Moving
I made it to Miami!!!
This post is going to be about minimizing the cost of moving and other tips I have for ya.
First, I want to start with packing. I highly recommend the shipping service Greyhound Shipping by Busfreighter. It is super cheap and you can move a lot of stuff. They have the option for door-to-door, or station-to-door, or station-to-station shipping. I've used them twice for my huge moves across the country and they did not let me down. It feels risky because they only insure up to $1,000 per shipment, no matter how many boxes you have, and then each package is insured up to $150. I have some tips for you in order to practically guarantee your packages will make it to you in great condition.
I bought:
- 6 'Large' (18 in. L x 18 in. W x 24 in. D) moving boxes from Home Depot, $1.78 per.
- 2 rolls of Scotch Heavy Duty Tape (any heavy duty tape will do)
- 1 Roll of Large Stretch Wrap, Green, $24. It is very important to buy the more expensive version of stretch wrap. I purchased the "off-brand" clear wrap for $16 thinking it will do the same thing, but you could easily run your finger nail through it and cut the wrap. With this green wrap, I can at least attest to its durability.
PACKING
First step, I packed practically ALL of my stuff into these 6 boxes, being sure to keep a note on my phone about what was in each box. I have an embarrassingly large amount of clothes that I can't let go of, so I had two boxes filled with clothes, coats, jackets, and shoes. Clothes are expensive, and it's way cheaper to ship them out than to have to create a new wardrobe. I put kitchen gadgets (including a slow cooker) into another box. I had bed sheets, duvet, and towels in another (also very expensive to replace). Furthermore, I shipped out my Google Home Mini, my jewelry, memory boxes, my artwork, and many other things that are priceless. You could say I was a nervous wreck about shipping these items - I got shingles. Haha, I don't think it was just from packing these things, I think it was about the entire life change, ya know, quitting my job, moving across the country, getting engaged to my boyfriend of 7 years (hallelujah).
To protect my breakables, I wrapped them in towels, rags, etc. which would've had to ship anyway. I made sure to pack these boxes to the very top so there could be little movement within the box. I used old cardboard strips to cover my stuff that might be exposed when I closed the flaps. I taped the box flaps down, being sure to tape a third of the way down the box and then using small strips of tape to tape down the inner sides of the flaps.
I weighed the boxes (for shipping charges). You have to know the total weight, but I made sure to weigh each box to make sure they didn't exceed 100 lbs each. I used the bathroom scale. My boxes were, on average, around 70 lbs each (much less than I am). I input the total weight into Busfreighter, paid less than $450, and printed out my GPX labels.
It is important with Busfreighter to make your boxes easily identifiable and to make them look alike, otherwise your packages could get split up and possibly lost. When we first used this service, we had large moving boxes and a big, blue suitcase. The suitcase got split up from the rest and we didn't receive it until weeks after the rest of the shipment and we almost filled out a claim!
Here are my tips for easy identification:
1) Print 4 copies of each busfreighter GPX label per box. Tape 2 of these to two different sides of the box itself. After wrapping the box in the stretch wrap, tape the remaining 2 on two remaining sides of the box. That way, no matter how the box is placed, the shippers don't have to toss and turn the box to look for a label. Furthermore, if the wrap comes off the box for some reason, you still have 2 labels on the box itself.
2) Bright orange construction paper labels. I split the sheets of paper in half and wrote huge in permanent marker 1/6, 2/6, 3/6, etc. all the way to 6/6. I taped these down to each box, but it might be smarter to tape them to the outside of the stretch paper (because the wrap is green in color).
3) The green stretch wrap itself will make these identifiable. The wrap is essential for keeping damage from your flimsy, easily damaged cardboard boxes. It also helps against the weather. Think about if it rained while they were switching stations/buses? Your stuff could get soaked, the box could fall apart and then your stuff would be lost. It is important to invest in this heavy duty wrap. I wrapped my boxes three times in every direction. I still have leftovers for another future move....ugh, don't want to think about that.
In summary, I packed the boxes, taped down the flaps, taped GPX labels directly to the box, wrapped the boxes, taped GPX labels to the wrap, and taped the bright orange chronological order of the boxes to the wrap.
Listen...it costs double to ship through USPS ground delivery. I cut my costs in half by going through Busfreighter and they delivered these huge packages right to my door. For my Miami move, it took less than 2 weeks for them to deliver my packages. My packages made it to the destination before I DID. Granted, I shipped them out a week before I shipped myself out.
ROADTRIP
Anyway, I ended up packing a majority of my belongings, but I also decided to take a road trip across America, because I had my brand new car! I picked out the Honda Civic EX 2019 because it gets amazing gas mileage (I got about 38 mpg going 70-80 mph), it's stylish (in my opinion), and has all of the safety features I could want. I packed very fragile items including china, and large items including my tennis raquet, longboard, etc. I packed more clothes (duh). My sister traveled with me! We packed her little suitcase and backpack as well. And for the grand finale, we packed my cat, Miro. Yes, he roadtripped with us across America because he is the most spoiled, well-behaved kitty of all time. I'll go more into this later.
Day 1) Grand Canyon, Arizona. We stayed in a cute little town, Williams. Highly recommend. There's a zipline, lots of Native American style boutiques, and a retro Route 66 Diner! We visited the southern rim of the grand canyon in the early morning, where we could see the vast expanse of the canyon. Miro was on a leash, hella cute.
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| Miro looking out over the Grand Canyon |
Day 2) Santa Rosa, New Mexico....
Day 3) Frisco, Texas. My fiance's Aunt and Uncle live here, and since this took place during the pandemic and we were bringing a cat along, everyone thought it best that we stay in a hotel nearby. I insisted on paying for it myself, but Uncle repeatedly offered to the point where I couldn't say no...and I'm glad I didn't. This was the nicest hotel we stayed at in the whole trip. They even came to visit in the hotel lobby and brought us pizza! There's an abandoned waterpark across the lot that took every ounce of me not to run to. And it's true, everything is bigger in Texas.
Day 4) New Orleans, Louisiana. We visited my cousin who also has a cat! She just started a new position at Tulane Hospital as an Obgyn! We were able to catch up for a bit over dinner (Malissa and I tried the shrimp Po' Boy sandwiches which were pretty good). While we were out, her cat and Miro were bonding back at her Shotgun house. If you haven't heard of it, it's an interesting layout where you open the front door to one room and you have to keep moving through doors to reach more and more rooms. It was actually pretty spacious and a very cool vibe. I wanted to show Malissa the New Orleans that I knew and loved, but it was actually a ghost town. I was shocked because this place is usually full of life. There was still a few pop up bands, a few artists, and of course we still got beignets from Cafe du Monde.
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| Cafe au lait et beignets de Cafe du Monde |
Day 5) Mobile, Alabama. We just wanted that Southern Charm. The houses here are so freaking cute. The kind where you'd sip your lemonade on the porch, surrounded by gardens and gossip with neighbors.
Day 6) Orlando, Florida. We visited my friend who works in Kissimmee...that's right Disney. But we didn't visit the world famous theme park. We gabbed and relaxed and drank from her well-stocked bar. Thankfully this girl (bless her heart) fosters kittens, so Miro was completely comfortable with a cat tree, fresh litter, and tasty foods. My friend bagged me some cuts from her garden so I could start my own garden in Miami! (Post to come.)
Day 7) Miami, Florida. Finally, we made it. Nothing can stop this city from living its best life. The mood changed dramatically. Everyone was wearing masks, but you could tell the mood was up. Now I am home sweet home.
PACKING THE CAT
First step was putting up a net, which I bought from Home Depot in the window screen section. One piece was the perfect size. I cut out holes in the top two corners and put two carabiners through the holes and hooked them into my sunroof. Then I cut two additional holes even closer to the edge of the netting and hooked it into the little hooks in the backseat area so that Miro couldn't reach me from my left side.
I had the backseats down and placed a bedsheet on top to cover the entire back area. In the space right behind my seat, I placed his entire litter box, which is open-faced. This came in handy for the 8 hours we spent driving and not stopping. He also found it useful for when it got really hot in the desert...he'd just climb in there to get cool in the sand. I placed his carrier in the back seat area and left the door open so he'd be free to go in and out as he pleased. Luckily he liked to spend 90% of the time in there, which was great for safety reasons. Finally, I had a bowl of food for him next to his cage. He was a happy camper, and much more comfortable than my sister and I.
We stayed in pet-friendly and pets-stay-free hotels, which were mainly Red Roof Inns. Miro got to roam, get some water to rehydrate, and stay cool.
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