Ask Lemmy

Arrange work (and, ideally, housing) in advance.

If you're moving for a job, stick your stuff in storage,. Find a room to rent or get an Airbnb or long-term stay hotel. Experience the place and job for a bit before fully committing to it so at least that way you have an easy exit if you want to move back.

moved from Florida to California. was about to be homeless so I said fuck it. ended up okay, I've had a stable job and an apartment most of the time. it was hard to get to that point though, took a couple months. the loneliness is unbearable though. the people here are superficial as hell and I miss my family. next year it'll be half a decade and I think I'm gonna make my way back home the same way. I hate Florida but isolation is really driving me mental

Never, ever, EVER pay for storage. Sell it, give it away, leave it, or use it. But don't ever put yourself in a position where you leave stuff somewhere you are not.

I did this a few years ago, and while things did eventually work out, I made some mistakes that could have been really bad. Without going into too many details, just make sure that the place you are moving to is 100% done and the deal is sealed. Whether it is a home purchase, rental agreement, whatever. In my case, I packed up nearly everything we owned into a moving truck and drove it across the country about a week before the closing on the house. The closing needed to be in person and for family reasons, it wasn't possible for both my and I to both fly there and do the closing, so we just moved before hand. Well, the bank decided to pull some shady shit at the last minute after telling us everything was completely confirmed and we almost didn't get the house. We ended up staying in someone's basement for over a week while I did everything I could to salvage the deal.

Anyway, don't be me, get everything settled before you move.

I moved from Michigan to Arkansas, then 18 years later, moved from Arkansas to Maine.

One big piece of advice I can give is to use Rubbermaid storage totes instead of boxes if you can afford it. There are numerous advantages:

1. Handles
2. More water resistant than boxes, keeps the humidity out and your stuff safe, even from rodents (helpful. If you have to store your stuff in storage units)
3. When done with them, you might be able to return them if they're still in perfect condition. Otherwise, they stack very well into a small space.
4. Much more reusable for future storage.

I bought around eight of these totes when I moved from Michigan to Arkansas and I still have them to this day and they still are fully functional and work great.

Packed everything I owned into my car and just went for it. Traveled 1500 miles to my destination, found a motel, and set up an indefinite weekly stay. Applied to some shitty fast food job that was hiring nearby, got the job, which helped a lot looking for apartments. It was a college town, so finding a place was pretty easy. And everything was smooth sailing from there.

I found that starting in a college town is a really nice way to get integrated into the surrounding area, though it helps that I could pass as college-aged at the time myself. Most of the people you meet are pretty much new to the town as well. Years later I ended up moving to another town in the area with a bit more confidence.

I was living in a place I grew up, and didn't really like. My wife had moved there, and she didn't like it either. But I kept getting better and better jobs, so we couldn't leave.

Then I became self-employed, and could work anywhere. We also got a small inheritance that gave us a temporary cushion. We took a small vacation to Florida, and decided that we could live on vacation for the rest of our lives, so we moved.

Since then, Florida has become MAGA HQ, and the state government is psychopathic, so now we're thinking about leaving, but it was okay for about 20 years.

Advice: keep going to another continent.

More seriously, make sure you're aware of time periods to change your car's registration and license, differences in driving laws, any insurance differences, taxes, and voter registration.

I give away, donate or throw away everything. In the end its cheaper to buy it on the other side then pay movers. I load up whats important, maybe rent a small trailer and bounce.

I've moved far away (500m+) at least 2 dozen times and this holds true.

Moved from Wisconsin to Spokane three months ago. Instead of moving g all my belongings, I sold everything over the internet, in the end I just had a suitcase and a small backpack. I’m a musician, and it turned out to be straightforward to get a new drum kit once I got there. I’ve been playing gigs with a couple of bands, created the contacts beforehand, so I have some cash coming in, it was a good decision because of the spiders, I hate spiders.

It probably helped a lot that I was 19 and had nothing going for me in southern Indiana.

Asked a friend of mine if he was interested in moving too, and he was. I found somebody with an apartment listing on the then-new Craigslist and mailed them a check, then my buddy and I crammed everything we could into my Ford Escort. We stopped to get a little sleep just after Albuquerque.

Advice: don't make that drive in two days, it should be three. It is so fucking long to drive.

Challenges: apparently Texas' highway speed limits go down at night, and (at least at the time) the signs don't indicate this. I got pulled over for going 75 in a 65 at ~2AM, right next a sign that said the limit was 75. Fuck Texas!

Actual advice: spend some time seriously considering what needs to come with. Most things are just things, they can be replaced. Don't let your things weigh you down.

Don't leave too much shit behind, get a uhaul even if you gotta fly 2 states over and drive your car down seprately. Everything from.furniture to $30 appliances are expensive to replace