Posted on LiveJournal FIRST!
Talk about a whirlwind. I am to start work the first Monday in April in St. Louis. So I have quite the adventure ahead.
This week I have 4 separate professional movers coming in to give me (Obscene) estimates. In the mean time I am pricing u-drag-it rentals to see how much we could conceivably do on our own. (Note: If anyone would like to talk to us to spend a week driving a 26′ truck cross country for room, board, expenses, and a flight home… drop me a line)
By the end of the week, I intend to have our move dates set.
Many have already asked the wonderful question: HOW CAN I HELP!?!?
First and foremost… we need boxes. We need to have everything packed within 3 weeks. Several of you have participated in this and as always there will be plenty of libations. When will this be going on? Well, we are currently home all day, all evening. Which means… pick a time.. tell me you wanna drop by… And let’s box and sort. In most cases… you might not even have to give me any warning.
We are also planning to get rid of a lot of stuff along the next 3 weeks. This ranges from craft making supplies, through old computer hardware and books, passing by toddler supplies, up to furniture. And it’s gonna likely be close to if not free.
We’re planning our big giveaway party over the weekend of the 14th/15th. But if you help out before that and want to offer poachers rights, “Oh, you’re getting rid of this?” We’ll probably let it go earlier. All you have to do is drag it’s carcass out of here. (And yes.. again.. some of the furniture is part of the offer)
We needs you peoples… more will be posted on a regular basis.
In the mean time.. I’m gonna go back to reeling from my stomach goo.
Re: boxes – one good way to get lots of freebies is to hit up your local liquor stores, tell ’em you’re moving, ask when their big orders come in, ask ’em not to break down their boxes and pick ’em up quickly so they don’t get stuck w/backlog and/or don’t give ’em to other folks. I’ll see about arriving w/some this coming Monday (4/9) when I’m over to help box/sort/whatEVER.
Re: moving companies – given the time constraints, you might wanna pay to have THEM box your stuff up (once you’ve gone through and culled) – methinks it’s not actually that much more than the hauling charges.
Best wishes w/all this!
http://www.upack.com/
Probably WAY cheaper than traditional movers, and perfect for over-the-road moves. We used them to get out here from LA, just make sure you pay the extra fee for a guaranteed arrival date. (Otherwise, they get there when they get there.)
Also, hire a professional mover to pack the truck. They know how to pack a load for long-haul trucking and can save you tons of money in space-rental (you pay by the amount of truck space you use) and in breakage due to improperly packed items.
Freecycle
Consider using Freecycle to donate the leftover items in your area, Andrei. That will cut down on waste and give others usable items. 🙂 I sent you a Tweet with a link to the ones that are (I think) in your area.
Stevie
Re: Freecycle
Our local county freecycle has been hard to reach. We’ve also been looking at Craigslist
Things I learned from cross-country moves:
1. Unless it’s Great-Aunt Millie’s Mission-style writing desk, it will cost you more to move it than to replace it when you get there. Divest yourself of all furniture you don’t need to have the *day* you get to your destination.
2. Kitchen stuff: Same thing. if you’re like me, and have populated your kitchen with thrift store finds, then give them back to the thrift store. Keep a place setting per household member, preferably in non-breakable materials. This does not apply to kitchen stuff that carries a strong emotional value, of course. If you’ve got good pots and pans, keep them. If not, see ‘cost more to move than to replace’.
3. Clothes: Divest yourselves now of all the clothes you haven’t worn in a while, that A will be growing out of, that you’ve been keeping around for when you lose that stubborn 5 pounds. Seriously, you’d be amazed how little you actually *need*.
4. Household linens: Use them to pad breakables when packing.
Books: Will be a big part of your total belongings. These are heavy (for weight based estimates) and bulky (for volume based). If you can bring yourself to leave some behind, do so. Your local hospital will adore you for receiving any you can’t make anything off at the used book store.
Check into the POD systems, my sister-in-law had a very good experience with them.
congrats! Glad to hear your own unemployment will be so short in this horrid economy 🙂
I haven’t moved halfway across the country since I was in grade 4, but I do know that it’s possible to fit an entire family of five’s belongings into a medium u-haul sized truck. It involved my dad’s friend throwing out a lot of out toys when we weren’t looking, but all of the books made it. I actually have to disagree a bit — I LOVE liquor store boxes for smaller moves, but sometimes having all uniform boxes is wonderful when trying to pack up a space with as much as possible in as small of space as possible. No tetris with boxes. Moving place boxes are designed to all stack on each other, usually.
Are y’all taking the vending shelters, etc, with you? I won’t be able to really come help pack (see location:), combined with full time work and commissions), but could offer some money for one of them and one of the tables.
We’re taking one tent for sure, but if you’re interested in the other I’d be happy to sell that and a table to you… how much were you thinking? (Email me directly on this if you want to.)
Boxes: try Craigslist free section (I got almost all of mine that way). Bug your friends who work in offices to take their paper ream boxes. Those are the absolute best in the universe for packing books, DVDs, etc.
I have been AFK for a long time. Very glad to hear you got a job! St. Louis is kind far away, but it has its charms.
We might have some boxes we can donate to the cause. 🙂
We have boxes…but I have to see if the cat has shredded them beyond useability. He think’s they’re his scratching post… If they’re useful I’ll bring them when I come by tomorrow.
I told Mark you were moving to St. Louis and he launched into the horrors of East St. Louis. Apparently McDonald’s has armored security that rivals Fort Knox, and if you turn your back on your vehicle you will return to find it a stripped heap of worthless metal. He says that as you are driving through on the highway (don’t stop, don’t stop, don’t stop…) you can look down and see car skeletons sitting around on blocks like cleaned carcasses littering a desert.
Luckily, his job is in Chesterfield, in the West part of St. Louis County.
I work at the Chesterfield Chamber of Commerce. If you want, I can send you a tourist and relo package before you head this way. Lots of good info for free…
Um Hi!
Awesome!
Chesterfield, SWC fan, and a fan of Gaiman’s Death.
Just out of curiousity sake.. Who is this?!?
Please drop me an email at my lordandrei (at) Livejournal address and I’ll send you the info to mail me (unless you can email it)
Anything would help as we currently don’t actually have a home to move to yet. We’re out the 17th – 21st to go house hunting in the area. (The job location is Chesterfield)
Thank you very much again!
Oh, wow.
I forgot my livejournal name and my facebook name don’t have anything to do with each other. I am so sorry, I feel like an idiot. And I missed you at the house party here in STL that you came to to surprise Sooj. I will shoot you the info in a message.
Good luck on the move! I’m doing some moving myself this weekend, but no where near as extensive. I have to get the stuff that is in my Mom’s house that’s been there for 20 years OUT since she is moving out. So U-Haul, here I come!
I cannot believe how fast this is all happening. I will really miss you guys. You and H were really friendly to a OTO newbie and included me in your masses and other events. I hope that you find a beautiful place to live and I hope the new job is excellent!
LY,
D
As I joked at OLO
If I could kidnap your family with us.. I’d consider it 😉
You have also been a wonderful friend; even if we can’t share latte’s without the threat of mutually assured destruction.
You are one of the people they I will miss most.
And we’ll never get to see Aiden hit on Jade 😉
Re: As I joked at OLO
And we’ll never get to see Aiden hit on Jade 😉
Ah never say never. The universe is mysterious!
At least I will get to see you this summer at NOTOCON! That’s not far away.
LY,
D
The post offices here have boxes for free, you can also order some of them online and they ship for free too:
http://shop.usps.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductCategoryDisplay?beginIndex=0&pageSize=10000&langId=-1&storeId=10001&catalogId=10152&categoryId=13354
they also have the little tube ones for posters/large pictures/smaller things.
D00d! The speed at which things happen! O_O
Also, I work at a comic book store. If you need boxes of a reasonable but not excessive size and -great- sturdiness, we get between 10-20 of them every week, both Wednesday and Thursday.
You can combine with $hotbeverage, if you can come to downtown Seattle or Lake City to get ’em. (I have no car. ^-^;)
I have to come down to the city tomorrow
I’m getting some boxes in south park. I can gauge the pickings even if I need to plan to do it next week.
Where’s the store? Hot beverage tomorrow?
Re: I have to come down to the city tomorrow
Tomorrow, sadly, I have plans — but if you think you might have availability next Wednesday, that would be ideal? ^_^! Thursday would be fine, too.
The shop I work at is Golden Age Collectables, in Pike Place Market.
The boxes, for reference, come in two sizes — small, about 10x14x6 inches-ish in size (very rough estimate. They fit two stacks of comics side by side), and large, which are exactly large enough to fit two small ones into. We usually get between 9-15 of the large ones on Wednesdays and about half that on Thursdays, and perforce double that of the small. I can ask for any number of them to be held for me.
You can also, if you like, call them tomorrow and ask if they’ve got any extra Diamond boxes available. Just tell them you’re a friend of Ves. (That’s the name I go by at work. Moderate-length story.) If you call on a Wednesday, I’ll be there in person. ^-^;
Re: I have to come down to the city tomorrow
What days do you work? I may try to come down in advance to look around the store and also try to figure out where to park to pick up boxes, etc.
Email me at my lordandrei (at) livejournal address to tell me what works best to foist $WarmBeverage on you (tea is my preferred weapon of choice, but I will no begrudge someone a coffee fixation)
Good luck in your new place, St. Louis is beautiful.
St. Louis! Wow Andrei, that is my old home town ya know. If you want any information about the city good places to live any of that I am here, I still have the same cellphone number, so please feel free to give me a call.
HOW THE HELL ARE YOU?!?!?
I missed this comment when it came in.
Br pointed it out to me while we were socialising at my hotel this evening. I was wondering how you were doing. It’s been a while. You should still have my cell as well (the number was far to good to give up)
Email me off of LJ and we will catch up and I’ll tell you all about how things are going.
*hugs*
-A