Google SketchUp is a great, free, online tool that helps artistic type people create 3D objects in a digital environment. Or, if you’re anything like tipster ‘Z’, it’s a tool to help you pack a removalist truck as effectively as possible.
Perhaps it’s best to let ‘Z’ describe how he did it and why:
Hi Giz,
We’re moving house from Sydney to Canberra. Having dabbled with Google Sketchup before, I thought I’d use this opportunity to put it to good use by modelling the truck bed, as well as all our furniture, so as to optimise maximum space utilisation on the truck.
Could I have done it without Sketchup? Yes. Would it have taken more time? Definitely. Using Sketchup in this way, by modelling the exact dimensions of our furniture, allowed us to make the best use of the 24-hour rental period of the truck, as we had to return it to the city of origin.
This shaved hours off our loading time, and allowed us to move everything in one trip. The best part of it though is that it saved us from arguing with all and sundry who came to help out, about how to pack the truck.
(I didn’t bother modelling all the small, lightweight items: these were easily thrown on top of the heavy furniture.)
It must have been time consuming to accurately measure the dimensions of each piece of furniture, but you can’t argue with the end result – there’s no doubt the truck was packed as efficiently as possible.
