1. You do not need all the stuff you're leaving with. I would suggest going through all your clothes and going to a second hand store, such as Plato's Closet, and selling as much as you can. You might not get much, but every little bit helps. Everything you can't sell take to Goodwill. Seriously you're probably never going to wear that ugly dress again and no it's not going to come back in style....ever. Just let it go.
2. Boxes are way more expensive than they need to be. You can buy and sell your boxes on Craigslist. I got this great tip from my step-sister, the wonderfully comedic Jenny-Lynn. I'm pretty positive "selling cardboard boxes" cannot be mistaken for any innuendo so you should be safe! You can also get free boxes from grocery stores...especially if you're a young girl. Sorry guys.
3. I would try to wrap all of my breakables in clothes. It's free, it doesn't leave a mess, and the clean up is easy. If you don't want to use your clothes, make sure to use un-printed paper. Newspapers can leave their print on whatever you are trying to protect. Don't get me wrong, I love the news...just not all over my vases.
4. If you don't want to spend a couple grand on a moving company consider Uhaul. They now offer to hook you up with a loading and unloading crew. They'll list all the crews in each city along with price, ratings, etc. and you simply pick which ones you would like. The 2 crews I had helping me were absolutely incredible and cheap, cheap, CHEAP! A moving company quoted my move to cost anywhere from $1700 - $2000. We went the Uhaul route and it only cost about $800 - $850.
5. You CAN drive a Uhaul all by yourself even if you're a girl. Notice I didn't say "drive well" but I got from point A to point B so I'm gonna call it a success! Gas in these sweet rides is expensive so don't be shocked when a 1/2 tank costs you $100. And if you plan to go over 70 mph then I would make a different plan. O and one more thing...Uhauls are not equipped with CD players so if you require music to somehow pass the mind-numbing drive then I would suggest looking for an alternate means of playing music. Okay I know I said one more thing, but I remembered one more...many Uhauls (I hope note all) have manual windows. I didn't even know these prehistoric vehicles still existed! Well I love to have the windows down so before I started my trek I rolled down my window and the passenger window. I now know I should have probably checked the weather report. I was hit with a pretty amazing downpour and couldn't do a single thing about the passenger window. I mean I was just helping clean the interior of the Uhaul, right?
6. If you are renting, always give the place a good look through BEFORE the crew starts moving in your stuff. When I arrived in my apt the windows were open to air out the place because the carpet had just been cleaned. I thought no biggie. Well I got moved in, left for a few hours to eat dinner with my dad, and when we arrived back into my new apt we had quite a surprise. The apt reeked of animal pee. The cleaning of the carpets just emphasized any smell that might have existed before. I was positive it was cat pee because it is impossible to get cat pee out of the carpets (just one more reason why cats are inferior to dogs). Dad was sure the lady before me was harboring a Tiger because the smell was so horrific. The apt managers even came over and couldn't pretend it didn't smell funky. Well I now have brand new carpet...thanks apartment people!
So moving is not as painful as I predicted. Good to know.
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