Haven't moved in 8+ Years, what do I need to know?

Kyougu

My roommate and I's lease is expiring in August 31 and we both decided to finally go our separate ways.

I haven't moved or had to look for an apartment in close to a decade, so I'm trying to be as prepared as possible. Due to my job moving locations and me wanting to be closer to my hangout areas, I'll most likely be switching apt complexes.

I been putting money aside for expenses and should have about 2k saved up.

I luckily never been much of a decorator so I don't have much furniture. I have a couch, my large tv entertainment system and a dresser. I had been planning on getting a new bed, so I'll just have that delivered to the new place (any recommendations on beds would be appreciated). I think I should be able to get friends to help me transport them, or I'll rent a small U-Haul, so I won't need to spend on movers.

Any tips people have? I called a few complexes yesterday and it seems like 4 months away is still too early to start to look at places?

Marathon

If you have the money saved up and can find someone who is reasonably priced, just hire movers. They do it for a living and have a professional obligation to not break your stuff.

DouglasDanger

Talk to other people in the building

Have an inspection done, fill out a paper about the condition of the apartment on your move in day

Have at least two months rent ready

OmnipotentBagel

Take it carefully. After that much time, your muscles have likely atrophied significantly.

rhylith

Seconding hire movers. For a single person in an apartment who doesn't have THAT much shit you could probably get a small truck with 2 people to load up all your stuff and move it within only a couple hours and it'll only run you a couple hundred dollars plus tip. And while its obviously cheaper to just have friends help and pay em off with pizza, this will be so much faster and easier for all involved and won't make you owe anyone favors.

mcp

I just moved this year after living in the same place for 7 years.

I got a new couch when I moved. Had the movers dump my old one.

1. Throw away shit. If you're like me, you've accumulated a lot of shit you don't need. I threw away so much shit, it was awesome.
2. Check your credit score. Make sure nothing silly happened while you weren't looking.
3. If you know the area you want, looking early is fine! You don't even need to tell them your timetable, really. You might think a building is great, but hate it when you check it out. Since you looked early, you have more research time. If you find some place you like, tell them your time table. They might have stuff that's not available yet, but will be when you're ready to move, or be cool with holding the apartment for you if you pay X amount. In my experience that X amount is applied to your first months rent.

I know you said you're hiring movers, but movers are really the best if you can afford it. Especially if you don't live on the first floor.

#pipe

If there's one in your area, I cannot recommend stackable, reusable plastic moving boxes enough.


You pay some company like 30 bucks, and they rent you a pile of these hard plastic boxes and a dolly. The boxes are sturdy, they stack, they're easy to carry. You don't have to find cardboard boxes or buy them when you're just gonna throw em out in a week, you can just throw plates and glasses into the boxes with minimal wrapping and they stay safe. And when you're done and moved in, someone comes and picks em up.

Raijin Quickfoot

The most important thing to remember is this:

Moving fucking sucks

Kyougu

Well, with the consensus being that I should get movers, and Groupon having a couple of great deals on them today (plus 20% off) I went ahead and got a Groupon for movers.

JayKaos

If this includes trying to actually find a new apartment as well, there's a dozen different "put all the local listings on a map" sites now that are very useful - zillow, streeteasy, padmapper, etc.

#pipe

Yelp is amazing for movers. Read reviews. More expensive doesn't always mean better.

Goatmon

Be prepared to devote a lot of time to packing your shit up.

You have no idea how much stuff you actually have to deal with until it all needs to be transported somewhere.

Deadfall

There was someone in H/A a few years ago that was trying to resolve an absolute horror story with movers, like holding their stuff hostage for more money and shady stuff like that.

And ever since then I've been very nervous about movers.

So I guess my point is do your homework and read reviews.

Rainfall

I move a lot. Here's the tips I gave to my last set of roomies before moving. They didn't follow them and spent 19 hours straight moving stuff last minute, it was awful to watch.

1. Open every drawer and every cupboard. Take everything out and put it in a box. The only exception to this are dishes and spices that you will use while preparing to move out. So like? one plate per person, etc. Put those all in one cupboard and pack everything else.

2. Put fucking everything in a box. Everything possible should be in a box at least one week before your move date. For the remainder of that week your job is cleaning and putting the things you forgot to put in a box in a box(there will be a lot)

3. Pull all the furniture away from the walls. This helps with cleaning, and moving furniture will give you more stuff to put in boxes.

4. Schedule 1 day for each room to be cleaned, maybe 2 for the kitchen. This will give you time to get other stuff done(like putting your objects in boxes)

5. Place all your boxes in the centre of a room that isn't the entryway but has easy access from multiple angles(usually the living room) this will minimize traffic jams if you have multiple people helping you move.

IF you have placed literally all your stuff in boxes, have a dolly and a large truck, then moving is really easy. My last move took me less than 2 hours to load and unload total, but I live light.

I can't stress how important it is to box everything. Putting twenty things in one box can save you 9 or more trips between your truck and your apartment. Putting twenty things in a box, and then three boxes on a dolly... you get the idea.

Good luck!

The Geek

Marathon wrote: »

If you have the money saved up and can find someone who is reasonably priced, just hire movers. They do it for a living and have a professional obligation to not break your stuff.

But don't use anyone @neville has ever used.

The Geek

Pro tip: If you are packing boxes bit by bit ahead of time, write on the box the date that you packed it up. When you get to your new place, you know to open the most recently dated boxes first because you needed the stuff on them the longest before you had to pack it up.

mcp

I used two men and a truck for my move.

Their prices were a little high, I thought, but those dudes rocked so hard it cut like 1.5-2 hours of the estimated time so the total cost ended up being a-ok.

If I would have rented a uhaul, bought food and booze for friends, etc. for helping, I don't think I would have saved all that much.

#pipe

Our last move was done by a company called Tranquility Movers

It was two smokey old metal heads who spend their days moving furniture and their nights playing metal in shitty bars

they were amazing.

Knob

You should go slow and stretch first, theres probably some major atrophy going on

Quetzi

Knob wrote: »

You should go slow and stretch first, theres probably some major atrophy going on

Fuck I was just coming in here to post this exact thing

BahamutZERO

bagel beat you both by a mile

tynic

OmnipotentBagel wrote: »

Take it carefully. After that much time, your muscles have likely atrophied significantly.

you're both old and slow.

BahamutZERO

none can match that turtle's agility, look at him go

Zonugal

BahamutZERO wrote: »

none can match that turtle's agility, look at him go

He moves with the speed of a ninja, but with the carefree attitude of a teenager!

PiptheFair

moving is always going to suck and you are going to find a bunch of shit you never knew you had and don't actually need

Madican

Label your boxes with the general gist of what's in it or else be consigned to the fate of digging through each and every one to find that single necessary item when unpacking.

Quetzi

Madican wrote: »

Label your boxes with the general gist of what's in it or else be consigned to the fate of digging through each and every one to find that single necessary item when unpacking.

Ideally label each box with the room where it is going, so that everything is in the right place for the unpacking process

Goatmon

Straightzi wrote: »

Madican wrote: »

Label your boxes with the general gist of what's in it or else be consigned to the fate of digging through each and every one to find that single necessary item when unpacking.

Ideally label each box with the room where it is going, so that everything is in the right place for the unpacking process

Oh yeah, that's a smart move. I'll have to remember that.

Donovan Puppyfucker

Do you have heavy stuff? By that I mean books, mostly.

Put books in lots of small boxes, instead of a few large boxes. Your back will thank you.

OmnipotentBagel

I'm pretty sure the answer to "could God make a boulder so big even he couldn't lift it?" is "yeah he'd just fill it with books".

#pipe

chrishallett83 wrote: »

Do you have heavy stuff? By that I mean books, mostly.

Put books in lots of small boxes, instead of a few large boxes. Your back will thank you.

My wife has a lot of books, and books became our "You can fit a couple more small things in this box" filler

Quetzi

Oh, if you need some boxes for packing things, check in with your local liquor store. They go through tons of reasonably sized, strong cardboard boxes and are almost always willing to give you some for free. You'll need to reassemble them, because they've broken them down, but they'll all be right around the same size and everything, they're perfect for moving.

spono

Make sure you have a place lined up to actually park the moving truck. Our old apartment had very limited parking, especially for a large truck, so we made sure to let the leasing office know and they set aside a couple of spaces for us.

Rankenphile

Anyone ever use one of those PODS services? I think that's what I'm going to need to do to move out of my current place in a handful of weeks.

Blake T

If you can only afford cleaners or movers, personally I would suggest hiring cleaners.

I don't mind the hard work of moving my own stuff but I find cleaning someone else's stuff (while understandably required) a miserable thing to do.

I Zimbra

Rankenphile wrote: »

Anyone ever use one of those PODS services? I think that's what I'm going to need to do to move out of my current place in a handful of weeks.

My dad used them for his Kansas to Wisconsin move and had a good experience with them.

Kyougu

Bumping this as my move is next month and I have a very important question:

Where do people get beds?

I have been using the same bed for years and since I'm moving I figure its as good as time as any to get a new one. One less piece of furniture to worry about transporting and I can just have the new bed get delivered to the new place.

DrZiplock

Ikea has some great beds. As does any mattress store. If you're feeling sassy you can also look at any number of the mail order mattress places, but that would make me nervous.

mcp

I have an Ikea bed right now. Cheap, gets the job done.

My fiance just bought a new bed from Mattress Firm. It's pretty good.

There are Mattress Firms on pretty much every block where I live.

There are Mattress Firms across from Mattress Firms.

We went to one Mattress Firm and the sales guy was super annoying, and pushy.

So we went to another Mattress Firm that was a couple blocks away and bought one there.

Rainfall

I buy my mattresses at auction, still sealed, brand new, super cheap.

#pipe

Rainfall wrote: »

I buy my mattresses at auction, still sealed, brand new, super cheap.

what kind of auction?