

Oh dear I thought it was just me .

When we moved to our current house 8 years ago we had to go into temporary accommodation for about 6-7 months and almost all of our stuff went into storage . When we brought it out ( bearing in mind 7 months had passed ) there were a few things missing . A PURE digital radio which wasn’t cheap, loads of CD’s ( that happened to be together in the same box) and a few other bits too. They insisted everything that came out of the house went into the storage facility and my old neighbour checked the house with me before we left.

I've had this in the past and it's not until you sit down and take stock after the stresses of moving that you realise you're missing certain things which you knew you'd packed.
Mine was a beautiful print of a Jacaranda tree which I'd bought in Australia---which was among other pictures/paintings and to which I'd hunted high and low for but realised that it had gone forever.

Have you double checked with the removers crafty? (Years
ago I thought some swine had pinched my wooden fruit bowl. Found it safely in the twin tub washing machine. More recently thought the cushions had gone awol in a move. They were in the freezer.) Hope your stuff turns up.