Singing the old marching song, “Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit-Bag, and Smile, Smile, Smile” might seem apropos as you prepare for your move across town or to another province. However, the melody may start to go sour once you realize that you’ll need much more than a kit-bag. You may need a more dramatic solution.
Here’s a short primer on leaving dust, dirt, grime and slime behind. There will be special challenges for sure, particularly when it comes to cleaning up outside your home– from patio areas to storage sheds and everything in between. So, allow us to make it easier.
The great outdoors– including your back yard– is the source, after all, of that dust and dirt that mysteriously creeps into your current home. If you want to keep it from traveling with you to your new home, roll up your sleeves, don some rubber gloves and get ready to tackle some extra grime.
Some items you’ll simply need to wipe– like patio and lawn furniture. You’ll need to hose down items that won’t rust– like plastic garbage cans. You may have other things that are damp from rain or snow, so you’ll need to dry those prior to the move. It’s all pretty straightforward and not too of surprises, we hope. Now, don’t get freaked out, but the dirt and grime may include bugs and slugs and larger living things.
Don’t go squirrely
We included “squirrel” in the title of this blog not just because we’re easily distracted. We’re talking about potential unwanted stowaways of the creepy-crawly and otherwise living kind that you’re quite likely to encounter as you clean up your backyard.
Critters may may be a source of welcome fascination if you’re visiting a zoo or museum with your family– but not so much if you discover you’ve been living and breeding practically under your noses for who knows how long. And perhaps it’s your nose has led you to that surfeit of skunks. Yes, that’s what a group of skunks is called.
Since you’ll likely get up-close-and-personal with some of those critters in the midst of your backyard packing and cleaning adventure, we thought it appropriate to review the proper terms to describe groups of animals common to our geographical area.
Be prepared for a possible encounter with a colony of ants, termites or rats, for example. If you want to a few extra synonyms for “colony” of rats to impress your friends, or the rats themselves, you can refer to them as a horde, mischief, or swarm. We personally like the word “mischief,” something rats were born to produce.
Here are a few more common animals and the words used to describe groups of them:
- Squirrels: dray, colony
- Weasels: sneak, gang, pack
- Bears: sleuth (but one’s enough, thanks)
- Bees: swarm, bike, cast, cluster, drift, erst, game, grist, hive, rabble, stand
If you are overly-stressed from the move and perhaps not seeing things as they really are, you may make the mistake (albeit not too common) of confusing a blessing of unicorns with a simple nursery of racoons– hopefully not in the nursery. (It just struck us that we never exspected to be writing about unicorns in a moving blog. But life and blogs sometime take fantastic turns.)
Before you start seeing unicorns, call Kary Movers. We have a fleet of trucks (yes, a fleet, not a hive or pack) that can accommodate your move. For larger moves, we can put a guarantee in writing that the price we quote is the price you’ll pay. And we’ll put our paw print on it.
Have a moving question or two for us at Kary Movers? We’d love to hear from you. Call us at 1-877-687-1746 or email us at info@karymovers.com. You can also get an online quote from us. We look forward to getting you into your new home and creating some great memories– dirt-free, pest-free and unicorn-free. Unless you really want to keep that blessing of unicorns.