Top Ten Tuesday: Frugal Moving

Today I'm going to link up with Amanda for Top Ten Tuesday.  Here we go!

Since we just moved, I thought it would be a great idea to make my top ten list about moving!  Here are some tips on how to move while still being frugal.

1.  Purge things.  This really helped in our move.  If you have something that you never/hardly ever use, get rid of it!  There is no point in taking up box space for a thing you don't really need. 


2.  Pack like things together.  When you unpack (and even pack), it's so nice to have like things together.  This includes all of the bedroom things in one box and all bathroom things together, etc.  When you need to find one thing it is such a hassle when you think you put it in one box, but you just can't find it.  This tip allows for a little less chaos (even though there still might be a little bit of it).


3.  Label everything.  This has been a life saver.  Label your boxes with everything.  We have been able to find certain items because we labeled the boxes with a basic idea of what was inside of it.  Near the end I was getting tired/lazy so some say "miscellaneous" and that does me no good.  BUT, if you can and have time to label things nicely, DO IT!


4.  Use an old phone book (or free one) instead of buying/collecting newspaper for breakables.  This may have been a little awkward at times, but do you know how easy it is to get free phone books?!  It's also easy to get free newspaper if you know where to go in your town.  I just ripped out the phone book and didn't worry about how many papers I was using!


5.  Use towels to pack breakables.  This helped me because I didn't have to worry about packing towels!  I figure you could use all of your pot holders and kitchen towels/washcloths for kitchen supplies and then you still have everything together! 




6.  Look on craigslist or freecycle.org for people giving away free boxes/bins.  We got some really nice U-Haul and Ebay boxes for FREE because a business was unpacking and needing to get rid of boxes.  Always be on the lookout.


7.  Who do you know?  Seriously, start talking to people and see who you may know through the grapevine.  We ended up getting to use a furniture truck from my mom's friend.  This saved us SO much money!  If you know people with trucks or people that can get a hold of a big truck, offer to pay them gas/food/whatever!  We couldn't have done our move without them! 


8.  Get boxes from the liquor store.  We got almost half of our moving boxes form the liquor store.  They are so nice and sturdy!  If you are able to go get them, do it!  Some of them even come with dividers.  Check it out!

This was great for packing wine, glasses, wine glasses, vases, extra wine bottles, etc.


9.   Purge!  Yes... I said it again.  If you can, do it!


10.  Grandma's trick: use paper plates or pot holders in between plates.  It really does protect them!  And it's super cheap/free!

11.  Take breaks!  I spent one day packing/cleaning for about 10 hours with around two 45 minute breaks.  I almost burned out and got frustrated with myself!  Don't let yourself get burnt out or exhausted.  Take some time to yourself or even just go for a little walk.  I put a movie at one point and packed things slowly while enjoying a nice movie.  Even that helped a little bit!