Diary of a wet removalist

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a professional removalist every single day? What would it really be like?

What does it take to wake up six days a week at 6am - rain, hail or shine - knowing that you are about to do one of the most challenging jobs possible?

How do you keep up the stamina, the genuine smiles and the technical expertise to relocate a client’s home safely?

How is this even possible in heavy rain? For six days straight. Have you ever been soaking wet for 14 hours? Or for six days in a row?

The Frog team have just experienced this. The first week of winter in Sydney. And a cold and wet welcome to winter it was! After a record dry autumn weather pattern particularly in NSW, and with many areas in drought conditions, mother nature unleashed on us last week, and removalists’ and their clients felt the force of her power.

Here’s how it turned out for we Frogs in Sydney removals land…

MONDAY - 4 wet Frog men, 2 Frog trucks

Job #1
8am start, 3 bedroom house loading from Chippendale and unloading in Sylvania, 2 men, a very full 10 tonne truck, 9.5 hours labour, terrible (normal) Sydney traffic conditions, wet weather conditions, lovely clients making us lots of hot drinks.

Job #2
8am start for one of our largest corporate clients; Department of Family & Community Services. Loading in Ryde and unloading in Ryde so local traffic was pretty good considering the wet conditions, which means we are able to complete this relocation in 4 hours and have our Frog men assist at the unload at Sylvania.

TUESDAY - 3 wet Frog men, 1 dry Frog man, 1 Frog truck, 1 Frog ute

Job #1
7am start (that’s a 5am wake up after a wet, miserable day yesterday), 11 hours of non-stop packing in Clifton Gardens, at least 100 boxes packed in preparation for our client’s move to Seaforth over the next couple of days in what is forecasted to be very wet conditions. One exhausted but dry Frog man after packing the contents of a three level house by himself. Due to the forecast, extra consideration is taken to ensure items are moved in and out of the truck without getting wet. This means extra tape on boxes and plastics to protect every piece of furniture. We always make every effort to ensure items are moved without damage, especially in conditions which are not ideal.

Job #2
8am start in a Newtown terrace for 3 wet Frog men, extremely narrow roads for our huge truck, two balcony drops in wet and slippery conditions. Lounges made it down to ground level safely. Unload in Camperdown seven hours later. Two days of being constantly cold and wet is starting to be felt by the team.

WEDNESDAY - 3 wet Frog men at it again, 1 large Frog truck, 1 small Frog truck to ferry furniture up a long, steep and slippery driveway

7am start in Clifton Gardens to load up mainly essential items including beds, kitchen items and clothes of a rather large four day move across to Seaforth with hosts some stunning ocean views. 3 men, a 3 level house, 11 hours of hard yakka in extremely wet conditions. Heavy bursts of rain really slow us down today. Everything is slippery including our grip and the ground/floors.  The access at Seaforth is up a long, steep driveway so we hired a small 3 tonne truck to make it as close as possible to the house to avoid furniture getting wet. Our big truck would not make it up the steep drive especially when fully loaded. We make it through the day fine albeit extremely wet again.

THURSDAY - 4 Frog men (two dry and two wet), 1 large Frog truck, 1 small Frog truck

7am start again in Clifton Gardens to relocate most items over to Seaforth for yesterday’s client. We catch the sunrise and then it starts to pour. We decide to keep 2 men inside the house keeping items and floors as dry as possible and the other 2 men outside moving items in and out of the truck. It ends up being a 14 hour day as the heavy rain bring us to a standstill several times.

FRIDAY - 3 wet Frog men, 1 large Frog truck, 1 small Frog truck

Back again in Clifton Gardens at 7am to finish the four day move for our clients who will finally relocate to Seaforth today. The wet weather is unrelenting. Our clients greet us with a hot breakfast of home cooked bacon and eggs shortly after our arrival. How does it get any better?

SATURDAY - 3 wet Frog men, 1 large Frog truck

Early 8am start in North Sydney for a full house going to Camperdown. Another slippery but successful balcony drop, plenty of antiques to protect from the rain as well as a piano to move. Luckily, there are more dry spells today and we finish the relocation in 9 hours.  

Six wet and soggy days for our Frogs. Although the rain slows us down, and there is more of a clean up on move day, we minimise risk by stopping when required, and going the extra mile with protecting every piece of furniture.

Thank you to our awesome and understanding clients this week. And yes, Sydney definitely needed the rain even though we felt like it was a little too much at times.

Vesna & Danny.