Seattle Move
K's company gave us a stipend of money for our move--how we used the money was entirely up to us. It was enough money to get us to Seattle, but not enough to higher much help. Luckily, since the move was under 1,000 miles, we were able to rent a moving van from almost any company without any additional milage fees. This was the first time we'd moved since having J, so I felt out of my element with how to do this. Word to the wise, babies = A LOT OF STUFF! Here is what I learned:
Moving van: use the companies against each other! We were able to negotiate between U-haul and Penske after we had gotten a quote from each. We ended up going with Penske because they could give us a better price. Fun fact: prices go up around holiday weekends! We had to estimate when we would be leaving because we were waiting on my school to find a replacement for me. We scheduled the truck and trailer for after Labor Day because the prices were reduced by a lot. My school found a replacement for me and that meant we could move right before Labor Day (of course!). I was worried that the price would go up because we would need to move our reservation to the very expensive Labor Day week. Turns out, Penske keeps your price the same no matter when you move your reservation to. Make your reservation for the cheapest time possible then, about a week to a week and a half before your move, change the date. This is totally legit and can save you hundreds of dollars!
Boxes: You can go about getting boxes a number of different ways. One place we found to get great boxes was Walmart. If you go and ask for boxes they will only give you one or two. However, if you go to Walmart when they are restocking (about 7 am), you can just go and take allllll the boxes you want straight from the stockers (is that what you call them? Stockmen? Stockwomen? Stockpeople?) themselves. The Malt-O-Meal cereal boxes were the best! We used boxes that our friends had used in their move, but only ones in good shape. Don't let the cheap side of you get in the way of protecting your belongings! Going through the effort of collecting good boxes is worth the money you'll save by not having to replace broken items. Also, it's called packing-tape for a reason. As much as it pains this Alaskan to say, packing tape > duck tape (in taping boxes alone...nothing else!)
Labeling: don't be afraid to get a little crazy! When I was looking up other people's tips on moving, one lady said to put labels on every upper left hand corner. I thought to myself, "A bit excessive don't you think?!" Ummm no, not at all. I only put them on the top side and one of the sides and I totally regretted it! Depending on how they were put into the truck, you couldn't always see the labels and (when we later got to Chicago) I ended up telling the movers where to put the boxes--sort of defeated the purpose of labeling them! I just used these things, one in red marker stating where it went, and black for what was in the box.
Don't get too wordy, but be specific. I was putting "K" on boxes that would go in the kitchen. The movers move a ton of different people, all with their own system. So yet again, I was having to explain what "K" meant and where to take the boxes. Save yourself the trouble and just write "Kitchen", "Master bathroom", etc. I read on a few other sites where people would color code their labels. That sounds like a good idea, but I'd only do it if you are moving yourself in. Ideas that were obvious to me weren't always obvious to the movers. (No offense to any movers reading, yikes!)
See Part II with all the juicy stuff, here.
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