3 stories from a professional mover

When you move at the end of the month, do you ever wonder what your mover learns about you?

Hairdressers and therapists have a reputation for getting deep insights toa customer's life, but it's hard to match the kind of intimacy you get when you head into someone's home to pack up their belongings. 

Clayton Ireland has been working as a professional mover since he was in high school. He's now with Wayne's Moving in Regina and says he's had some unique experiences.

'We'd be a travelling bomb': Trying to move a hunter

It was shortly after September 11, 2001, when Ireland went to move a hunter. The laws had just changed on what he could and could not transport.

Ireland went into the man's basement and saw lots of hunting equipment. When Ireland told the man he couldn't move a shot gun shell loader, he says the man got huffy and said "Well, I suppose you can't move these."

He pointed two three giant bins. They were filled with black powder.

"We'd be a travelling bomb," Ireland said.

Playing practical jokes

Ireland says movers like to play a common practical joke when working on corner houses with a fire hydrant.

"What you do is you wrap a blanket around it and put shovels and rakes and pretend it's all yard furniture and then you tell a new guy to go and pick that statue up."

They may not be able to pick it up, but they're officially initiated.

Dealing with stressful situations like 'divorce month'

Unfortunately a lot of moves Ireland does are right after divorces or break ups.

"We call January divorce month," he said. "Everybody seems to stay together with the kids for the holidays."

He says they try to keep their cool in such situations and respect the personal hardships of people moving.