Now that we’ve decided how we are getting our stuff to Portland, we have to plan to get all our stuff into this 8×8x16 foot container. Every inch counts, and the last thing we want to do is move junk that we don’t need or want anymore.

The nice thing about the house we’re in now is that we always knew being here was temporary (although, we have stayed longer than I thought we would!). For this reason, we never invested a lot of money in furniture or decor. Most of our furniture is thrifted or from Ikea. We’ve basically been living in a state I can only describe as halfway between college and adulthood. The good news is that we aren’t attached to most of this, and we will have a clean slate in decorating the new house! Like, totally clean, which is something to consider in our house buying budget since we’re going to need to afford to furnish it too.

Anyway, we have already started purging what we can. I like to use Gigoit to give away items that aren’t worth selling but don’t belong in the trash either. However for items that are worth selling, I’ve been using Craigslist.  With very mixed results. I like the idea of Craigslist, but in reality it has exposed me to the dregs of society. I don’t know a nicer way to put it. It’s really frustrating how many no-shows there are. People that are late. People that want me to hold the item for 2 weeks so they can look at it and MAYBE get it. People that wait until I’ve already helped them load the item in their car before they try to haggle me down to half the price. A lady who stiffed me. Did I mention no-shows? And the people that e-mail “is it still available?” even though I wrote in the first line of my ad that I will remove my ad if the item is taken, I swear, no need to ask!

Am I too uptight? Maybe. But all the above happened while I was trying to unload just ten items. It was such a headache, I don’t think I want to go that route for getting rid of everything. eBay doesn’t appeal to me either. So I have decided to have a yard sale as soon as the weather gets warm enough for it. More accurately a driveway sale since we don’t have a yard, but you know what I mean. I have never hosted a yard sale before. Any tips? Is it better to price stuff ahead or just quote it as people inquire? I know I’ll need LOTS of small bills and coins for change. I’m interested in any and all advice on making it go smoothly!

Oh and semi-related; I recently got rid of a lot of my unneeded clothes at a friend’s Ladies’ Clothing Swap. It was such a fun time, about a dozen girls brought over bags of clothes. We organized them by type and then the fun began… free new clothes! You could take as much or as little as you wanted. I got an adorable red and white polka dot sundress and some slacks. The host took the unclaimed clothing to Salvation Army the next day. I remember once I read that these sorts of parties are popular in Portland. They call them Naked Lady Parties. But that’s just what I heard.

Grammar Foul, Photo © talulahgosh

We Got Stuff, Photo © paulswansen

Yahd Sale, Photo © mindfulbreath

More Garage Sale Signs. There seriously is a blog for everything, god bless you internet.

Several months ago Peter and I brainstormed options on how to get our belongings from Saint Louis to Portland:

1. Hire a movers.
2. Use a storage container.
3. Haul things behind us in a rented truck.

Once we made the decision that when we get to Portland we’ll stay somewhere temporary and look for our permanent home, that also made this decision for us. So we chose option 2, the storage container, because this way the storage container company can store our container in a warehouse in Portland until we are ready for them to deliver it to the address we tell them.

During my research I found there are a lot of storage container companies, but only a handful of reputable ones that do national moves. If you are looking to do an in-town move with a storage container, I would recommend pricing the local options as I found they were cheaper than using a company that can handle cross-country moves. Of course a lot of this is because the bulk of the price is for distance.

Here are the most reputable options I found for a cross-country move with storage containers:

• PODS
• Sam Portable Storage
• ABF U-Pack
• Smart Move

These companies have various options for container sizes and storage. The first thing I did was solicit quotes. For first impressions of these businesses, this really set the tone. PODS was awesome because they give you a quote online, instantly. The others you have to e-mail or call and wait for a response. Smart Move was by far the worst. They took several DAYS to get me a quote, and after that they continued to send me unsolicited ads via e-mail. All the pricing was pretty comparable but I was surprised to see PODS was actually the cheapest too. After I read about their patented lift system that keeps the POD level when being moved, that sealed the deal in my mind. The competitors don’t have that.

I called and made a reservation. They consider today’s gas prices when quoting, and I was really happy later on when I realized I had locked in my price for a relatively low gas price.. it still hasn’t been that low since. So how much does it cost to use PODS? Like I said, a LOT depends on distance. But our move from Saint Louis to Portland will be about $3,600. That includes the first month of storage in a PODS storage center in Portland. It’s not cheap, but it is cheaper than hiring movers for a move like this, and we won’t be rushed.

I will of course update if any issues arise, but the POD is set to be dropped off on May 1st and picked up on June 1st which gives us a whole month to pack. And make jokes about being POD PEOPLE.

PODS offers a lot of affiliation/organization discounts, but I’m also fan of the ol’ Google-around-for-it discount and I found this code: PODSavings2 which gives you 10% off initial delivery, 5% off between markets. It ended up knocking about $200 off our price.

PODS Storage Container Photo © sscornelius

Lately Peter and I realized we were both thinking the same thing… “Will this be the last time we ________ in St. Louis?”

Yesterday we were on our way to see The Watchmen and Peter mentioned there was a good chance this would be the last theater movie we would see in St. Louis. I laughed and told him how I had been thinking that about silly stuff… like, will this be the last time I have to buy shampoo before we leave? The last time I eat at this restaurant? etc.

It’s silly but when you have already made a decision to leave a place you find yourself “checking out” so to say. I guess this is part of that realization. And another manifest of our excitement. Oh, the day when I get to buy shampoo in Portland. Ha!

Peter and I are so excited to move, we want to do all we can to prepare now. It makes us feel productive and gets us excited!

Buttoned Up Moving.kit is designed to guide you through preparing during the months leading up to your move, as well as moving day and the weeks following.

Unfortunately it’s too early to do a lot of things, but here are some items we have done:

• made a budget for moving
• planned our itinerary for the cross-country drive
• reserved a POD
• sold some furniture we don’t need/want on Craigslist
• informed our landlord we’ll not be renewing our lease
• started packing non-essentials like books
• got our taxes filed early

Things to do (there are many, but these are on my mind):

• hold a yard sale as soon as it warms up
• secure temporary housing (2-3 month furnished rental while we’re in Portland househunting)
• make note of all the magazines, bills, etc that will need change of address notification
• figure out how many boxes we need for everything
• start eating out of the pantry more so we have to move as little non-perishable food as possible
• go get a pre-approval letter from the bank. I think we’re going to get this letter from a local bank just because that’s easier and it will affirm our ballpark house budget. Then soon after we get to Portland we’ll seek a local mortgage lender or broker. Still figuring this one out…

Writing this post reminded me that I purchased a Buttoned Up Moving.kit a few weeks ago that I haven’t cracked. I have heard good things about it so I will hopefully get some use.

And while we twiddle our thumbs in this frustrating stage of “I want to be doing stuff but it’s really too early!” here are things we do to pass the time:

• look at real estate listings! I love Estately and Peter loves Trulia. (Our Portland Map Tool queries both)
• read Portland blogs/events/news
• work on this blog :)
• make plans to see nearby friends/family as frequently as we can

In the top right corner of our site is a handy calendar that shows how many days are left until we officially move to Portland (June 1st, 2009). We love a good countdown! We figured this website would be a good place for us to keep track of all the cool things we find in Portland. If you know of any cool things we should check out, please feel free to let us know!