The Movers are Booked (9)

So the movers are booked...at the end of March, my entire household will be hauled over 3 provinces to that magical territory...YIKES! (a good kinda yikes)
Of course, I have moved before, but never this long of a haul...ADVICE... this is all X amount of $ by weight...is it best to dump some stuff, save the bucks and replace? Hints to pack super efficiently and lightly. What not to pack, but take in the car with me and the kiddo? All ideas and hints and advice greatly appreciated. You all have a great day!!

Firstly, I wish you well on your move...

When I moved from Alberta to Manitoba - I was moving myself in a 1/2 ton and had decided to sell off as much of my stuff as I could. A lot of it would never have made the trip in one piece anyway. Saved me a lot of hassles and my brother from a lot of packing (he insisted on packing the truck for me). I would suggest keeping the stuff you absolutely can't live without and consider getting rid of the rest.

Besides, they have stores where you can buy stuff when you get to the other end.

Have fun!

Make sure that stuff that is not necessary, or have not been used with in the last yr.... toss them.

I was lucky, since the boys and I only left with a broken computer and 4 suitcases and started off the scratch with help from family and friends. (lots of hand me downs)

If you can afford to sell off items like your bed and sofa (use that money towards buying replacements) ... that helps with the weight issue and space on the moving truck. Hard to say for sure what to leave behind because of the price of moving and starting over again.

Keep things as basic as possible. Not easy to do when you have kids. If you can leave things like microwave ovens etc... if they are not too expensive in your new location to replace ...

If you sort through stuff and make a pile of what to toss... toss it ASAP. Then sort through the keep pile again ... you might surprise your self and toss out even more. It is so nice to get rid of old baggage... especially stuff that you thought you had to keep. It's so freeing emotionally.

When you start cleaning your house to move, you will discover stuff that got put away years ago and never seen again. that is a start of stuff to get rid of. Have a garage/yard sale. Might as well make some money to help pay for the move.
Might as well start sorting through those storage areas now.

I hear that up north, a good place to shop is the city dumps. There is alot of good stuff thrown away, because it is too expencive to move south.

Good luck

Thanks Loner - I did s very significant purge when I moved from a 4 bedroom with garage and yard to a 700 square foot apartment 1 whole year ago...and yes, I have started going through the stuff again...I am a paper magnet! I just want to keep the weight/cost down for sure -and replace with stuff when we get there! I think it is time for a new set of dishes! There are things I cannot part with...but stuff I thought was important even a year ago, isn't - kinda wierd.
Yes, I actually read an article about the same issue at the Yellowknife NWT dump. I was at the Whitehorse dump and it doesn't appear to have too much to offer. But they do have some good stores and Sears delivers up there too!

I have a car I have to get there as well...we compared the costs of many different options - me packing and having a reputable mover is no more that renting a 24 foot Uhaul truck (Yep, I do have some stuff) - hauling my car and paying for gas (at about 7 mpg). And with the movers, I do not need to load or unload or pay insurance. And, there was no way in hell that anyone would want me to be on the road driving that size of truck, pulling a car, from say Fort Nelson on...Glen would have had to get there to drive us through the mountains... So, this way, me and the kiddo only have to drive about 30 hours...long trip, but so worth it!!!