My name is Valarie and my husband has been in the Air Force for going on 9 years. He received his first duty location, Wright Patterson AFB (Ohio), back in 2011. We met in 2013 and spent 2.5 years together until he received his second duty location, Hill AFB (Utah) in 2015. This was the first PCS that we would be making together! We decided to do a partial move at this time not only because we didn’t want to get to our location with the bare minimum but because we figured we might as well pack our car and get paid for it!
We emptied his car as much as we could and took it to an official weigh station several days before we were moving so we wouldn’t be scrambling around at the last minute. The evening before we moved we packed the car with as much as we could fit including things like our computer, our tv, our suitcases, jewelry, cleaning supplies, and several other miscellaneous things. Then we took it back to the weigh station the day before we were leaving and had it weighed again, make sure to keep your weigh station tickets safe because you will need them to get paid!
In 2018 we received our next duty location for 2019, the Pentagon (Washington, DC). (I could never do a cross country road trip again and be completely okay with it! haha) This move would be a lot more difficult because we would have a 5-week old baby! We decided to do another partial move because again, why not get paid to pack your car of things you need and get paid to do so! In our house, we moved everything into a spare bedroom that we would be taking in our car to make it easy on the movers knowing they didn’t need to touch that room. Again, my husband emptied the car completely and took it to a weigh station (make sure they are an official weigh station). We packed up our car the day the movers arrived and stopped at the weigh station on our way out of town. This time we packed things such as our suitcases, jewelry, safe, weapons and ammo, and pretty much all the baby stuff! We were moving from a good-sized house to a 1,087 sq ft apartment so a lot of the furniture and outside/garage items would not fit. We were able to find a storage location and while the movers were packing they packed everything that needed to go to storage in the back of the truck and everything that went to our apartment in the front of the truck. Once the truck arrived in VA they delivered everything into our apartment and met my husband at the storage unit afterward and unpacked the rest. Below you will see some questions and answers regarding what a DITY is, what a partial DITY is, and what I see as perks and drawbacks of a partial.
WHAT IS A DITY?
When it’s finally that time to find out which duty location you’ll be moving to next, whether you dread it or you love traveling, you eventually have to figure out how to move all of your belongings. DITY is a Do It Yourself move where the military reimburses you for the expense of moving yourself that would have been an expense to the military.
WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A FULL AND PARTIAL?
A full DITY move is when the military member and their family find their own form of transportation for their belongings whether that be their own personal vehicle, a rental vehicle such as a U-Haul truck, or hiring a moving company. In this situation, the government does not insure your personal belongings. The family is reimbursed for a certain percentage of what this would have cost the military.
A partial DITY move is when the military member and their family decide what of their personal belongings they will be transporting and which belongings the government contracted moving company will be transporting. The military member and family will need to weigh their car (or said vehicle you will be packing) completely empty and weigh it again once you are done packing everything you are personally transporting (Keep the **Certified** weigh station tickets!). In this situation, the government sends out a contracted moving company who will wrap and pack all of your belongings into boxes (only the items they will be transporting), place them into the truck on moving day, transport items to your desired location, and they will also unpack and put away said belongings if desired. Also, with a partial DITY, the items which are transported by the contracted moving company will be insured and you can submit claims once your belongings are delivered if any of your items are damaged or broken.
PERKS OF DOING A PARTIAL?
There are several perks to doing a partial move:
- You are already driving to your new duty location, you might as well get paid for packing your car whether that be with important personal belongings, cleaning supplies, food, clothing, etc.
- Most of your belongings which could include appliances, furniture, the more expensive pieces, etc. will be wrapped, packed, insured, transported, and unpacked on someone else’s dime and time.
- You don’t have to stress about finding and hiring a company or packing, moving, and unpacking everything yourself.
- The contracted moving company can take specified items to your desired location as well as a storage unit if you are downsizing at your next location
DRAWBACKS OF DOING A PARTIAL?
The drawbacks of a partial DITY:
- You may not pocket as much money as you would if you were to do a full DITY (Full DITY is not a guaranteed way to make money through depending on your personal time to research, pack, move, and unpack, sales, discounts, and prices of rentals or moving companies).
- Some may see this as too much of a hassle with having to weigh your car before and after, and worrying about what to bring and may find having someone take it all to be less stressful.
- Your car will be completely full depending on how much stuff you bring yourself.
MEET VALERIE
