Since I just moved from NJ to AZ I figure I should post up some tips and tricks. First and foremost if you can, THROW OUT EVERYTHING YOU OWN! Okay, maybe not everything, but A LOT! Seriously over the years you obtain stuff and moving it SUCKS, so in the words of SpaceBalls, “take only what you need to survive”.
After my graduation in college I held off buying lots of stuff because I was not sure where I was moving too. There was various talk of Japan, Europe, West Coast, or just staying in the NYC area. So here are some tips
Buy NEW and BUILD IT!
I HIGHLY suggest to just START OVER and buy new, granted I am a recent college student and do not have $5k+ in furniture or $50k+ in antiques, but seriously think about everything you take. I also suggest depending on your situation to buy quality but cheap. For desk/office stuff go to staples and for the rest of it go to walmart, target, and ikea. Most people I know who move (especially while their young) are moving into apartments and will be moving into a house within the next 2 to 3 years. So if you can save $10 or $500 put it towards savings and/or your moving costs.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
If your a Hippy Green reader or treehugger you should look at recycling furniture. Finding great deals and sometimes FREE (as in beer) furniture at Tag Sales, Garage Sale, and (where every geek guru goes) craigslist.
TSA, Sir WTF is in your bag!
So last week while “flying” to Arizona I had to move 3TB of storage and plenty of electronics. Spending the past 3 months flying at least twice a week, I had an idea on what TSA was looking for and how to pack. Well, lets just say I was a bit wrong and packing a Apple mac mini, a 3TB ReadyNAS NV, Canon XTi, and plenty of other “geek guru equipment“. Well, I got stopped and after a couple of discussion explaining what a mac mini was and what I was doing, I was let go and waited for my plane to arrive (4 hours late I might add, ugh!). So if you do have “fragile” equipment that you need to bring with you as carry on (cause you don’t trust the baggage throwers) while relocating, please keep in mind TSA will freak out if its larger then a CD player and has more electronic parts then a stealth plane.
I will be continuing this post next week talking about where to spend and where to save on moving in and living in luxury, while on the cheap and enjoying the comforts of millionaires.
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Good advice. After moving 90% of my stuff in just two car loads this past weekend I can attest that having less is more.