PCS Tips For Reducing the Stress of a Move
Miranda’s PCS story and how to reduce the stress around it.
What is a PCS?
When a Military Spouse hears those three dreaded letters, anxiety and stress automatically kick into high gear. It surely isn’t the easiest thing to pick up all of your belongings and move your family across the country or even the world. But, our nation’s military families do it almost effortlessly each year. One of our Chief Executive Assistants with Squared Away dealt with her fair share of stress during a PCS in 2016.
How It All Started
My fiance and I had been living in separate places for 6 months, prior to our PCS. Brad was living in San Antonio, TX, training to become a T-6 Instructor Pilot with the USAF. I was living in Abilene, TX, where we were originally based, working full time, maintaining the household, and caring for our two cats.
Among this, we were planning our trip home to Buffalo, NY for our wedding on September 3rd. Now, through into the mix, moving to Mississippi and signing for our first home that same week. The first word that came to my mind was stressful.
The Plan
Our wedding and upcoming move were scheduled for the same week. In anticipation of our 3,200 mile journey, we decided to start packing up our lives weeks prior to this move. Brad traveled back to Abilene, a four hour drive, several weekends to help with the packing and heavy lifting.
We donated clothes and items we had not used while we lived in Abilene, which lightened our load quite a bit. Every box was labeled properly and placed in our living room in its designated spot.
By the time we were just a few days out from our wedding week, we had everything packed except what we needed on a daily basis. The stress of packing was gone. We just had to worry about traveling, making flights, tying the knot, and closing on our house. No big deal, right?
Below are some tips that kept me on task and less stressed will planning and packing:
- Plan ahead- Plan a lunch date with your spouse (if possible), and plan out each aspect of your trip along with plan B and C. Plan where you will be stopping to let the dog out, how far you can go on a tank of gas, where you may need to spend the night and book reservations, a budget for the trip, etc.
- Hand-write a list. YES! Handwritten! If you write something down, you have a higher chance of remembering what it is you need to do.
- Moving Information- Put the information about the movers/ car shipping company/ contact at both bases/ etc. in numerous places. You are bound to lose something, let’s not have it be that information.
- Purge- As soon as you know you are PCSing, start the de-cluttering process. Get rid of all the extras you haven’t used in the past 3–5 years. If you haven’t used it in that amount of time, it isn’t worth it to move it.
- Label ALL the Boxes- Label every item and if you choose to move yourself, pack the truck, van, or car to what you wont need right away to the very inside and what you use most at the very end. That way you have access to it as soon as you get to your new base.
What Could Go Wrong?
We had arrived in Buffalo, to start celebrating the week that we would get married, with our family and friends. Through the entire process of purchasing a home, in a separate state, we asked our bank the question, “What else do you need from us?” on numerous occasions. We had a closing date for the second day we would be in Mississippi. Our ducks were all in a row, or so we thought.
A few days out from the wedding, I received a call from our bank stating they needed our marriage certificate to proceed and that our closing date had changed to the following week. Problem one, we had no access to our certificate and we now had to find where to stay for over a week once we got to Columbus Air Force Base.
What do you do at this point? We had gotten “paper married” nearly a year prior to make the PCS process much easier so our marriage certificate was in a box, packed up in Abilene and we needed a place to stay in Columbus, for a week, once we arrived.
Plan B, C, and D had to now come into play. Brad called to set up a place to stay and I called a close friend of mine, to locate our certificate. Labeling boxes was a godsend at this point. After we handled these two issues, we could breathe a sigh of relief.
Some extra tips we learned along the way, since we weren’t moving into our new home right away are:
- Packing- A “to go” bag for you, your spouse and kids. Pack all of your essentials for traveling for up to a week. Even if it’s a full day trip to your next base, pack this bag! You just never know what can happen. FYI-keep in mind the location of your next base. If you are moving from Nebraska to Florida, you may want to pack some beach accessories.
- “First Day” Box- Who knows how long it may be until the shipment of your household goods arrive. You won’t want to eat out everyday, so packing some cooking supplies, such as a frying pan, spatula, crock pot, etc. could truly be essential. Also, bedtime supplies like an air mattress, sheets, etc.
- Personal Info- Always pack important paperwork such as birth certificates, social security cards, ID’s, bank and house information, etc. in a waterproof container with a lock.
The Move
We arrived back to Abilene, from Buffalo, two days after our wedding and the following morning we left Columbus, MS. My Father-In-Law helped us with our partial DITY (Do-It-Yourself) move. The movers took the larger items such as the dressers and bed; while we took all of the boxed items. We took pictures of everything, just to be on the safe side, and luckily had no issues with damage.
The DITY move was much easier, since we weren’t moving overseas. We had access to about 75% of our things and could start setting up our home as soon as our closing was final. Moving into our home was an issue, since we weren’t closing until the following week. With some calls to the realtor and the previous owners, they allowed us to move our items into the home before closing. This is the exact reason to have numerous plans along the way.
Some tips that we have heard and learned about moving companies are:
- Photos-Take photos of everything that the movers are taking. Several shots of each item. If they are damaged, their needs to be detailed proof of how they were prior to the move. This would be your first piece of evidence.
- Claims- If you need to file a claim, see it all the way through and don’t give up on it. Rebuttal any claim that comes back as insufficient and continue to do so until it is taken care of.
- Receipts- Save all receipts that you obtain before, during, and after the PCS. If it can’t be reimbursed, such as a flight or larger items, you may be able to write it off in your taxes the following year. (Check on your state requirements)
It Will All Work Out
Every PCS is stressful, confusing, and plain out a mess. Squared Away has a variety of spouses, from all branches of the military, that will tell you that we, as a team, understand what your going through.
If there is one thing to take from a PCS, it’s that stressing out about situations will get you no further ahead. Plan ahead and have numerous plans just in case something does happen, because we all know, it will. Lastly, relax and give yourself a pat on the back and enjoy an adult beverage once it’s all over.
Squared Away is comprised of military spouses who are your Chief Executive Assistants. We help CEOs, VCs, executives, and startup teams get their time back. US-based. #SquaredAwayLife
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Are you curious about how we could make your move an easier process and help our clients in these areas? Reach out to us via our website or email Michelle directly at michelle@gosquaredaway.com.
