5 Places to Find Free or Cheap Moving Boxes
Whether it’s across town or across the country, your move to Colorado will require a lot moving boxes to ensure that all your belongings safely arrive at your new home. An assortment of big and small boxes will make packing a breeze, but the trick is to find them at a price that’s right. Cheap is good, but free is better!
Grocery Stores
Try asking the manager at your local supermarket if you can pick up boxes there. Most supermarkets throw their boxes away at the end of each work day, so if you ask early enough, the employees might set some aside for you. Be specific about the sizes that you want so you don’t end up with lots of small boxes!
If the store has a produce section, ask about fruit boxes. Fruit boxes are usually made of stronger cardboard. This is to ensure safe transport of heavier fruits like apples and oranges. These boxes are especially useful if you plan on packing weighty items like books. While you’re at it, ask about liquor boxes. Most liquor boxes come with cardboard inserts to keep the bottles from touching during transport. This makes them very useful for packing fragile knickknacks.
Craigslist
Search through Craigslist in the free section of the site for people giving away boxes for free of charge. Craigslist is a great site for quick freebies. You might find boxes from people who have just moved themselves or, if you’re lucky, specialty boxes for big items like televisions.
Storage Areas
If you are currently renting a storage unit, like Bermuda Dunes CA self storage, consider asking the provider if the facility can provide you with boxes or other packing containers. Some storage facilities work with their renters to provide boxes at little cost.
U-Haul Message Boards
The message boards at U-Haul offer a box exchange that may also be useful. People who have procured boxes use the exchange to post public messages about available packing supplies, some free and some for sale. Most won’t ask for more than a few dollars because the purpose of the exchange is to reduce waste, not make money.
Bookstores
Bookstores may also be willing to help you with boxes for your move. Ask the manager if the store can put some aside for you. The best thing about book boxes is that they’re designed with heavy items in mind, so you can be sure that the cardboard won’t break in transit.
Moving is a costly endeavor, so save money where you can and ask around for free boxes. It’s worth the effort!
Author Bio
This article was written by Danielle Hunsaker on behalf of extraspace.com. For more information on self storage in Bermuda Dunes, CA, go to their website at: http://www.extraspace.com/Storage/Facilities/US/North_Carolina/Greensboro/900283/Facility.aspx
How To Move A Mattress Safely
Moving a mattress and box springs can be difficult and cumbersome, especially when you are moving to Colorado. While moving these objects, you may risk hurting yourself or the mattress. Luckily, by taking just a few precautions, you can protect your body and your favorite sleeping spot.
The first thing to do before moving your mattress is to remove the mattress and the box springs from the bed itself. Moving a fully assembled bed may seem like a great way to save time, but it will be too heavy. You will hurt yourself if you attempt this.
If possible, you should place the mattress into a protective plastic bag. These can be purchased from many movers or large furniture retailers. This will protect the mattress from rips and tears, but it will also keep it protected from bugs, dust, and odors while moving.
Before moving the mattress, you should clear out the areas you will be moving it through. A mattress is likely to catch on wall hangings or other furniture, and this can cause damage to either the mattress or the objects being hit. In addition, by clearing the space, you reduce the likelihood that you will have to bend the mattress to get it through a tight spot. Bending the mattress will not break it, but you should try to avoid it as it can damage the mattress if it is bent too often.
While moving your mattress, you should use two people. One person may be able to handle the weight of the mattress, but they will drag it on the ground if they are attempting to move it on their own. This will have drastic consequences for the material of the mattress. Ideally, you should place one person on each end of the mattress, and if the mattress has handles, you should attempt to use those.
At a minimum, you should have a truck to move your mattress. You should never put a mattress on top of a vehicle luggage rack. These are not designed to carry mattresses. If the mattress falls off in the middle of the road, it will damage the mattress and it could even cause an accident. Ideally, you should use an enclosed moving truck to move your mattress.
Author Bio:
This article was written by Sarah Grace Villaflor, health and home improvement ambassador for intellibed.com – making the best mattresses in the world. IntelliBed is a leader in Intelli-Gel mattresses, which master the art of sleep.
Moving With Kids
Moving is one of life’s most stressful events, and it is particularly hard on children. However, if you include children in the whole moving to Colorado process they will feel less stress and more involved.
Keep them informed
From the very beginning of your move, keep your children informed. Tell them as soon as you know where you’ll be moving and explain why. The more time they have to accept the move, the easier it will be. Make sure to consider moving over the summertime so they won’t have to leave their school and friends mid year.
Research your new neighborhood
If you are moving to another area of the country, or even a new area of Colorado, do some research and show them some of the exciting places near their new home. Show your children pictures on the Internet of their local schools, shopping malls, zoos or other places in which they may have an interest. Your children will feel less fearful about their new home if they’ve seen pictures of the area.
Answer their questions
Children will want to know about their rooms. Will they have to share a room? Can they still have a fish tank in their bedroom? Answer their questions and reassure them that their lives will be very similar to the lives they have now. Encourage them to ask any questions they might have about the move, and you will eliminate their fears and worries.
Get their input
Include your children in some of the minor decisions that accompany moving. Ask them what color they want their rooms painted. Inquire as to what they want to have for breakfast on moving day. Let them feel they have some control over the move, and they will feel empowered.
Ask for their help
Tell your children that you need them to help you with the move. Ask them to start a throw away box for old clothes and toys they no longer need or use. Tell them to create a moving day box for special toys that they want to take with them in the car or on the plane.
Explain how to stay in touch with friends
If your children are concerned about leaving friends, assure them they can stay in touch easily with email, Skype calls, phone calls or texting and tweeting. Young children will show less concern about leaving friends, but it’s good to let them know they can call their friends and tell them all about their new home.
Keep a positive mood
If the adults have a positive feeling about the move, children will have a much easier time adapting. If adults feel conflicted or sad, children will become more stressed. Focus on all the wonderful reasons for moving to help your children feel positive, hopeful and excited about the change.
About the author: Scott Daniels moved a lot growing up, almost once a year. He loves exploring new places and finding hole in the wall coffee shops no one’s heard of before. To fund his explorations he works for HireAHelper.com – the easiest place on the web to compare and book movers.
How to Pack in Half the Time
If you have ever moved, then you might already know that there are plenty of things to stress about when the process is coming together. There are some pretty large tasks that have to be taken care of when you are relocating and moving in or around Colorado, even when you have help from Colorado movers, and packing is one of the biggest tasks that you will have to worry about. When you are thinking about a move, then you need to be prepared to handing the packing and loading aspects of the process, and in order to be ready to handle these tasks appropriately, you need to be organized. If you take these steps to prepare and be organized, then it is possible for you to be packed in half the time you would have otherwise taken.
Before the Boxes
The most important step that you can take to make the packing process go simply and easily is planning ahead. This means that you need to map out the process before a single box even enters the home that you are moving. Take the time to write things down so that everyone involved in the moving process knows what is coming and what is expected of them as the process moves from the beginning to the end.
Packing a home is something that does not happen overnight, and it will take time. In order to reduce stress, and make the packing process actually go faster, you need to take little steps that can be accomplished in set periods of time, no matter what periods of time you figure out and set up. Remember that your situation is something that is entirely your own, and you need to adjust the moving process to fit your own needs and speeds.
Methods to Madness
There are many different ways that you can go about packing a home, but experts will generally agree that there is a method to the chaos and madness that is the packing process. Normally, you should start by weeding things out that you no longer need or use. Once you complete this step, then you can move on to packing things that you cannot get rid of, but things that you will not be using in the near future. This is a great place to start because you might end up packing more than you thought possible in a short period of time without causing undue stress to the family when they find out that something is missing and then need to find it right away.
After you pack the things that will not get used any time soon, you can move on to packing things that are decorative or heavy such as books on shelves or other things of the like. Make sure that you take the time to label all of your boxes and keep an inventory so that you know where things are and what boxed that you have put them in along the way. This will help you find things that you find out that you need before the move, and it will help you get organized at your new home much faster.
Final Steps
After you have completed these steps, you might find that most of your home is packed before you actually know it. Make sure to look into moving insurance at this point. There will only be a few things that you need to pack after that, and most of these things will be things that you cannot pack until the last minute. As such, you should set a time limit for the family to having these things packed so that they are ready before moving day without stressing people in the family out. Make sure that you all priorities the things that you are packing according to the need, and see what people can live without; these are the things that you will pack first in this step. Once you have gotten the rest of the things packed, you can do a final walkthrough of the home and be totally ready for the next chaotic step in the moving process; moving day in Colorado!
