I counted it up and I have moved 24 times in my life. Let me repeat: 24 times. And I’m getting ready to move again. We’re moving for very good reasons: we’ll be saving $700 a month. Our daughter will have a tree swing and a full-size bedroom. Did I mention the $700 a month? Anyway, it will be fine in a few weeks, but right now, as I sit here at 8:15 pm and look at my dining room full of broken down boxes waiting to be tape-gunned and filled, I can’t quite make it happen. I know it needs to happen, and I know I just need to get in there and get shit started and it will happen, but right now I’m feeling a bit paralyzed. I hope this passes. Soon. In the meantime, a few tips for moving:
1. If you must pack yourself, Trader Joe’s is a great source for boxes. Call in the early afternoon, ask for the “closing manager” and tell him or her how many boxes you need (or rather, tell him you need as many as they can set aside, all sizes, especially the big ones that toilet paper and paper towels come in). If all goes according to plan, when you arrive the next morning at 9am (that’s when they open and that’s when you should get there), the boxes will be waiting for you.
2. Don’t buy your packing tape at one of those UPS or FedEx Kinko’s stores. I stopped in the UPS store this morning trying to save time and they wanted $8.49 for a single roll of packing tape. What? I went a few blocks down Telegraph to our local hardware store and got them for $3.29 each.
3. Be ruthless in your purging. I passed on the Warren Buffet quote the other day, but even beyond that yardstick, just really be honest with yourself: Are you saving this long-untouched thing because a) you’re too lazy to gather it up and take it somewhere to donate it or otherwise get rid of it; b) you think you’ll need it someday; or c) you’re not sure you’ll need it someday, but it seems wrong to get rid of it? Here’s what you do if you’re at all ambivalent: get rid of it. Just do it. And if you live in San Francisco, here’s a woman who can make it really easy for you. I promise that you will feel better without the stuff.
