I’ll never forget my first move. I was 19, and my best friend Steve and I were moving into our first apartment. We were so broke we couldn’t afford a moving truck, so we used his dad’s old pickup. The “packing supplies” were a roll of duct tape and a stack of black trash bags we stole from his mom’s kitchen.
The Great Record Collection Disaster
My big mistake was my record collection. I was so proud of it. I carefully placed all my vinyl into a single, giant trash bag, thinking it would be fine. Halfway to the new place, it started to rain. Not a light drizzle, but a proper downpour. The bag, sitting in the bed of the truck, got heavy with water and the bottom split wide open. My records spilled out, sliding across the wet truck bed. My original pressing of “The Dark Side of the Moon” has a tire track on it to this day. I almost cried right there on the highway.
Then we tried to get my couch up the stairs. It was a bulky, second-hand thing. We thought we could muscle it. We pushed, we pulled, we twisted. We got it stuck in the stairwell, completely blocking the entrance. My new neighbor, an older guy named Frank, had to climb out of his window to get to his car. He just shook his head at us. We had to eventually take a saw to the legs of the couch to get it free. I spent my first month in that apartment with a couch that was six inches too short.
The Final Humiliation
The final humiliation came at the end of the day. We were exhausted, covered in grime and rain. I went to take a shower and realized I had packed all my towels and clean clothes in a box that was now buried under a mountain of other junk in the living room. I had to dry off with a dirty t-shirt and sleep in my sweaty jeans.
It was a total comedy of errors.
Hard-Earned Advice for Your First Move
So, from the bottom of my heart, here is my real, human advice for your first move:
- Forget trash bags for anything important: They rip. They offer zero protection. Use boxes. Even if you have to go to the liquor store and ask for their empties. Your stuff will thank you.
- Pack a “Day One” bag like you’re going on a trip: This is the most important thing you will do. Put your toothbrush, deodorant, a phone charger, any medicine you take, and most importantly, a change of clothes and a towel in a backpack. Keep this with you in your car. If everything else is a disaster, at least you can be clean.
- If furniture doesn’t fit, don’t force it: You will lose your security deposit and look like an idiot in front of your new neighbors. Just stop, take a breath, and figure out how to take it apart. Or accept that it’s not coming with you.
Your Secret Weapon: A Moving Buffer
And here is the truth I learned way too late: you don’t have to do it all in one insane, stressful day. That pressure is what causes all the problems.
This isn’t even a sales pitch anymore, it’s just a fact. At my company, Downtown Mini Storage, we see people use our units as a “moving buffer” all the time. You can move your non-essential stuff—your books, your out-of-season clothes, your record collection—a week before the big day. Then, when moving day comes, you’re just dealing with the big furniture. There’s no rainstorm panic. No ruined prized possessions. You can take a breath.
You’ve Got This
Learn from my tire-tracked-record heartbreak. Give yourself some space and time. Your first move should be an adventure, not a story you tell to warn other people.
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