Five Green Moving Tips

Packing might be one of the least fun things I’ve ever done. I’m downright bad at packing to go on vacation, but when it comes to moving I’m out of this world bad.  I spend the majority of my time complaining that I can’t believe I have so much junk and threatening to throw it all away and start over again.

At this point we’re less than halfway done, and this is one of the neater rooms in our apartment. For the most part, clothes and furniture are strewn pretty haphazardly across the house.

For someone who hates packing so much, I really move a lot.  This is my fourth move in the past four or five years, and I’m making this one extra excruciating by stretching it out over the next few months.  While we’re getting our housing situation in Lake Charles straight, Kyle and I will be mooching off of my parents (swimming in their pool, watching their big TV, stealing some of the overgrown perennials from their flower beds), and the majority of our stuff will sit in their garage.

Anyway, I’m trying to make this whole arduous process as emotionally and environmentally painless as possible.  I decided to pass on some of the green moving tips I’ve picked up over the past few years.  I hope these are helpful to those of you who have a move in the near future!  And congratulations to those of you who are staying put, because moving really does suck.

1. Don’t wait until the last minute.

One of the best ways to reduce the stress of moving is to confront it early and deal with it accordingly.  For the past few months I’ve hauled a box or two  with me any time I’ve gone to visit my parents.  While they don’t amount to a whole lot, I didn’t make any special trips and managed to save myself just a few boxes’ worth of stress this week.

2. Don’t waste your time and money moving things you don’t use.

While all of us aren’t lucky enough to have a place to store stuff indefinitely, we could all probably benefit from getting rid of a few things.  I keep a box at the bottom of my closet, and anytime I come across clothes that no longer fit or look really stupid on me I throw them in there.  When the box is full I drop it off at the thrift store.  You can start thinking about things you can donate, sell on eBay or Craigslist, pawn off on friends, or throw away months before you’re scheduled to actually move.  That way when the time comes you’ll have a lot less to pack to do.

One thing I’ve really been struggling with is keeping things that have sentimental value but no real utility.  It’s a mental/emotional thing that I don’t have any really good advice for since it’s one of my biggest weaknesses, too, but I find it helps to remind myself that the items themselves don’t really bring me any closer to the people they remind me of.  While it’s great that I think of my great-grandfather every time I pull on the wool socks that used to be his, the fact of the matter is that I have cold feet and would wear wool socks in winter no matter what.  If that weren’t the case, then there’d be no point in my having his old socks.

3. Don’t pay for packing materials. The money you’ll spend on gas and renting a moving vehicle should really be the extent of your moving expenses.  Rather than paying a moving crew, bribe your friends with food or alcohol (positive: you’ll be cleaning out your pantry and spending time with friends in the process, negative: they may get trashed and drop your breakables) and let them help you load your stuff up.  Call local businesses a few days before garbage day and ask if they have any boxes, bubble wrap, etc. they might be throwing away.  (I work retail, and I know this is usually the case at my job.)  Make sure to recycle the boxes and paper after you’re finished with them, otherwise you’re just postponing their inevitable demise in a landfill.

An even better option than free newspaper and bubble wrap is wrapping your dishes and other breakables in your t-shirts, scarves, and pajamas.  Everything is going to the same place anyway, and you’ll need fewer boxes.  Those reusable totes that many of us take to the grocery store also make great alternatives to cardboard boxes, especially for packing up craft and garden supplies or lightweight items like clothes and spices.

4. Dedicate an entire day or two to packing, and set up stations to help keep you on task. I’ve designated specific corners of my apartment to specific things.  I’ve piled all the boxes we’ll need to load up and take to my parents’ house in one corner, while all the empty boxes are in another.  In another corner I’ve amassed a collection of stuff to drop off at the thrift store.  Additionally, I have piles of various recyclables on my coffee table, and I keep a garbage bag with me so that I can dispose of trash immediately.  I try and spend as much time as I possibly can on sorting and packing, switching to a new room when the boredom, dust, and sheer magnitude of junk becomes too overwhelming.  There are so many obscure nooks and cubby holes in the multiple built-ins in this old ass apartment, so there’s no way I could ever be focused enough to do a room at a time.

5. Stop buying stuff you probably don’ t need. I’ve noticed this problem is much worse among people who frequent thrift stores, yard sales, ect.  Sometimes there’s a steal that’s nearly irresistible, and the temptation seems almost too great.  I like to think of these as special occasions, but they seem to happen to me every time I set foot in a thrift store.  From now on, however, I’m going to see if I can actually visualize myself using the items I think I can’t afford to pass up–as in, do I really need another long flannel night gown?  I have a feeling that this will put an end to the majority of my dumb impulse buys.  If that strategy doesn’t work, however, then I’m going to visualize myself boxing up that same dusty item in three or four years.  Another option: visualizing myself bagging it up and taking it back to the thrift store from whence it came–something else I find myself doing a lot of. Hopefully those exercises will do the trick, otherwise I see myself on the long cluttered road to becoming a full blown hoarder.

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