Hack my move
January 16, 2016 10:18 AM Subscribe
I am downsizing from a 3000 sq ft home to a 1000 sq ft home in a month's time. I need your best tricks for making this less painful and more efficient. How to dispose of valuable objects/furniture I can't bring with me? Order in which to pack? Apps for logging what's in the boxes? Lessons you can share?
It'll be just me, a not particularly strong female, and my two children, aged 8 and 9. The new home is a quarter of an hour away and we'll have a week of overlap at the two addresses. I would like not to spend more than about $2000 on the move.
It'll be just me, a not particularly strong female, and my two children, aged 8 and 9. The new home is a quarter of an hour away and we'll have a week of overlap at the two addresses. I would like not to spend more than about $2000 on the move.
Buy boxes, or, if you live in an area where it is possible, rent moving totes. Worth the expense.
posted by walkinginsunshine at 10:36 AM on January 16, 2016
posted by walkinginsunshine at 10:36 AM on January 16, 2016
Best answer: We went through something similar when my partner's mother passed away and we had to sort through the contents of her 3000 square foot home without overwhelming our small, 1088 square foot home.
In the first step, we walked through the house with three different colored post-it pads. We put stickies on all of the furniture. Each color meant something: must go, must stay, and not sure yet. We gave ourselves 24 hours to make up our mind on the not sures. We then called a furniture consignment store. They asked us to e-mail them images of the pieces that we wanted to get rid of and then picked up the ones that they thought were sale-able. I'm not sure if there's a store that does similar things where you live, but if you don't want/need money from you bulkier pieces of furniture that aren't coming with, some charities will come and pick them up. Seeing the large hunks of furniture go made the whole task of packing and moving seem more do-able.
You're going to be able to keep 1/3 of the mass of things that you had before. Immediately get rid of anything that you have doubles of or haven't touched in a year. Be ruthless with kitchen things and clothes. Those are two of the toughest to store items in our home as little cottages don't have large closets or tons of cabinet space.
Books box up easily and make me feel like I'm accomplishing something, so I generally work on those when I'm tired during a move. As for momentos and knick knacks, don't worry about potentially moving too many to the new house. They're easy to give away, sell at a yard sale, or donate to a thrift store if you decide that you kept too many. You can be gentler when culling those.
Two weeks is plenty of time to take your boxed items to the new house car load by car load. A pair of movers will generally cost you around $500 for the bigger stuff. Since movers are paid by the hour, try to get as much as you can to the new house before they arrive.
I generally don't keep track of what goes in which box since it all gets unpacked anyway. Trying to do so in the past was just one more source of anxiety during an anxiety making time.
Good luck...I hope that things go as smoothly as possible for you.
posted by batbat at 10:40 AM on January 16, 2016 [5 favorites]
In the first step, we walked through the house with three different colored post-it pads. We put stickies on all of the furniture. Each color meant something: must go, must stay, and not sure yet. We gave ourselves 24 hours to make up our mind on the not sures. We then called a furniture consignment store. They asked us to e-mail them images of the pieces that we wanted to get rid of and then picked up the ones that they thought were sale-able. I'm not sure if there's a store that does similar things where you live, but if you don't want/need money from you bulkier pieces of furniture that aren't coming with, some charities will come and pick them up. Seeing the large hunks of furniture go made the whole task of packing and moving seem more do-able.
You're going to be able to keep 1/3 of the mass of things that you had before. Immediately get rid of anything that you have doubles of or haven't touched in a year. Be ruthless with kitchen things and clothes. Those are two of the toughest to store items in our home as little cottages don't have large closets or tons of cabinet space.
Books box up easily and make me feel like I'm accomplishing something, so I generally work on those when I'm tired during a move. As for momentos and knick knacks, don't worry about potentially moving too many to the new house. They're easy to give away, sell at a yard sale, or donate to a thrift store if you decide that you kept too many. You can be gentler when culling those.
Two weeks is plenty of time to take your boxed items to the new house car load by car load. A pair of movers will generally cost you around $500 for the bigger stuff. Since movers are paid by the hour, try to get as much as you can to the new house before they arrive.
I generally don't keep track of what goes in which box since it all gets unpacked anyway. Trying to do so in the past was just one more source of anxiety during an anxiety making time.
Good luck...I hope that things go as smoothly as possible for you.
posted by batbat at 10:40 AM on January 16, 2016 [5 favorites]
Oh, and liquor stores have the best free boxes: they're all reinforced in order to support heavy bottles of alcohol.
posted by batbat at 10:41 AM on January 16, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by batbat at 10:41 AM on January 16, 2016 [1 favorite]
Best answer: To track your boxes, number them, take a photo of each open box, save to Evernote with a note about the contents.
We moved last spring, and a bunch of our stuff ended up in boxes in storage in the garage. Last night I wanted a boardgame out of storage... But which box in this mountain of boxes? Open Evernote, et voila!
posted by notyou at 11:00 AM on January 16, 2016 [2 favorites]
We moved last spring, and a bunch of our stuff ended up in boxes in storage in the garage. Last night I wanted a boardgame out of storage... But which box in this mountain of boxes? Open Evernote, et voila!
posted by notyou at 11:00 AM on January 16, 2016 [2 favorites]
Best answer: I made a spreadsheet in Google docs to teach box contents. Each column was a box and I filled in as many rows as needed with the contents. The nice thing about this was it was searchable, making it easy to find things post-move. Plus I could access it on both phone and laptop, which was nice.
posted by matildatakesovertheworld at 11:08 AM on January 16, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by matildatakesovertheworld at 11:08 AM on January 16, 2016 [1 favorite]
Best answer: I do the same thing as matildatakesoverthe world. It has worked for several moves, and also for the stuff we have in storage. If you can't find something, you just search for it in a spreadsheet.
I also go the extra-anal step of color-coding my boxes. You can buy colored post-it labels. Each room gets a color. It makes it so much easier when you're unloading the boxes! This was especially true for a cross-country move, but it works for cross-town as well.
Time-tested MeFi advice is to make sure you pack a "day-of" bag with essentials for you and your family. Toothbrush, pajamas, etc. Since you're moving cross-town, you should go ahead of time and put up shower curtains, put a few dishes and such in the kitchen, stock toilet paper, etc.
Do you have a friend who can help you purge and pack? Having a neutral third party is a great way to get rid of more stuff.
posted by radioamy at 11:46 AM on January 16, 2016
I also go the extra-anal step of color-coding my boxes. You can buy colored post-it labels. Each room gets a color. It makes it so much easier when you're unloading the boxes! This was especially true for a cross-country move, but it works for cross-town as well.
Time-tested MeFi advice is to make sure you pack a "day-of" bag with essentials for you and your family. Toothbrush, pajamas, etc. Since you're moving cross-town, you should go ahead of time and put up shower curtains, put a few dishes and such in the kitchen, stock toilet paper, etc.
Do you have a friend who can help you purge and pack? Having a neutral third party is a great way to get rid of more stuff.
posted by radioamy at 11:46 AM on January 16, 2016
I just write the contents on the side of the box and keep like things together, but write any notes on 2 or 3 sides of the box. It’s a big pain to flip boxes around looking for the markings, and it’s always on wrong side, whichever one you choose.
posted by bongo_x at 11:55 AM on January 16, 2016
posted by bongo_x at 11:55 AM on January 16, 2016
I had more time than you, but we did four yard sales (this was in a place where this was okay to do) and made a few hundred dollars from them, which helped defray moving expenses. We also sold a bunch of video games to some website. A few years later, we took video games and video game systems to GameStop for trade in credit.
So, if you have something niche that is kind of valuable, look for a place that specializes in that, whether online or off. But yard sale/Craigslist/consign generic stuff you want to sell. Give away or trash things with no resale value.
The main problem I ran into was that kids and hubby just did not understand that going from over 2000 sqft plus garage and backyard to about 1000 sqft meant we just absolutely could not fit it all into the new place. So I got vilified as some kind of evil psycho trying to separate them from their cherished belongings. Then, we got to the new place and hubby was throwing things out as the movers unloaded the truck to try to get it to fit. After a few days of living in chaos, my sons were broke and wanted some book and I volunteered to buy them the book if they would pare down further so we could find the floor. They happily gave me 7 boxes of stuff to cart to Goodwill. A year later, they could only remember two toys from that carload of donations.
When we sold the video games, those were all games the kids owned. I was able to convince them to sell in part by letting them keep the money from the sale.
So, bribery and greenmail were involved in getting my kids on board.
No regrets.
posted by Michele in California at 12:12 PM on January 16, 2016 [2 favorites]
So, if you have something niche that is kind of valuable, look for a place that specializes in that, whether online or off. But yard sale/Craigslist/consign generic stuff you want to sell. Give away or trash things with no resale value.
The main problem I ran into was that kids and hubby just did not understand that going from over 2000 sqft plus garage and backyard to about 1000 sqft meant we just absolutely could not fit it all into the new place. So I got vilified as some kind of evil psycho trying to separate them from their cherished belongings. Then, we got to the new place and hubby was throwing things out as the movers unloaded the truck to try to get it to fit. After a few days of living in chaos, my sons were broke and wanted some book and I volunteered to buy them the book if they would pare down further so we could find the floor. They happily gave me 7 boxes of stuff to cart to Goodwill. A year later, they could only remember two toys from that carload of donations.
When we sold the video games, those were all games the kids owned. I was able to convince them to sell in part by letting them keep the money from the sale.
So, bribery and greenmail were involved in getting my kids on board.
No regrets.
posted by Michele in California at 12:12 PM on January 16, 2016 [2 favorites]
Best answer: I had good luck selling all my furniture on local Facebook groups, they were somewhat less flaky than Craigslist. Search "your town sell" and similar. I've also posted links to a google spreadsheet of stuff on social media so my friends could call dibs on stuff.
I also did konmari before my move, and got rid of about half my stuff. Just getting rid of things that I didn't actively like/use made a big difference.
posted by momus_window at 12:39 PM on January 16, 2016
I also did konmari before my move, and got rid of about half my stuff. Just getting rid of things that I didn't actively like/use made a big difference.
posted by momus_window at 12:39 PM on January 16, 2016
Best answer: Just to keep in mind: as people have mentioned above, garage sales and online sales are awesome but they take a lot of time and energy and aren't always profitable. Therefore, it's also OK to just donate, recycle or throw away stuff if you're already feeling overwhelmed. You may not earn money but you'll save time, worry, and any medical expenses from hurting yourself while carrying furniture in and out.
posted by smorgasbord at 1:13 PM on January 16, 2016 [8 favorites]
posted by smorgasbord at 1:13 PM on January 16, 2016 [8 favorites]
When I moved from a house with a full attic, basement and garage to a smaller house with none of those, I gave stuff away on freecycle.net. People came and picked up magazines, plant pots, stuff, more stuff. So easy, and everybody gets to be happy. Add craigslist/free to the options.
posted by theora55 at 1:23 PM on January 16, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by theora55 at 1:23 PM on January 16, 2016 [2 favorites]
How's your storage in New Place? In addition to all the rest, really consider maximizing your use of vertical space.
posted by deludingmyself at 1:55 PM on January 16, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by deludingmyself at 1:55 PM on January 16, 2016 [1 favorite]
There are auction houses which will take the entire contents, sell what they can and discard the rest. You'll get a percentage of the sales. So pack only what you want to take and move it, then call the auction house and let them deal with everything else. Much less stressfull. I downsized from a 900sf apartment to a 150sf RV to go adventuring. I had been a bookseller so I had 3000 books, furniture, etc. I just let it all go. Very freeing. Good luck.
posted by MovableBookLady at 2:09 PM on January 16, 2016
posted by MovableBookLady at 2:09 PM on January 16, 2016
Any stuff-logging system will take too much time and break down or be incomplete. Instead, label each box with where its contents came from, e.g., front hall closet shelf, left side, and which room it's going too.
posted by carmicha at 2:30 PM on January 16, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by carmicha at 2:30 PM on January 16, 2016 [2 favorites]
Re labeling:
Keep in mind that clear, detailed labels can be a security problem, especially if you are not going to unpack immediately. Having it clearly written on the box that it contains "Fine Silver" or "Gold Jewelry" or "Expensive small electronics" can make it easy for thieves to go through just the boxes with the good stuff. Having a labeling system that is meaningful to you but not meaningful to thieves -- such as "top left drawer of Mom's bureau" or "Kitchen, box 1" -- can help keep things safe under circumstances where things can easily disappear.
posted by Michele in California at 2:36 PM on January 16, 2016 [2 favorites]
Keep in mind that clear, detailed labels can be a security problem, especially if you are not going to unpack immediately. Having it clearly written on the box that it contains "Fine Silver" or "Gold Jewelry" or "Expensive small electronics" can make it easy for thieves to go through just the boxes with the good stuff. Having a labeling system that is meaningful to you but not meaningful to thieves -- such as "top left drawer of Mom's bureau" or "Kitchen, box 1" -- can help keep things safe under circumstances where things can easily disappear.
posted by Michele in California at 2:36 PM on January 16, 2016 [2 favorites]
My life fits in two suitcases and a computer bag. I know other nomads who pack everything they own into a medium-large backpack.
Really comes down to what's important, what's used often, and what you're just holding out of sentiment. I'll keep the full-length coat because I use it, but I'll let the patent-leather shoes go because they were a half-size too cool and pinched no matter what inserts I tried.
Paper books > e-books
25 pairs of shoes (I dated a girl with this many) > 5 pairs of shoes.
Another response above talked about memory. If you don't remember owning it until you see it, how important is it / how often do you use it?
posted by chrisinseoul at 3:06 PM on January 16, 2016 [2 favorites]
Really comes down to what's important, what's used often, and what you're just holding out of sentiment. I'll keep the full-length coat because I use it, but I'll let the patent-leather shoes go because they were a half-size too cool and pinched no matter what inserts I tried.
Paper books > e-books
25 pairs of shoes (I dated a girl with this many) > 5 pairs of shoes.
Another response above talked about memory. If you don't remember owning it until you see it, how important is it / how often do you use it?
posted by chrisinseoul at 3:06 PM on January 16, 2016 [2 favorites]
Best answer: You're talking about getting rid of more than half of your stuff. So I'd switch your mindset the other way. Stop thinking about it in terms of what you're going to get rid of, and how you're going to decide what to throw away. Start thinking about it in terms of, what are the 30-50% of your current possession that you love the most and want to take with you into your new, simpler, sparkly-clean life. Choose the items you want to keep. Everything else then gets thrown away by default.
If you haven't read it yet, I highly recommend The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. Ignore the name, which is stupid (or perhaps mistranslated from the original Japanese?). What this book is really about is the mindset you need to get into: choosing from among the things you currently own which are the things that are really cherished and important and useful and pleasurable to have around. (If you're like me and hate hokey gimmicks, ignore the parts about "joy" and "thanking your possessions" and all that twee, anthropomorphizing stuff. Focus on the method, which involves pulling out all of your belongings and sorting in categories, choosing items you want to keep and then throwing everything else away. But if you're into that sort of thing, there's a lot of it to enjoy.) The method is designed for everyday decluttering, but it's also perfect for the situation you're in now. And to some extent, like with their own toys and personal belongings, your kids can do some of the work, even at their young ages.
I think you've gotten some excellent advice above about how to pack the things you choose to take, and what do to with the things that aren't coming with you. But your first task is to choose which of your possessions you're taking with you. And I think the best method of doing that is to affirmatively choose the items you love, rather than trying to figure out which items you can live without.
posted by decathecting at 3:11 PM on January 16, 2016 [6 favorites]
If you haven't read it yet, I highly recommend The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. Ignore the name, which is stupid (or perhaps mistranslated from the original Japanese?). What this book is really about is the mindset you need to get into: choosing from among the things you currently own which are the things that are really cherished and important and useful and pleasurable to have around. (If you're like me and hate hokey gimmicks, ignore the parts about "joy" and "thanking your possessions" and all that twee, anthropomorphizing stuff. Focus on the method, which involves pulling out all of your belongings and sorting in categories, choosing items you want to keep and then throwing everything else away. But if you're into that sort of thing, there's a lot of it to enjoy.) The method is designed for everyday decluttering, but it's also perfect for the situation you're in now. And to some extent, like with their own toys and personal belongings, your kids can do some of the work, even at their young ages.
I think you've gotten some excellent advice above about how to pack the things you choose to take, and what do to with the things that aren't coming with you. But your first task is to choose which of your possessions you're taking with you. And I think the best method of doing that is to affirmatively choose the items you love, rather than trying to figure out which items you can live without.
posted by decathecting at 3:11 PM on January 16, 2016 [6 favorites]
Best answer: We did a move down the road from our 2600 Sq ft. house to our 1400 sq ft apartment and one thing that made it SO much easier was to move the kitchen in big plastic tubs without wrapping anything. This makes perfect sense if you're overlapping, as you are. It takes nerves of steel, but so much of packing and moving is the wrapping and unwrapping of the dishes and glassware. I can whole heartedly recommend using wine boxes, with the dividers for individual glasses. Just pop them in, move them, and unpack directly into your cabinets.
Start with the things you use infrequently, good china, entertainment ware,-your good silver, unopened pantry items.
Then as you get closer to moving day, move the dishes, cups, etc, and then switch to eating off paper plates, or better yet, out. Move all the pantry and fridge stuff. Now your kitchen is set up! All before moving day. Look how many fewer boxes there are! Look at how much work you avoided!
Then do the bathrooms. They're easy, and kind of fun. Do the closets. Keep everything on hangers, use cleaners bags, or Lawn and leaf bags, upside down with a hole cut in them for the hangers to poke out of. Cinch at the bottom and BAM! Move from one closet to the new closet. A lot easier than packing clothing. You can keep stuff in dressers in the drawers. Move them full.
Another thing you can do is wall art/pictures. Think of the time and effort you'll save if you just carefully put those standing up in the back seat of the car, rather than bubble wrapping them. If the frame is really flimsy and moving around, be VERY careful, those usually break (wrapped or not.)
By getting the main rooms set up, you will be SO far ahead of the game, plus it gives you some semblance of order. The day of the move you can make coffee and you know where the dishes are for the pizza you'll order.
If you're going to hang curtains, that's a great activity to do when there's no furniture in the house.
Measure your furniture and use some graph paper to get an idea of how everything will fit in your new digs. My sofa didn't fit well. :-(
For in-town moves, I can HIGHLY recommend You Move Me the guy in Atlanta owns the 800-Got Junk franchise and this service and he was awesome! They sent a big truck and two hard-working dudes and they got us out of the house and into our apartment in 5 hours. We paid $1000. MUCH better than renting a truck and praying your friends will help. Put in your zip code and see if there's one in your area, you will be happy you did.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 3:42 PM on January 16, 2016 [2 favorites]
Start with the things you use infrequently, good china, entertainment ware,-your good silver, unopened pantry items.
Then as you get closer to moving day, move the dishes, cups, etc, and then switch to eating off paper plates, or better yet, out. Move all the pantry and fridge stuff. Now your kitchen is set up! All before moving day. Look how many fewer boxes there are! Look at how much work you avoided!
Then do the bathrooms. They're easy, and kind of fun. Do the closets. Keep everything on hangers, use cleaners bags, or Lawn and leaf bags, upside down with a hole cut in them for the hangers to poke out of. Cinch at the bottom and BAM! Move from one closet to the new closet. A lot easier than packing clothing. You can keep stuff in dressers in the drawers. Move them full.
Another thing you can do is wall art/pictures. Think of the time and effort you'll save if you just carefully put those standing up in the back seat of the car, rather than bubble wrapping them. If the frame is really flimsy and moving around, be VERY careful, those usually break (wrapped or not.)
By getting the main rooms set up, you will be SO far ahead of the game, plus it gives you some semblance of order. The day of the move you can make coffee and you know where the dishes are for the pizza you'll order.
If you're going to hang curtains, that's a great activity to do when there's no furniture in the house.
Measure your furniture and use some graph paper to get an idea of how everything will fit in your new digs. My sofa didn't fit well. :-(
For in-town moves, I can HIGHLY recommend You Move Me the guy in Atlanta owns the 800-Got Junk franchise and this service and he was awesome! They sent a big truck and two hard-working dudes and they got us out of the house and into our apartment in 5 hours. We paid $1000. MUCH better than renting a truck and praying your friends will help. Put in your zip code and see if there's one in your area, you will be happy you did.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 3:42 PM on January 16, 2016 [2 favorites]
Since you have overlap between the two places, I strongly recommend starting by moving the things you want to keep in storage in the new place (like Xmas decorations, things you rarely use but definitely need or want to keep). Storage tends to be the last part people move into (kitchen is usually the first) and as a result it ends up being done when you're tired, you don't know what you want to do with things, etc., and so it's a total mess. If you can do it first, you'll know exactly what you can bring with you that will fit in storage, and then you will de facto have to get rid of everything else that won't fit.
Ruthless Bunny has the rest down. Also, paint before moving in, not after.
Have fun with your new life and new place. It's probably kind of scary, which means it's also full of potential greatness.
posted by Capri at 4:22 PM on January 16, 2016 [1 favorite]
Ruthless Bunny has the rest down. Also, paint before moving in, not after.
Have fun with your new life and new place. It's probably kind of scary, which means it's also full of potential greatness.
posted by Capri at 4:22 PM on January 16, 2016 [1 favorite]
You may want to consider having an estate sale group deal with the items after you take the stuff you want to keep. Estate sales happen when people downscale, too. You get money for stuff you would have donated anyway and other people take what's left.
posted by jadepearl at 5:08 PM on January 16, 2016
posted by jadepearl at 5:08 PM on January 16, 2016
One thing to consider is whether your new living space will have smaller rooms. If so, keep in mind that furniture too large for a room can really make that room useless and cramped.
posted by Hypatia at 5:41 PM on January 16, 2016
posted by Hypatia at 5:41 PM on January 16, 2016
Someone recently told me that they used reusable shopping bags for a self move without boxes (of the sort pictured here on Wikipedia), especially for moving books.
I think someone else on Ask suggested that for downsizing, try moving the stuff you absolutely have to have first, and then seeing what you feel you can still fit/still need.
posted by AnnaRat at 11:32 PM on January 16, 2016
I think someone else on Ask suggested that for downsizing, try moving the stuff you absolutely have to have first, and then seeing what you feel you can still fit/still need.
posted by AnnaRat at 11:32 PM on January 16, 2016
This comment of mine from another post might help.
posted by Jacqueline at 11:35 PM on January 16, 2016
posted by Jacqueline at 11:35 PM on January 16, 2016
Best answer: Someone recently told me that they used reusable shopping bags for a self move without boxes (of the sort pictured here on Wikipedia), especially for moving books.
I did this in our current office move and it worked well. I bought about 30 bags and have been using them to move books as well as other odds and ends. (The bags full of books are sitting around, the odds and ends get dumped and the empty bags brought back for another lap.)
If you don't want to spend more than $2000, you're looking at having movers do just the furniture and appliances, and moving everything else yourself. That's a LOT of time and it's going to be exhausting. I know, because we just took the same approach to our office move. We downscaled from 5600 sf to 1600 sf and it's been going on for a month.
You Move Me looks promising, a bit cheaper than commercial movers.
I also relied on the cargo vans rented by Uhaul (not the trucks, but the 9 foot panel vans) and hourly labor booked through their MovingHelp.com service to expedite moving the boxes and etc, and give me some relief. (You don't have to rent from Uhaul to use MovingHelp.) It's over and above the $2K I spent to move our furniture and large items, but it's been worth it. And even so, it's been an extended project.
posted by snuffleupagus at 4:49 AM on January 18, 2016
I did this in our current office move and it worked well. I bought about 30 bags and have been using them to move books as well as other odds and ends. (The bags full of books are sitting around, the odds and ends get dumped and the empty bags brought back for another lap.)
If you don't want to spend more than $2000, you're looking at having movers do just the furniture and appliances, and moving everything else yourself. That's a LOT of time and it's going to be exhausting. I know, because we just took the same approach to our office move. We downscaled from 5600 sf to 1600 sf and it's been going on for a month.
You Move Me looks promising, a bit cheaper than commercial movers.
I also relied on the cargo vans rented by Uhaul (not the trucks, but the 9 foot panel vans) and hourly labor booked through their MovingHelp.com service to expedite moving the boxes and etc, and give me some relief. (You don't have to rent from Uhaul to use MovingHelp.) It's over and above the $2K I spent to move our furniture and large items, but it's been worth it. And even so, it's been an extended project.
posted by snuffleupagus at 4:49 AM on January 18, 2016
Best answer: I'd add that similar to your situation, I'm the only reasonably young person left at our company who can lift and move things, and it's a family business. Regarding the bags: you need the heavier duty plasticized bags with a flat bottom and stitched-on nylon handles, not the flimsier cloth-like bags with a tapered or pinched bottom. To the extent we used bankers boxes, which I tried to avoid, Staples runs good sales on their website, eligible for in-store pickup.
If you can float it, one month of ministorage for overflow helps.
posted by snuffleupagus at 9:23 AM on January 18, 2016
If you can float it, one month of ministorage for overflow helps.
posted by snuffleupagus at 9:23 AM on January 18, 2016
Response by poster: Thanks everyone for the fantastic advice. I've marked the best ones based on what is most applicable in my particular situation.
posted by Dragonness at 9:32 PM on January 18, 2016
posted by Dragonness at 9:32 PM on January 18, 2016
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I'd also get people's recommendations for a local moving company, and get an estimate. If you're getting rid of a lot, it may less than you expect. You could always ask friends to come help on a Saturday afternoon and offer to buy everyone pizza and beer as a thank you. It's a big thing to ask but people may be very glad to help. I've had friends help me declutter and I get them a meal as a thank you as well as give them first dibs on all the stuff I'm donating.
posted by smorgasbord at 10:31 AM on January 16, 2016 [1 favorite]