Every time I move I dread having to deal with the movers. When the movers finally arrived to my place in Amsterdam last week (the stuff left San Francisco in September) I thought it would be the worst experience yet. One of the reasons I hate it is because movers always think of new ways to shaft money out of you. Some of the excuses I have heard have been: the truck is too big for the street, or there are too many stairs, or you have too much stuff. Ugh. I had a feeling this time was going to be the perfect storm of moves.

I now live on the thinnest street yet, and it has a tram running down it every 10 minutes. I now live 2 narrow and steep flights up from the ground floor, and one of those flights is a tight spiral. Although I chucked out a lot of stuff in SF, I still have way too much crap. But the movers, KHZ, proved me wrong. The drove up onto the street with their magic lift in tow. This thing has to be seen to be believed.

Its basically a mobile elevator. First they line up lift with the living room window. Then they pop out the window. It turns out that most windows in Amsterdam (and maybe the Netherlands) pop out easily for just this reason. Then they load up the lift with about 10 boxes and two guys in the apartment carry the stuff in. I have never seen anything like it.

Another amazing part of the move was the time window. A few days before the move, they gave me a window for a time they would show up at. I was told between 8 and 9 AM. Just after 8, they were at the door. By 830 they started bringing boxes through the window. By 915, they left the apartment having completed the job. Moving out of my apartment in SF took 3 guys all day!!!