Heading out on our own...
May 2, 2008 9:19 AM Subscribe
[Moving Filter] My Girlfriend and I are moving from a small town (~3000 people in Newfoundland, Canada) to Toronto in August to attend York University. This will be our first time not living under our parents roof. Any tips for how best to get everything there, or tips on moving in general?
We're moving into the Grad student apartments on campus. They're furnished, so that helps a lot, but having not lived on our own before, we will still need to acquire a fair amount of stuff. We have the opportunity, however, to inherit a lot of things from our families. The problem becomes, how do we get it all there? Would it be easiest/cheaper to just buy a lot of things when we get there? Any tips on moving would be great, and any tips on moving out on your own for the first time would be great too. Also, if you have any experiences to share regarding moving to "the big city", please share.
BTW, anyone here stay at the Assiniboine Road apartments at York? If so, any opinions?
Thanks very much.
We're moving into the Grad student apartments on campus. They're furnished, so that helps a lot, but having not lived on our own before, we will still need to acquire a fair amount of stuff. We have the opportunity, however, to inherit a lot of things from our families. The problem becomes, how do we get it all there? Would it be easiest/cheaper to just buy a lot of things when we get there? Any tips on moving would be great, and any tips on moving out on your own for the first time would be great too. Also, if you have any experiences to share regarding moving to "the big city", please share.
BTW, anyone here stay at the Assiniboine Road apartments at York? If so, any opinions?
Thanks very much.
So it seems to me you have two options to get lots of stuff from point A to point B: drive things yourself or ship them. As much as I love the ferry from Port-aux-Basques followed by three days' drive across Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario (and I really do), shipping is probably your better option, and since the place is furnished, you don't need to worry about furniture. Renting a moving truck for that distance would also be really expensive, and I assume if you were planning on driving your own car down you would have mentioned. Canada Post seems to charge $47 to move 60 lbs from Pasadena, NL to Toronto. In my experience (US only), DHL has very competitive shipping rates too.
So when thinking about shipping versus buying, the issue is whether the cost of buying the thing again is more than the cost to ship it. If you have the chance of inheriting some kitchen supplies (plates, pots, pans, knives), that is certainly worthwhile shipping. But if it's large or heavy and not so expensive, just buy a new one. Things like desk lamps, clocks and radios are barely worth shipping.
And echoing markovich, you'll be surprised at how little you actually need. When moving, I tend to divide my stuff into a number of categories: "office things" (electronics, pens, pencils, staplers, paper products, screwdrivers, and the like), "kitchen things" (plates, utensils, knives, pots and pans), clothes and bedding, toiletries, books, random personal items, and my guitar. Of these, the heaviest single category is the books; the next heaviest (but the bulkiest overall) is clothes and bedding; and the rest I can fit into about one or two big boxes all together.
Toronto is a great place, though I'm sure it will be a huge change. Good luck, and have fun!
posted by goingonit at 10:14 AM on May 2, 2008
So when thinking about shipping versus buying, the issue is whether the cost of buying the thing again is more than the cost to ship it. If you have the chance of inheriting some kitchen supplies (plates, pots, pans, knives), that is certainly worthwhile shipping. But if it's large or heavy and not so expensive, just buy a new one. Things like desk lamps, clocks and radios are barely worth shipping.
And echoing markovich, you'll be surprised at how little you actually need. When moving, I tend to divide my stuff into a number of categories: "office things" (electronics, pens, pencils, staplers, paper products, screwdrivers, and the like), "kitchen things" (plates, utensils, knives, pots and pans), clothes and bedding, toiletries, books, random personal items, and my guitar. Of these, the heaviest single category is the books; the next heaviest (but the bulkiest overall) is clothes and bedding; and the rest I can fit into about one or two big boxes all together.
Toronto is a great place, though I'm sure it will be a huge change. Good luck, and have fun!
posted by goingonit at 10:14 AM on May 2, 2008
Congratulations! Welcome to Toronto.
Greyhound Courier Express is very inexpensive. However they do kick your boxes across the country so pack well. One way to do it is to move just the essentials first, and then ship anything else you may need later. If you pack and label this other stuff ahead of time you can just call your folks and ask them to ship it to you.
posted by captaincrouton at 10:28 AM on May 2, 2008
Greyhound Courier Express is very inexpensive. However they do kick your boxes across the country so pack well. One way to do it is to move just the essentials first, and then ship anything else you may need later. If you pack and label this other stuff ahead of time you can just call your folks and ask them to ship it to you.
posted by captaincrouton at 10:28 AM on May 2, 2008
I went to law school at York, and knew some people that lived in those same apartments. They are nice enough, but the biggest problem is locale. The York campus is really in the middle of nowhere, and there's nothing around you can walk to outside of the campus shopping centre / food court. There's also not exactly a vibrant student life, especially at the graduate level. You can get a bus (20 mins) to the subway which will take you downtown, and that will cost you 2.75 a time (or less if you buy tokens in advance, or get a metropass at about $100/month).
Depending on how much time you feel like you have to be on campus, you may find that you want to get a place downtown in your 2nd year.
posted by modernnomad at 10:31 AM on May 2, 2008
Depending on how much time you feel like you have to be on campus, you may find that you want to get a place downtown in your 2nd year.
posted by modernnomad at 10:31 AM on May 2, 2008
I don't have any Toronto- or York-specific adivice, but I know when I moved half-way across country to New York, it was much easier to fly, ship clothes and other small personal belongings, and buy the rest there. This is especially true if you haven't seen the apartment yet, and don't know exactly what you'll need.
Is there anyone already living in those apartments that you have contact with (other grad students in your department)? See if you can arrange to ship a box to them ahead of time (with a few pots and pans and dishes, toilet paper, towells), so that some of the necessities will be waiting for you when you get there. With all the stress of moving and starting school, you don't want to be running around trying to find where to buy an emergency roll of Charmin right when you land.
posted by twoporedomain at 10:51 AM on May 2, 2008
Is there anyone already living in those apartments that you have contact with (other grad students in your department)? See if you can arrange to ship a box to them ahead of time (with a few pots and pans and dishes, toilet paper, towells), so that some of the necessities will be waiting for you when you get there. With all the stress of moving and starting school, you don't want to be running around trying to find where to buy an emergency roll of Charmin right when you land.
posted by twoporedomain at 10:51 AM on May 2, 2008
Don't ship used stuff from Newfoundland to here, it's not likely to be worth it. When you get here, join Craigslist and Freecycle and pick up what you need free or cheap.
If you're shipping anything, unless you have a car, make sure it's been delivered door to door, because you wouldn't want to have to go all the way downtown and then walk half a mile to the Greyhound depot and then tote a desktop computer and monitor back that half a mile, then a subway, then a bus. Not that I learned that from experience or anything.
If you have specific things that you'll need in mind, I can probably direct you to a variety of inexpensive sources (I've lived on campus or near it for 13 years or so since I moved here to go to York in 1995). Let me know if you'll have a car or will be TTCing it.
As a side note, if there are a few larger things you end up needing, or an IKEA run becomes a desperate necessity (there's an IKEA very near York, but you can't get there very easily without a car), MeMail me -- I live nearby, I work from home, I own a (small) car.
posted by jacquilynne at 10:56 AM on May 2, 2008
If you're shipping anything, unless you have a car, make sure it's been delivered door to door, because you wouldn't want to have to go all the way downtown and then walk half a mile to the Greyhound depot and then tote a desktop computer and monitor back that half a mile, then a subway, then a bus. Not that I learned that from experience or anything.
If you have specific things that you'll need in mind, I can probably direct you to a variety of inexpensive sources (I've lived on campus or near it for 13 years or so since I moved here to go to York in 1995). Let me know if you'll have a car or will be TTCing it.
As a side note, if there are a few larger things you end up needing, or an IKEA run becomes a desperate necessity (there's an IKEA very near York, but you can't get there very easily without a car), MeMail me -- I live nearby, I work from home, I own a (small) car.
posted by jacquilynne at 10:56 AM on May 2, 2008
Ship as little as you can bear. Torontonians have too much crap and will happily sell some to you.
posted by anthill at 11:20 AM on May 2, 2008
posted by anthill at 11:20 AM on May 2, 2008
My wife and I just moved from the UK to Toronto for a year (into an apartment rather than university housing). We packed everything we needed for an entire year's stay into 2 large bags, 2 large-ish suitcases and 2 shoulder bags (enough to carry on a plane). Whilst packing up our home back in the UK we gave tons of stuff to charity, packed about 2 dozen boxes of stuff up into storage and crammed everything we needed for a year into the aforementioned bags.
Be really ruthless about what you're going to take. We ended up taking about 75% clothes and 25% things (wash kits, nice kitchen knives, a few books, laptop, etc). We were also quite lucky that the apartment came with a fridge and oven, so we didn't need to buy them, and the landlord was throwing out an old sofa bed, which we claimed for free. What's better for you is that you're not moving over an ocean, so if you do forget that vitally important "thing" then you could just post it for not much money.
When we got here we went out to Ikea and spent about $600 on a really cheap table, 4 chairs, a set of crockery and cutlery and a few other nice things. We spent a further $3-400 on things like bedding, mattress, duvets, some things for the kitchen, etc. If you're looking to kit out a small apartment then you can get more or less anything you need on FreeCycle, the TO group seems to be quite busy. Ikea is nice for getting some pretty little things to spruce the place up and most of their stuff is cheap.
posted by gaby at 12:35 PM on May 2, 2008
Be really ruthless about what you're going to take. We ended up taking about 75% clothes and 25% things (wash kits, nice kitchen knives, a few books, laptop, etc). We were also quite lucky that the apartment came with a fridge and oven, so we didn't need to buy them, and the landlord was throwing out an old sofa bed, which we claimed for free. What's better for you is that you're not moving over an ocean, so if you do forget that vitally important "thing" then you could just post it for not much money.
When we got here we went out to Ikea and spent about $600 on a really cheap table, 4 chairs, a set of crockery and cutlery and a few other nice things. We spent a further $3-400 on things like bedding, mattress, duvets, some things for the kitchen, etc. If you're looking to kit out a small apartment then you can get more or less anything you need on FreeCycle, the TO group seems to be quite busy. Ikea is nice for getting some pretty little things to spruce the place up and most of their stuff is cheap.
posted by gaby at 12:35 PM on May 2, 2008
We were also quite lucky that the apartment came with a fridge and oven, so we didn't need to buy them
I don't think that was luck -- if you find an apartment here that doesn't come with the major kitchen appliances that'd be very bizarre. Not necessarily a dishwasher, but certainly a fridge and stove are standard equipment in rental units.
posted by jacquilynne at 1:10 PM on May 2, 2008
I don't think that was luck -- if you find an apartment here that doesn't come with the major kitchen appliances that'd be very bizarre. Not necessarily a dishwasher, but certainly a fridge and stove are standard equipment in rental units.
posted by jacquilynne at 1:10 PM on May 2, 2008
I would add that there's an Ikea quite close (10 minutes?) to York should you choose to go that route. I lived in the high-rise apartments just south of the Grad housing at York and picked up pretty much everything at Ikea cheaply.
It actually isn't hard to get there from York, as there's a York Region Transit 'VIVA' bus route from the York campus bus terminal to a stop near the Ikea (but you won't want to haul large flat-pack furniture this way).
Jacquilynne is correct, it is standard for apartments here to include fridge, stove, and oven.
posted by onshi at 2:33 PM on May 2, 2008
It actually isn't hard to get there from York, as there's a York Region Transit 'VIVA' bus route from the York campus bus terminal to a stop near the Ikea (but you won't want to haul large flat-pack furniture this way).
Jacquilynne is correct, it is standard for apartments here to include fridge, stove, and oven.
posted by onshi at 2:33 PM on May 2, 2008
Oh, and in case if affects your decisions, the Greyhound terminal in Toronto isn't far from the subway; in fact, it has a rather convenient underground connection to Dundas station (something like .17 miles away).
posted by onshi at 2:38 PM on May 2, 2008
posted by onshi at 2:38 PM on May 2, 2008
That's not where you pick up freight, unless something's changed in the last 12 years, though. Which is, of course, entirely possible. The freight office is down Front Street near the DVP.
posted by jacquilynne at 2:49 PM on May 2, 2008
posted by jacquilynne at 2:49 PM on May 2, 2008
Or, was, anyway.
posted by jacquilynne at 2:49 PM on May 2, 2008
posted by jacquilynne at 2:49 PM on May 2, 2008
greyhound delivers to your door for $6 extra
posted by captaincrouton at 8:18 PM on May 6, 2008
posted by captaincrouton at 8:18 PM on May 6, 2008
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by markovich at 10:05 AM on May 2, 2008