Van Fail – Try not to crash
You really don’t know how awkward and stressful moving is till you have to do it yourself. I moved out over a month ago and I’m still living out of a suitcase, what the hell did I do wrong there? Didn’t budget for a wardrobe because my last place had one inbuilt.
A positive side of not having a wardrobe is I didn’t need a huge van to move everything I possessed, but some things you cant do without a van, like moving a bed, or a sofa. A yes a sofa, I still need one of those. We weighted the pros and cons of hiring a van (not old enough, 1 con straight away) or paying £20 for a man and a van for an hour who moved everything for us. This was most fortunate it was an easy move in the same town more or less up the road.
A colleague of mine was not so fortunate. His girlfriend has been living in France and a £20 man and van just wasn’t going to cut it. He ended up hiring a huge commercial van (luckily he has the age, experience and licenses for these things) crossed the channel and navigate the scary scary streets and roads of Paris. But not before laying down a huge £500 deposit.
He managed to make it all the way there, load up his girlfriend’s furniture, get back and unload everything without a hitch. Then on his way to drop the van back managed to drive it into the side of a car. Subsequently he has had to pay up the excess for the insurance, which I believe to be the full £500. Idiot. There are dozens of cheap used vans for £500 or so he could have bought or paid someone else to do it for him.
