Movin' Out ...

{This essay was written for a scholarship being offered by MoversCorp}

Movin’ Out

    “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” – Neale Donald Walsch. This has been true time and again in my life. The act of moving is intense yet also empowering. It not only helps you define the boundaries of your comfort zone but more importantly, blow past them.

    I have moved five significant times; state to state and country to country. That number jumps to at least 10 if I include the city to city micro-moves slipped in between. I have lived in Ohio, Arizona, California, England, back to California and most recently Savannah, Georgia. I have moved for a variety of reasons. I’ve moved for change, for school, for love, for space, for dreams, for homesickness, for practicality. I have hired moving companies, U Hauls, and bribed friends with food and IOU's for use of their cars and the extra pairs of hands. 
 

    The way in which you move depends on the load size, the distance and your budget. Hiring a moving company can be great if you have the funds, and can really help take some of the stress out of the equation. Try to get at least three different estimates/quotes which involves having a representative come to survey your load in person and don’t forget to ask for their estimate in writing. Learn from my one major mistake in this scenario. In anticipation of my overseas move, I thought I was being helpful and efficient by wrapping, packing and stacking everything into a neat little pile in my kitchen. My good intention ended up being a waste of my time as well as an incredible hindrance to the movers. They had to unpack/unwrap everything to take inventory for insurance and customs and then re-wrap/re-pack it all according to their company’s procedure. The expressions on their faces when they walked in and looked from my face beaming with pride to the amount of extra work that lay ahead for them had me running out the door to buy a coffee traveler, a ridiculous number of pastries and cash for a very generous tip. 

    If you go the DIY route and rent a moving truck for the day, pack it tightly like a finely played game of Tetris and you won’t need as big a truck as you might initially think. You can increase truck bed space by dismantling bigger items like beds and unscrewing the legs off tables and desks. I’ve even used towels, blankets, sheets for extra padding and keeping certain pieces from getting nicked during the drive. This is when a few generous friends come in handy because the assembly line effect gets you to happy hour that much sooner. 

    One of the best things you can do for your move is to downsize, downsize, downsize. Use this as an opportunity to go through all the clothes, books and tchotchke you’ve accumulated and either sell it, donate it and/or recycle it. Places like Goodwill and Salvation Army will often come pick up leftover garage sale items still in good condition. Your local branch will have a list of what they can and cannot accept. These kinds of donations can even be tax deductible. If you are someone who cannot seem to bear to part with your possessions, consider a storage unit. They have them as big as a garage and as small as hall coat closet. Storage units can be a powerful experiment because when you remove the ‘maybe’ pile from your everyday life you realize what you truly need and what you don’t miss at all. In my experience, ‘out of sight, out of mind’ helped me let go of a lot of extraneous baggage; literally and figuratively. At this point in my moving career, my whole life could fit inside a 15 passenger van. I like to view that as impressive rather than sad. 

    Moving is not easy. It is a major life event that even when it’s exciting can be stressful. Yet it is one of the most rewarding adventures that I believe everyone should have the privilege of experiencing. You can minimize some of the headache and enjoy more of the process by creating a strategy based on your personal circumstances (and following some of my advice of course). So go on, push the envelope and see what opportunities life has in store for you on the other side of comfort!