Moving, whether in America or Switzerland, can be full of challenges. I moved multiple times in the States and once in Switzerland. Moving from one state to another in America compared to moving from one canton to another in Switzerland were like night and day. The move between two countries from the States to Switzerland was almost a non-event for me. I had very few things I took with me and all the formalities that had to be completed in Switzerland were handled by my Swiss husband. For me that move was like going on a long vacation and, 41 years later, I’m still on.
Moving in America
Our family moved a lot when I was growing up in the States. When I say ‘a lot’, I’m not talking about once or twice. I’m talking more in the ballpark of 13 or 14 times. We were constantly asked if we were an army family because army families move pretty regularly, too. But no, we weren’t an army family, my dad worked for a large gas company. He worked in sales. Because he was a very personable and likeable person, he did his job very well. Whenever he got promoted we moved. Looking back, it looks like he worked his way nicely up the ladder. Eventually he got promoted all the way up to a job at the main headquarters in Chicago. But when the economy took a nosedive he went back to direct sales, again we moved. Then the economy got stronger and he got promoted again. You get the idea, always in motion.
The way I remember all that moving we did was ‘it was easy, easy, easy’. Of course I was young and had nothing to do with the moving technicalities. My biggest responsibility was to stay out of the way of the people working.
Because the company wanted my dad to move, they paid for it. In fact, once when my parents couldn’t sell the house quickly enough the company bought their house or something like that for them. On moving day, all we had to do was pack clothes for about a week and then stand back and watch. The movers, usually two or three burly guys, came in and within a day packed everything into boxes and then moved those boxes into the truck and drove away. Then we loaded our station wagon, checked every room and closet in the house to make sure it was empty (once we found a closet they forgot to empty), got in the car and we were off to our new home. A couple of days later (these were pretty substantial distances) at the new home, they unloaded the truck and we unpacked and put everything away.
By the way, when I say the movers packed everything then I mean everything. Once, before my parents had quit smoking I remember their look of surprise when they unpacked a full, dirty ashtray.
That was the way we always moved. I’m not sure if everyone does it that way or not, maybe we were the exception.
Moving in Switzerland
Traditionally moving day in Switzerland is May 1st and November 1st. Of course you can move at the beginning of any month. You just have to give notice at the correct time in advance, usually set at 3 months. By Swiss law you are entitled to one day off from work if you are moving into the same region, if your new residence is further, then you get 2 days. But one or even two days isn’t a lot of time.
Shortly after we were married, a Swiss we knew moved. We weren’t asked to help but we showed up on her moving day to wish her well. I was baffled to say the least, at what I saw. She was there emptying her apartment with two friends who were putting not neatly packed and labeled boxes, but stray objects in a somewhat haphazard way into her compact car. She said something about being tired and so happy that this was almost over. What??!! Doesn’t Switzerland have moving companies? What kind of jungle had I moved into?
Level of Clean
To top off my confusion she said something about cleaning. I found out later that in Switzerland you have to hand over the apartment you’re moving out of so clean that the next person can move right in. And, if necessary, eat their first meal off the floor.
So, after you actually move and before you handover your old apartment you have to clean it. It’s unbelievable all the things that have to be cleaned or fixed. Similar to spring cleaning, all the taps, lights, doors, window blinds, stove burners, extractor fan, toilet, glass door over the oven, chrome in the bathroom, windows and shutters have to be cleaned to name a few. All the keys to the inside and outside doors must be accounted for and returned. Depending on how long you lived in the apartment, if the parquet floors are scratched it might be a good idea to have them finished and sealed before you move. And, there should be no nail holes left in the walls. Fill them up correctly and NOT with toothpaste.
If the apartment is going to be renovated before the next person moves in you might only have to hand over the apartment as ‘swept clean’ [Besenrein]. But be warned, ‘swept clean’ doesn’t mean sweep and you’re finished. No, it is a pretty high standard of clean, too.
Luckily you don’t have to do this alone. You can invite lots (and I mean lots) of friends over for a cleaning party. I was at one of those once and there were at least 10 other helpers there at the same time I was there. I spent a good 4 hours cleaning. My only job was to clean an already amazingly clean oven. Other, more experienced people were given two chores. When we were finished the place looked like new.
Another, easier cleaning method before moving is to pay professional cleaners, they usually have a handover guarantee. Quite a few people go this route because if the cleanliness of the apartment isn’t accepted by the landlord (who has the last say in the matter), the cleaners have guaranteed to clean until it is.
Our Move From Berne
Twenty-six years after we moved into our apartment it was our turn to move out. During that time we had accumulated a huge amount of possessions. We ‘only’ lived in a 5 room apartment so you would think that we only had so much material. No, we had slowly, one by one, rented more room to store things in; a basement here, another room there. All these belongings had to be packed and moved, too. We got an offer from a moving company which was pretty expensive. We decided to save some money we would pack everything ourselves. The moving company would only have to load the boxes and furniture into the truck and then at our new home unload everything into the rooms we designated. A good compromise between the American and Swiss way of moving.
We were well aware of the vast volume of things that had to be packed. There was also our company that still had to function during that time. After having lived in Switzerland so long, I did what any Swiss would do; I made a detailed plan of everything that had to be done and by when. My husband kept the business going and I did the majority of the packing. The heck with one moving day off, I was going to take as much time as I needed (definitely an advantage to having your own company) and only go to work when I absolutely had to. My husband helped pack in the evenings.
I went through every room methodically, throwing out the things I could and packed everything else. I made some hard decisions and was glad my husband wasn’t there to see some of them. I printed out a computer list of everything packed, listed its box number and designated which room (I worked with a color-code here) the box was to go in our new home. We did this three weeks long. Day after day.
The day before moving day we knew that everything had to be boxed by 6 a.m. when the moving men were coming. We worked until we were finished, which happened to be at 4 a.m..
After two hours of sleep, at 6 a.m. sharp, there were 6 big burly men ready to load the trucks from our 5th floor apartment. One mover was so large and strong that even the other workers (who weren’t weaklings themselves) jokingly called him ‘gorilla baby’. I suppose you have to be ‘burly’ to work as a moving man.
Finally it was our time to stand back and watch, sort of. We answered any questions they had. They used a crane-like elevator to transport box after box, furniture, plants and everything else we had out the window and into the back of the truck. After 6 hours the trucks were almost filled. We treated the men to lunch and then travelled the 20 miles to our new home and they unloaded everything. The next day they loaded the rest of the things we had packed at different locations and delivered them in the afternoon.
They complemented us on our organization saying they had never seen anything go as smoothly as that before. For a microsecond I thought, ‘oh no, that was sarcasm, I went too far and overdid the being organizing bit.’ Then they told us a couple of horror moving stories and I knew they meant it; we were gooood. I gave us a huge mental pat on the back.
It took us about two weeks to empty all of the close to 400 boxes but when we had to find something in a box during that time our lists came in handy.
Our move in Switzrland wasn’t anywhere as easy as the American moves had been but a perfect symbiosis of Swiss/American planning.
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