- CHOICE A. Hire movers to load boxes, drive them to Florida, unload boxes, and set up furniture.
- CHOICE B. Pay for space on a cargo trailer.
Cons: It can take up to 10 days to receive your shipment, lost boxes, broken stuff
- CHOICE C. Rent a big ‘ol truck from Budget, hitch up the car to the back, and DIY it!
What would you do or what have you done in the past? Remember, we only have a 2 bedroom condo worth of furniture. The moving companies tell us we have 20 items or 29 pieces. That includes every single piece of furniture in our house (i.e. 4 kitchen chairs and 4 outdoor chairs= 8 pieces) Moving on (pun intended)… I’m not usually so clever, I think this packing thing has me a little delirious!
Moving tips and how to pack for free
Tip 1: Where to find free boxes
- Craiglist.com: Choose your city and click on the free section
- Uhaul.com: Search by location and connect with people who have boxes!
- My local Uhaul has a free box section in store. Anyone can walk in and take as many as you need. I found a few boxes and lots of packing paper!
- Specs (or any liquor place): Our local Specs has tons of small to medium boxes in a big pile at the front. These are great because they come with cardboard dividers that are perfect for vases, glasses, etc…
- Neighborhood groups on Facebook always have postings for free boxes
- Your job: Everyone has a copy machine, and those paper boxes are super sturdy packing boxes and have handles. Win-win.
Tip #2: Packing Materials for free
- Use what you’ve got, every thing needs to be packed in some form or fashion. Dish towels, beach towels, rags, pillows, place mats, blankets, coats, sweaters… use them to wrap breakables or divide things from banging into each other.
- Newspaper
- Trash bags for pillows, bedding, sheets, and extra towels you didn’t use for packing!
Tip #3: How to not waste space and not break things
1. Throw a pillow on the top
Not only does the pillow need to be packed, but it provides extra protection for breakable items in a moving box.
2. Throw a pillow on the bottom
Much like the logic above, the pillow has to be packed regardless, so use them to your advantage to protect your things.
3. Wrap fragile stuff with towels
Towels also need to be packed and moved to your new home, so use them to protect breakables. I like to wrap the towel around the fragile item and then secure it with packing tape.
Every time you say “yikes”, do you want to continue with “stripes, fruit stripe gum, the yummy fruity one?” Or is that just me? Now, I’m really wasting time… looking up commercials on you tube from 1991!Enjoy the rest of your evening, I’m going to surround myself in a sea of brown boxes.
UPDATE: We ended up hosting a packing party and DIY-ing the big move!
Comments & Reviews
Great tips! Some of the tips seem to be very helpful. I’m moving soon and I already purged more than half of all I owned. Now it’s time for me to start packing and it seems much easier with less stuff and your tips. Thank you for the information!
Amazing ideas. I am going to move to a new apartment. I thought it will be impossible to manage to pack everything. I am so glad that I have found your article. Now , I believe I can cope with this moving. Best regards!
Go to bike shops and ask for boxes for big items like mirrors, pictures etc. They get bikes in boxes and have to pay to have the boxes removed
Start with an extra large box and fill the bottom with wads of paper. Using several sheets of packing paper, wrap the south end of the picture (diaper style) an place the picture in the box. Then with several more sheets wrap the top half. Stack the pictures in the box tight, place several wadded up piece of paper in between.
I never experienced to do an actual move but I once helped a friend of mine. She actually chose option three because the distance is not too far so I guess, this option should also take into consideration the distance and weather conditions. Anyway, to make things a little less expensive, we got to have free boxes from convenience stores that were so happy to give away their piled boxes. We also used blankets and towels for packing paper and similar DIY techniques. It was indeed successful and if I were to make a move I will exactly do the same.
Sitting in the front yard with a coke sounds AWESOME!
Not sure about moving but I still say "yikes stripes". That was my fav gum as a kid but no one gets it when I say it. Glad im not the only one!
Hi Jamie!
Happy Moving, hope it all went smoothly! What a great post on packing.
I would simply love it if you to chose to put up this post on my new linky
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Thank you 🙂 I am SO happy the boys love the desks! We're picking up the 16 foot truck today!!
You have made so much progress this week! BTW – placed the desks in my classroom Monday 1st period. Bell rang for 2nd period and my boys started to trickle in. They all LOVED the desks. They spent time checking them out can commenting on how "awesome" they were. One of the IA's came in and just marveled at the craftsmanship. Thank you for such a great addition to my classroom!
I moved across country, and drove a rental truck myself – alternating driving with a friend who went with me. I used packing materials that I had saved from boxes that were shipped to me, pot holders, towels, sheets, pillowcases and any other fabric items to cushion breakables. I stuffed small things like socks,etc, in every place they would fit. I clearly marked on top and at least 1 side what was in each box and what room it went into. I did have some young friends and family help load the truck.. and other friends unload it on the other end.
For my breakable pictures, I got bubble wrap and packing tape. I cut a piece the same size as the front (or pieces) and taped them securely around the glass. Then wrapped carefully around each picture. I tried to make sure they were as protected as possible without being too bulky. Then find the biggest boxes you can fit them in. Uhaul has these great mirror boxes that you can fit a bunch of the really large pictures in. I stuffed the boxes with packing peanuts, bubble wrap, newspaper, basically whatever I had to keep them from shift around. I have moved about once a year for the past 10 years. It's such a pain trying to condense everything into as few boxes as possible! Hope that helps!
I have removed dresser drawers, packed breakables between the clothing and loaded them securely behind heavy pieces that will not move. Have even moved my dishes this way always with good results.
DIY mirror boxes… hmm… I'm going to look into that 🙂 Thank you!
Someone else mentioned ABF… I need to look into that! Thank you!
bubble wrap from wal mart… i'll get some tomorrow! thanks 🙂
We have moved several times using ABF. Basically you pack you own boxes and load the truck and they hall the trailer. They drop off the trailer and you have two days to pack it. They pick it up and drive it to the destination and drop it off and you have two days to unload. It was a little more expensive than renting a truck to drive. It is bigger than a rental and you pay by the foot. We then were able to drive together and didn't have to tow our car.
When we move, I buy a couple big rolls of bubble wrap from Walmart for like $4 a piece, and wrap my framed photos accordian-style with one layer of bubble wrap between each picture, if that makes sense. Then I wrap it all in tape and put the whole kit n caboodle in a plastic tote (or box) and pad it with towels, etc. or more bubble wrap. I moved 60+ framed photos (22 were 10×13, the rest smaller) in 3 18 gallon totes last time. 😀
oh! I love the idea of putting pillows in garbage bags! the military hires movers for us, but I don't like them touching our linens and clothing, so I'm definitely going to "pre-pack" using trash bags this time! thanks for the idea 😀
when the military movers pack up our larger frames, they too use "mirror boxes." you could replicate it yourself essentially by breaking down a box so it's totally flat, then just tape the open two bottom edges together (if that makes sense) and then after putting in the frames, tape the top two edges together… I'd wrap each frame in a towel or a few times in a sheet, to give a little padding- good luck!! packing is like a huge jigsaw puzzle hehe 🙂
I use the large mirror boxes for my paintings, they are large and flat and you can put a bunch of different framed art inside. Good packing.
I hate to say it, but I am pro the most expensive option! We are in the Air Force, and after moving ourselves every three years, 2 moves ago I went on strike and said I wan't going to do it. The Air Force will pay us what they would have paid the movers when we move ourselves, but the hassle isn't worth it to me anymore. We had the movers come, I sat in the front yard with the kids and a Pepsi, while they packed and moved the whole house. We showed up at our destination, and they unloaded everything into the new house – it was like magic and saving money on a move has never seemed important to me ever since. We have another move coming up this summer, (our 3rd since the first mover experience) and I will be sitting in the yard enjoying the weather again as the movers move us!
Yes a couple of things got broken, but you just have to file a claim and the mover's insurance is supposed to pay you out for the damages. (I hand move my sewing machines, jewelry, and computers just to be safe)