As I mentioned on my post back on 25 May, Bricks for Bricks is moving. I'm not at the point where this business is my full time employment so the other job that I have decided to move me. Thankfully, the move came with movers that packed and shipped for me. That makes life a lot easier, but still creates some challenges. Today I'll be sharing what I learned through the process. Oh and by the way, yes I did make it in one piece. I have not opened up my stash yet, but it all appears to be there.

Okay, so maybe 5 or so of these boxes do not have LEGO® in them.

1. Make sure you have a good inventory
Part of having a moving company haul your stuff from one place to another is that if anything goes missing, you have to prove it's missing. Having an inventory of what you have is important for tracking. For the business side, I already had a list of the items I had to include minifigures and unopened sets so that was easy. For the personal collection side, not so much. I decided to take the risk on loose bricks (business or personal) and no inventory them so that make it a bit easier. If you are a Bricklink seller, then you might already have an inventory of your bricks and this won't be an issue.

2. Take pictures
Another step to proving you own it is taking pictures. This is what I did with a lot of the sets in my personal collection. For some of the smaller sets, I just took a picture of the large box they were all in, but for some of the larger sets I took pictures of the set separately or in the case of modular buildings, pictures of each floor. For the business side, I took pictures of the conditions of the unopened sets that I am selling. The last thing I want is a damaged modular building or Star Wars set. If the packers or movers destroyed an unopened box and I have a picture showing that it was good before it was packed, I should be able to claim it with the moving company.

3. Use boxes from LEGO® where you can
Some sets are oddly sized and movers come with specific sized boxes that may not line up. I placed some of the larger boxed sets that I had in some boxes that I had saved from the LEGO® company. This made packing easy. For those that have never had movers come in and pack their stuff, you are supposed to let them pack everything. That means you can't use your own packing material and tape boxes shut and then claim damages after they are shipped. I placed sets in the boxes I had and then let the movers tape them shut.

4. Bag up loose and sorted bricks ahead of time
When the packers showed up at my house they just start opening drawers and putting stuff in boxes. I can't imagine what would have happened if they had to sort through my loose bricks that are separated by type and color. I took the time ahead of the packers arriving to dump my sorted bricks into plastic bags. The bad part is that I need to replace them in all of the drawers that I had, but the good news is that I don't have to re-sort all of my bricks.

5. Transport anything yourself that you just can't bare to lose
If you have a set, piece, minifigure, MOC, or whatever the case may be and you don't want to lose it, transport it yourself. During this move I decided to let the movers take everything. In a past move, I had an unopened Emerald Night set that I decided to transport on my own. During this move I decided to let the movers take everything. What would you want to transport yourself? Do you have an unopened Ultimate Collector's Millennium Falcon (#10179)?

6. 2 Gallon plastic sealable bags are your friend
If you want to keep your built sets partially assembled or at least keep the parts together the 2 gallon bags are great. I was able to put floors of the modular buildings that I have in them and also some of the other larger sets that I have. I highly recommend getting a bunch to help you pack.

7. Be prepared for ridicule
Why do you have all of these LEGOs®? Another box marked LEGO®, huh? YOU play with LEGO® still? I think they are just jealous. People knew I had a big collection, but when it was all put together and in boxes it looks much bigger.

8. Know where to get rid of cardboard boxes
Please recycle if it is an option in your area. With that being said, you need to either put some out for your weekly collection and space it out for pick ups or you need to find a place to bring them all. I was lucky to have a place in my new area that had bins for cardboard collection. It has worked out great to dump all of my boxes and get them out of my house (to make room for LEGO® sets of course).

9. Have a plan before you unpack
I have a large stash of LEGO® sets, bricks, and pieces. While it's exciting to open everything up, it's not a good idea to just open them up and stash them wherever. Put some time in planning ahead of time as to where you will put everything. If you have a NLS (non-LEGO® spouse), make sure he/she is on board with your plan ahead of time. Hopefully you moved to a bigger place that allows you to have your own brick cave. I sadly do not have a cave in my new place, but I was allotted some space. I hope to have my own cave someday.

10. Get ready to build
If you were like me and had to take lots of things apart, you can enjoy putting them all back together again. And if you're like me and enjoy building, you're actually looking forward to it.

Good luck!