Oh to never schlep again.

So I just finished another move. This will hopefully be the last for quite a few years; I've moved an average of once a year for about a decade.

I've learned a few things in all of these moves and I'd like to share one that I find particularly helpful.

When packing cupboards and closets, I carry a tablet of sticky flags in my pocket and each time I have cleared a cupboard out, I put a flag on it. This saves the endless reopening and closing of cupboard doors while thinking, "Did I pack that one?"

It also serves as a visual sign of progress in the seemingly endless task of packing up a life to move it to a new residence.

A couple more moving tips:

1) Even if you are moving just a short distance, pack. You don't realize how many armloads each box holds.

2) Utilize your dish towels and linen in your packing to preserve breakables. You're packing two things at once!

3) Buy some damn boxes! I am able to pack a one bedroom apartment with about forty dollars worth of boxes from the local Public Storage. Think of it this way. You are possibly moving into a house that you paid $400,000 dollars for. You are paying movers a few hundred more to move everything for you. Don't cheap out and harass the innocent sales associates at your local mass market retailer by hounding them for boxes. You want your move to go smoothly so you don't need the negative karma of them cursing you under their breath following you around. If you do decide to go the "free box" route, be nice, patient, and remember that you are putting these people out. It also helps ease the burden if you ask for boxes while standing next to a heaping cart of things you actually plan to purchase from them because this is what they are there to do, sell, not dig boxes out of the dumpster for you.

Happy moving!