Q. Hi Jordan,
I remember you wrote about NYC apartment hunting on a budget awhile back. I passed on the useful info to my boyfriend and his two friends, who are moving to NYC in July. I vaguely remember that you also wrote about different cheap moving options, but I can’t seem to find it on your blog. I’d be so grateful if you can let me know how I can find that post or if you have any recommendations.
Thank you so much,
Serena
A. Hey Serena!
I think the apartment-hunting on a budget post you’re referring to is this one – most of my tips were pretty UES-centric, since that’s what I’ve had the most experience with, but there’s lots of great info in the comments if you scroll down.
I don’t recall that I did a post on cheap moving options specifically, unfortunately (“unfortunately” because that’s information I’d really like to have, given that we’re thinking of moving at some point in the next year or so). What I did was hire someone off Craigslist who turned out to be a total rip-off (the Men With A Moving Van turned out to be Man With A Hatchback), so Kendrick and I more or less moved ourselves, with my parents’ help. It was MISERABLE (3 floors down, cross town, then 4 floors up is no fun) – I chatted more about our disastrous moving day (that’s a post-move photo, above) here, if you’re interested.
One thing I did that ended up being a good idea: there were some pieces that simply weren’t going to get up the stairs without help (like a ten zillion pound and highly breakable china cabinet), and at some point I just couldn’t lift one more thing, so towards the end I ended up going into the diner next door and offering a bunch of guys who were just getting off work money to help us. They finished the job in about thirty seconds, which was equal parts embarrassing and fantastic.
In sum: I refuse to move again until I have some extra cash laying around to bribe friends (because pizza doesn’t cut it when you’re talking about that many flights of stairs) and/or hire for-real movers. In NYC, unfortunately, no one has a car and people are so desperate for moving help that those Man With A Van dudes can basically name their price.
But I’m sure that there are some great ideas out there, which is why I’m posting your question here – does anyone have suggestions for how to move in NYC on the cheap?
