packing up a small apartment that's full of stuff

any tips appreciated

take one (or two) trip to the goodwill (or other donation spot).

i am getting rid of soooooo much shit

i never even realized i had so much shit

it's just all the little detail stuff that drives me crazy

put everything in super-thick garbage bags

toss it all, you'll never miss it

lots of boxes. Lots and lots. I went to a movers' supply warehouse and bought almost 30 proper moving boxes in standard sizes for books and stuff. It was worth it.

Pack things in the biggest boxes that you can still lift, ie books in smaller ones and light stuff like sweaters folded and stacked in giant linen boxes. Bigger = fewer total.

Dresser drawers full of stuff can be pulled out in a pinch and saran wrapped to protect contents without having to repack everything.

All hardware for shelving units or etc gets ziploc baggied and saran-wrapped to the piece of furniture in question for easy reassembly later.

Dresser drawers full of stuff can be pulled out in a pinch and saran wrapped to protect contents without having to repack everything

saran wrapped????????????

put everything in super-thick garbage bags

definitely. The kind contractors use. Can be bought at Home Depot type places. Will hold anything.

all good advice and duly noted!

and ya i've alreayd been rocking the contractors' bags. they totally rule. I threw out a TV in one!!!

ohgod slocki ugh i feel for you
i want to move to a new place in the next like 6 months and need to just get rid of so much stuff that i have no idea how to deal with / make decisions on
but i've done it before. gotta remember that. it is possible!

Last time, we just got a mover. It cost about $300.00 and was well worth it.

i am paying ppl to move my stuff, just not to pack it.

Yeah, I used Saran wrap like crazy, movers use a lot of it too but they have bigger rolls. It's awesome for securing stuff together and doesn't stick like tape or take of paint and varnish when you remove it.

but it's so thin!

you can see the unmentionables!

My dresser only holds yards and yards of unused fabric and stacks of patterns. The unmentionables and clothing go elsewhere.

When I moved here I got rid of THREE DUMPSTERS worth of stuff. Muy embarrassing. But out of all that shit there are maybe three items I miss, I can't even remember all the rest (well, some chairs).

Kinkos is a good place to get boxes (that usually hold 10 reams of paper). They are all the same size so it makes stacking, etc., easy.

The Onion's moving day tips:

Moving can be a major hassle, but with proper planning, it doesn't have to be. Here are some tips to make your next move as smooth as possible:

* To avoid breakage, glass items should be melted down, then re-blown after moving into your new home.
* Six weeks before moving day, fill one small box with books, seal it tightly, and write "books" on top in permanent marker. Then do nothing more until the day before your move.
* If using friends to help move, show your gratitude by buying them a pizza. Don't mention that a professional mover would have cost about 300 times more than a pizza.
* It is heartless and cruel to leave a pet at the humane society because of a move. Smother it in the bathtub and bag it up for trash day.
* Throw smoke grenades into every room of your new home to flush out any possible Viet Cong.
* Get a jump on things by cancelling electricity and water service several weeks before moving.
* Move to Portland. It's a really cool city. They've got all these awesome parks downtown.
* Waiting until the truck is pulling away to say goodbye to neighbors will make moving day a very moving day, indeed.
* Instead of writing "Fragile" on boxes containing breakables, place a copy of Yes' Fragile on top.
* Let professional movers take care of large, heavy items such as furniture and my cock.
* Boxes are an unnecessary expense. Place all possessions in the truck and fill to top with packing peanuts.
* Don't get too excited when you see a U-Haul truck that says "Moves Only $19.99" on the side. These signs are only intended as a joke.
* After relocating to your new home, remember that you are legally obligated to go door-to-door informing your new neighbors that you are a convicted sex offender.
* Rushing the previous tenants out of the apartment you're moving into is a great way to score free toiletries.
* For the love of God, don't ever move.

i am finding the randomest shit... a file folder containing the dust jacket for the complete sherlock holmes, a loose dvd of "save the last dance," a picture of an "ice sitting contest" and miscellaneous information on polish film festivals

Oh see I try to keep that shit to a minimum. I like having a house full of interesting tidbits but I've moved too many times in the last three years.

In order to avoid this stuff, I surreptitiously throw out stuff my boyfriend has and will never, ever use. He doesn't notice.

a file folder containing the dust jacket for the complete sherlock holmes

holy jesus, when I moved two years ago I threw out the same book - it was MISSING THE DUST JACKET

If you had asked months ago I'd have said "don't move in winter" but alas. Where you moving?

anything that is boxed up from the last move goes in the trash/out on the street. no exceptions.

the last few runs are the worstest b/c you have to pick up all the stuff you've been pushing into corners.

I get a 26' truck and only make one trip.

Pack things in the biggest boxes that you can still lift, ie books in smaller ones and light stuff like sweaters folded and stacked in giant linen boxes. Bigger = fewer total.

i'd sorta disagree with this: pick up many more small boxes than big ones. cos you'll always end up with a bunch of random shit (like stuff that would be in a desk drawer or whatever) that, if all thrown into a medium-to-big box, will be fkn heavy! two boxes weighing 20 lbs is much more friendly than 1 weighing 40, imo. all media are heavy: books, cds, dvds, vinyl. you'll need way more little boxes for all this shit than you think you do just looking at it.

my other tip is to pick up the boxes all in one go from uhaul: the expense is small and it was worth it not to shlep around to every liquor store begging for boxes. they buy back unused ones at full price, and they're sturdy enough that you can flatten them out after you unpack, store them, and use them the next time you move, god forbid. and then all yr boxes are the same size, makes packing the truck a little easier.

moving is a straight bitch. best of luck.

Er. I meant, pack things in the biggest boxes you can lift if you assume it's full of THAT THING. Ie for books you need much smaller boxes than for say piles of clothing. Small boxes are good, but when I packed two weeks ago I wished I had more big ones for clothes and blankets and light stuff. Remember that boxes can be stacked on dollies and stacked neatly in the truck, whereas garbage bags you can only take one or max two at a time.

ya i have some reallllly heavy biggish boxes :(

I wished I had more big ones for clothes and blankets and light stuff

yeah this is rite on. i don't have much clothing or blanketry tho!

i have a bunch of clothes but i also have a ton of bags and suitcases (my friend calls my apartment backpackistan cuz it's so full of them)... so that'll do it for that stuff.

and will i am moving a couple blocks south to j-m & st-jo

In order to avoid this stuff, I surreptitiously throw out stuff my boyfriend has and will never, ever use. He doesn't notice.

I'm pretty sure that my wife does this to me. I do notice, like 3 months later, but I'm never 100% sure whether it's creeping Alzheimer's and I threw it out or it's in some secret place in storage.

Moving is the worst, especially when you haven't done it in a couple of years. I threw out like 30 bags of garbage when I moved out of a big house I lived in for four years, and this was after going to Goodwill.

i'm getting there folks.

i'm getting there.

gotta remember how much i love my new place and how much i'm looking forward to getting in there. i've been in this little one-bedroom apt for going on 7 years now. starting to get serious cabin fever and there is NOWHERE to put anything anymore... despite the fact that i live on my favourite corner in the universe i gotta go.

I will share my best moving secret: grocery bags with handles. Before a move go to the upscale grocery store, buy a few things and then ask a disinterested cashier if you can have some extra grocery bags. When they say yes, take about thirty or forty. They are disinterested and won't notice or care.

Now take a roll of packing tape and use it to line the top edge of each grocery bag. This keeps the handles from coming off and stops 99% of bag tears.

Grocery bags are great for moving because:

-They're free.

-You have a ton of them so during the last hour of packing, you can just keep tossing random shit into them without worrying too much about efficient packing like you would for boxes.

-You don't have to close them or tape them up.

-You can carry them from the truck to the house without having to keep your arms above your waist... one bag in each hand down at your sides makes for less painful moving.

I've got about fifty I just keep folded up in a box now. Once you tape up the top edge and bottom edge, you can fill them to the brim with hardback books or whatever and they just do not break or tear.

I cut and pasted most of that from an email to a friend.

Do you have these? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Bags

Great for books and heavy stuff.

I just went through this last weekend and it truly was HELL. I am still living in a lake of boxes and don't have any window coverings yet. Moving in December was a silly idea.

s1ocki bro i literally JUST did this shit like two weeks ago, like franny still living in boxes and also thinking moving at this time of year was a silly thing to do. shit took me like a week just to pack.

BUT it will get gooder when you are in your new place and it starts to feel familiar and homey. hang up any of your wall stuff quickly.

you know how bad a time a year this is to move?

day before my move there's gonna be a massive snowstorm.

it never ends

that's not really true, as a quick walk through your local cemetery might attest.

the cemetery workers here are on strike!

antexit is helping me now. he wins lunch & dinner.

Er... I'm moving in a couple weeks. Bad time of year, but the only time I have off!

Wow, and I'm always making "Gravedigger's Local 412" strike jokes....who thought it could be real? !!!

i did it

awesome! it's a pretty good feeling getting it all over with

i totally saw yr mover guys and the truck outside yr place this morning as i was walking to bus! but did not see you - looked like it was going okay though, considering the crazy weather...
congrats on new place!

i can't believe you haven't mentioned your cd sale!

I've def used my share of garbage bags and totes to pack the unbreakables, but I gotta say, esp if you're moving with a lot of volume, boxes boxes boxes are the way. You can't stack bags on a trolley, and they don't go into the truck nicely.

What you CAN do with them is drop them out a window if you don't think they'll rip and scatter your clothes on impact...and I've always secretly wanted to just push all my stuff out the window onto the sidewalk to save descending the stairs but haven't had the guts.

oh ya. i had an incredible cd sale/giveaway. the city was reeling!!

do you like your new place, slocki?

i absolutely love it.

i miss being, as i said, on my favourite corner ever, in the very beating heart of my social life / personal demi-monde. but the place is huge and great and frankly it was time for me to stop living like i was.

I'm looking around and trying not to get discouraged by the massive piles of STUFF.

I'm slowly but surely finding that nearly everything I own can be chucked.

yup!

i'm glad you like your new place, slocki. it must be nice to have heaps of room. we haven't moved for 5 years, after lots of moves, and a drastic culling is way overdue. i dislike having too much stuff, it makes me feel trapped.

ya me too. i dumped so much useless garbage and i feel much better about my life now. i mean, we're talking boxes in my closet i hadn't even unpacked from my last move. 7 years ago.

at this point it felt like somebody else's stuff. like... i was that guy? that person was me? felt like somebody i used to know a long time ago...

Grocery bags or similar with handles laid out like this

http://www.totalokonomi.dk/images/billeder/big/271303.JPG

are great for vinyl records! You can totally carry more LPs per turn if they're in these than in boxes (vinyl = heavy!).

Anyone tried this kind of thing? Seems almost too good to be true.

http://www.enklereliv.no/assets/produktbilder/10-052_3.jpg

i didnt try the grocery bag thing because it seemed completely insane.

I kinda know what was meant by it, but I don't think the grocery stores around me have bags that are nice enough to warrant moving with them... And the tape thing is smart, but tape and I are not friends.