Moving

The first question I answered was:
Moving as a twenty-something - best adventures, advice, what to take, what to leave behind, etc.

My response:
Ahhh moving, the bane of my existence. In the 3 years since graduating from college I have moved 3, no 4, no no no actually 5 times if I'm being honest...darn no technically it was 6 times. First to eastern Connecticut for grad school, which wasn't bad since I only had to move from my undergrad in southern Connecticut. I did it in 2 car trips. Grad school was 2 years, but in the summer between grad school I had to move my stuff into storage. I split the cost of a storage unit with a friend from grad school which was a smart move, but had to get a rental truck to get my stuff from my apartment to the storage unit. We were late to act in terms of a storage unit so the unit was 30 minutes away from my apartment. I would suggest acting as soon as you can to get a unit. I also suggest a indoor unit - safe from weather and had temperture control. After the summer I had to move my stuff again from the storage unit to my new apartment with a rental truck. PS - me driving a rental truck was QUITE an adventure. Anyway what I should have done was rented a van because I did not need the rental truck, I didn't have that much stuff. Then after grad school I was off to Texas, but first I had to move my stuff home to New York for a month until I was ready to head to Texas. For my move from CT to NY...I had my parents take 2 cars when the came for graduation and each took a carload and I had to do 2 trips to get the rest of my stuff (after throwing away anything that couldnt fit - which I must admit was rather sad). Move number 5 was from New York to Texas, I used a "relocation cube" much like a POD. Which they dropped off in my drive way I packed it up then they picked it up drove it to Texas and dropped it off where I had to unpack it, then they came back and picked it up. It was expensive and exhausting. My latest move was from Texas to Alabama - which I hesistated about because I didn't know if I couldn't bare another physical move within a year. This time around I went with a moving company. GOOD DECISION. I went through the process of getting moving quotes from about a million companies, but was able to find some really reasonable ones. With movers they do all the sweating, move all the stuff twice as fast as I could even with the help of friends and it was actually cheaper than my cube from my past move. Bonus my new job even paid for me move...holler! Plus I hopefully will stay put in Alabama for a few years and won't have to worry about moving again for a while.