We moved house after 30 years. This was no casual annual move. We had a 30 years collection. We called a couple of recommended moving companies to come and give us quotes. Without exception they were aghast at the amount of stuff we had. Then they all smiled. Big job coming!

I explained to the estimators of each one of these moving companies that “we will not be taking all this stuff with us. Our children are taking everything in this room and in that room. Then we are having a garage sale and finally we are going to give a lot to charity. There will not be much for the moving companies to move.” Smiling, they nodded.

We received 4 huge quotations from the moving companies. All that happened is that by time they got back to their offices, they had forgotten everything I had explained to them and dreamed up a nice fat figure for a nice fat move. In the end, I hired 2 guys who had a small moving truck and did all the work themselves. So they had to make a few trips, so what? They got lunch and great tips and everyone was happy.