PCS question for Melissa

We'll be PCSing soon but I'd like to know if all of our things have to be in the same location when we're ready to move? I still live at my college address (and I also work in that city at the moment) and then I still have stuff at my mom's house, and my husband has stuff at his parents' house (it's about an hour drive from my mom's to his parents' house). Not that it's that big of a deal, but I'm more so worried about what I'm going to do about the bigger things, such as beds and furniture!


Kerry-Ann's Response:

Melissa, PCSing can be quite a daunting experience but if you prepare as best as you can, it can lessen the burden of the moving process. We definitely understand wanting to make the experience as easy as possible for your family. Speaking from a Marine Corps stand point and from personal experience, if you opt to have the military move you, they will require that you have all your belongings in the same location. It would be more expensive for them to hire a pack up/pick up crew and dispatch them to different locations then have to deliver all your items to one location at the same time.

Usually when you PCS an inspection is done before they pack up and move your items. It's a way for them to access the amount of belongings you have and to finalize how many boxes, wrapping paper, moving crew, etc they'll need. It's also a way for the military to record the total weight of your belongings so they'll know the total cost for your move.

Before PCSing to Hawaii we had a storage facility with a few of our belongings, TMO informed us that we had to move our items from the storage facility on our own to the pack up/ pick up location because they scheduled an inspection date to access our belongings and if we wanted those items to be included in the move, they had to be there before the inspection date. We ended up borrowing a friend's pick up truck and moving everything to our home to make sure it was counted in the inspection.

I'd suggest you either borrow a friend's truck or rent a Uhaul and get all your items to the home on record for the pack up/ pick up to ensure that you get everything to your new home. I know it may be a bit more work for you but in the end it'll probably be best for you guys because you'd hate for any of your items to be damaged, misplaced or forgotten due to the multiple location moves.

Be sure to contact your base's TMO to see if their current policy may be different or if there's any way they can make any special arrangements for your family. Best of luck with your PCS. If you need any PCS tips, please visit our archives where you'll find a ton of great info on how to best survive a PCS from fellow military wives.