So, I had a really amazingly awful day in which I lost my job, broke up with my boyfriend, and my cat died, after which I decided it was time to give up being here and move to California instead.
Spoiler alert: California is awesome. I love it here. I don’t miss the snow a bit.
But I did make a few mistakes when pulling off this whole cross-country move adventure. The first mistake was trying to go it entirely alone. I’d never moved that distance before, and I dramatically underestimated what was involved in getting everything moved.
For example – I thought I was going to be brilliant and just ship my household goods to my new address. What could be simpler? Just pack up a few boxes, have the post office pick them up, and have everything waiting for me at my new place.
Well – that’s actually a ton of work. Just tracking down boxes was more of a pain than I ever expected – and it turns out that you can’t just use any old box. I learned that the hard way when some boxes I grabbed from the recycling bin basically fell apart during the shipping process. I didn’t lose everything that was in those boxes, but I did lose some stuff, and it all could have been avoided if I was willing to spend just a few dollars on new cardboard shipping boxes.
Also – it turns out the Post Office has a bunch of rules about what you can ship, and how big the boxes can be, and how heavy they can be, and a bunch of other stuff that I also learned the hard way. I spent more time running back and forth trying to get all the packaging right – I probably could have walked to California carrying my stuff and saved a few hours. The other option is to work with a company that specializes in shipping household goods from Boston. It would have been a lot easier and saved me a ton of time and money.
Learn from my mistake! DIY doesn’t always save you money. Let a packing and shipping company ship your household goods for you: it’s easier, cheaper & your stuff will be packed better than you can do on your own.