Close your eyes and imagine the stress, frustration, and pressure of moving day. Packing everything you own, trying to stay organized, struggling to move your bigger pieces of furniture, losing track of where you put the tape, the scissors, or the screws to put your dining table back together. You could scream!!
Now imagine the sun rising and seeing a fleet of volunteers and pick-up trucks on the horizon, clad in tennis shoes, and equipped with trailers.
A group of volunteers in the new warehouse, resting for a moment.
That’s exactly what happened August 12th, 2017, also known as Warehouse Moving Day. The planning and construction were all done and now it was time to literally pack ’em up and move ’em out.
Volunteers started arriving at 7 AM that morning. They then took everything off the shelves and got it into the multiple trucks, trailers, and cars that were waiting. While those vehicles made the trip down the street and started unloading, more volunteers started disassembling the warehouse shelves. Via an assembly line of volunteers that stretched across the warehouse and out the door, the boxes and furniture from 1303 were loaded into the new warehouse. Once the shelves got to the new warehouse, more volunteers started filling them up.
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Loading linens into a truck
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Lots of chairs in the U-Haul
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Pre-packed boxes being loaded on to a trailer
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Furniture on its way out!
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Loads of linens heading out the door
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...y'all there were a LOT of chairs
Our moving day volunteers were of all different ages, genders, abilities, and races. Some had been volunteering regularly for years, others every now again. Some had served on the board the year previously, others were current (and even future!) board members. The day went on like a well-oiled machine. Volunteers, board members, and all sorts of friends of the Nest, from all corners of our community, worked together as if they were seasoned colleagues.
Boxes and furniture came down, were loaded, transported, and then unloaded while shelves were taken down, loaded, transported, and then rebuilt. The sorting and packing area was organized and put together before boxes of donations were unloaded on the newly labeled shelves.
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Linens in the new warehouse.
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Looking at all the items to be unpacked and organized in the new sorting/packing area!
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Shelves incoming!
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Shelves and lamps up in the new sorting/packing area!
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Brand new sorting/packing area almost done!
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Volunteers waiting on a shelf for these backstock boxes.
Suddenly, the old warehouse was empty and it was only noon. It took just 5 hours to get everything out of the old warehouse and set up in the new one.
Five. Hours.
That is the magnificent power of our volunteers.
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Almost done at 1303!
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All wrapped up.
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Furniture coming in to the new warehouse!
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Everything's here, time to assemble shelves!
For more pictures from this amazing day, check out the Warehouse Moving Day Facebook Gallery!