Moving Guru Blog

Avoiding the Phantom Sublease

Posted on February 7, 2012 by Devie Lin

Subleases are great ways to avoid anchoring yourself to a long-term lease.  They are usually only a couple months in duration and are often cheaper than the normal rental rate for the apartment or room, making them ideal for people moving without jobs or a definite idea of where they want to settle.

However, you need to be careful when subleasing.  Not all landlords or rental agencies allow sublets.  Many explicitly provide in their contracts that sublets are NOT allowed.  If that’s the case and you try to sublet, you could find yourself getting kicked out of the apartment abruptly along with the person who sublet to you.

So, before agreeing to a sublet, make sure to review the original lease.  Once you do, come up with a written contract of your own with the person your subletting from establishing the dates and price.  This will help protect you and ensure that you don’t end up getting kicked out unexpectedly.

Posted in Apartment and House Hunting | Leave a comment

Localizing Your Conversations

Posted on February 2, 2012 by Devie Lin

Settling into a new city or town is hard.  It’s even more difficult if you don’t know anybody.  It takes time to learn how to have conversations with new people, the first step to meeting new friends.  However, there are tricks to making your transition from stranger to knowledgeable local quicker and easier.

Follow the Local Team(s)

Even if you aren’t a sports fan, being aware of the trials and tribulations of the local teams can help greatly in sparking conversations with others.  If a team is doing well, it’s even more important.  Plus, sports are often a good reason to get out into your community.  Go see a game or watch it on the big screen at a local bar.  Use it as an excuse to ignite a conversation, then transition it to other topics, if you’d prefer.

Explore nature

Your new town will almost certainly have some pride in its local nature.  All towns do.  Whether it be a forest preserve, a national park, a nice beach, an epic tree, a leg-busting hike or a awe-inspiring drive, get out and observe the nature around you.  Once you do, you’ll have more to share and relate to those around you.

Read the News

It sounds simple, but most people don’t take the time to read the local sections of their newspapers.  If you do, though, you will be kept up to date with the biggest issues in your community, which will translate to conversations.  At the least, you will not be left with a blank stare when somebody brings up an recent issue.  Seriously, though, checking the local section or a local weekly can take as little as 20 minutes a week.

Check out our website for more tips on settling into a new town.

Posted in Settling into Your New Home | Leave a comment

Finding Your Inner Decorator

Posted on February 1, 2012 by Devie Lin

If you’ve just moved, don’t make your new place look just like your old place.  Use moving as an opportunity to experiment and make your new home your unique.  Get bold, release your inner desires, embrace the beautiful, brave and weird.  Here are some simple ways to do this:

Paint – paint your walls and woodwork in colors that you like.  Seek a feeling that you will enjoy seeing every day.  If most colors suit you, try a couple combinations and see which ones you think bring the best out of the room and its furniture and elements.

Arrange – arrange your furniture in ways that inspire conversation, focus, inflection or whatever other feelings you want.

Decorate – plants, paintings, sculptures and even pillows and blinds can all add extra spice to your place.

For more ideas, check out our article about decorating a new home.

Posted in Settling into Your New Home | Leave a comment

How to Set Up a Patio

Posted on January 26, 2012 by Devie Lin

A patio is a valuable asset to have.  They can serve as fantastic places to host company or provide visitors with a change of pace or breath of fresh.  They can be used as spots to watch fireworks, share drinks on a warm summer night, or serve hot dogs and hamburgers.

Despite what patios have to offer, many people let them go to waste, looking like this, this or this.  They are treated as mere extensions of the back or front yard, not as extensions of the house.

If you are moving into a place with a patio, make sure to take advantage of it.  Here are some quick and inexpensive things that will make your patio night-worthy:

  • A plastic table and some chairs
  • Some potted plants or flowers
  • A grill
  • An umbrella
  • Something to play music with
  • A game: such as bocce, cornhole, horseshoes, or even a putting green

For more tips on how to liven up your home, check out our article about decorating your new place.

 

Posted in Settling into Your New Home | Leave a comment

Quality vs. Quantity

Posted on January 24, 2012 by Devie Lin

In 2011, the average cost of renting an apartment in San Francisco was $2422.  To many people, this might seem insane.  For others, it is the price they have to pay to live in a comfortable spot.

What is really underlying these two opinions?  What causes one to jerk away from such a price and another to bite his lip and pay it?

At it’s most simplistic, it’s probably the desire for quality vs quantity and vice versa.  That is, for some people, high rent is worth paying if they can live in the area where they want to live, if they can walk to the store, if they enjoy have restaurants line their street.  For other people, it’s more important to have a bigger place, perhaps a spacious back yard, and more money on hand to pay for a nice car, a bigger TV or other luxuries.

If you’re thinking about moving to a San Francisco, or any other big city for that matter, you will have to decide what’s more important to you.

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Using the Bungee Cord when Moving

Posted on January 20, 2012 by Devie Lin

If a do-it-yourself mover is Batman, the humble bungee cord is his Robin.

Bungee cords come in many different sizes and colors, but they all perform the same function: fastening things into place.  If you’re moving, they are a great moving supply to have on hand because they can ensure that furniture and boxes remain in place in the truck during the move.  Of course, you might ask, “well, doesn’t rope do the same thing?”

Sure.  Rope also functions to fasten things in place.  Rope also does this and this, and it’s not flexible.  Bungee cords are more flexible; they stretch to encircle things, then constrict on them tightly.  They are also more durable and unless excessively long do not get tangled.

If you have a move upcoming, do yourself a favor and buy a few bungee chords.  It’s almost guaranteed that they will come into play, and they’ll be of use to you in the future as well.

Posted in DIY Moves | 1 Comment

The Flexibility of Month-to-Month Renting

Posted on January 18, 2012 by Devie Lin

Month-to-month leases or subleases can be a great help to a person who is moving to a new area.  They are valuable tool for a person looking for a place from afar or for a person who is unemployed or does not have a permanent job.

Month-to-month leases allow a person to live in a room or an apartment for a short amount of time without having to agree to a long-term lease, giving the person the flexibility they need to explore an area and find a more permanent place or to find a job.  The risk is low compared to a year’s lease, because the person can simply end the lease whenever they decide it’s no longer working (given a month’s notice, usually).

Month-to-month leases are more commonly found in subleases and when renting rooms in a house.  Rental agencies and apartment complexes usually only offer 6-month or year leases.  If they do offer month-to-month leases, they are usually at a much higher rate.

For more information on finding an apartment, check out our article on the subject: Apartment Hunting in a Different City.

Posted in Apartment and House Hunting, Money-Saving Tips | Leave a comment

The Consequences of Not Changing Your Address

Posted on January 16, 2012 by Devie Lin

I’m currently leasing a place.  The person who lived here before me is named Whitney.  I get her mail often.  I also receive mail from a guy named John and a girl named Kim.  Based on how long Whitney had been there, I can conclude that these people lived in the place well over a year ago.

Recently, I received John’s tax return.

Changing an address is essential when you move.  Changing it with the U.S. Postal Service is an easy fix, but not a permanent one.  The Postal Service will only forward your mail for a year.  So, even if John changed his address with the postal service when he moved, that change would have expired by this time, which might explain me getting his tax return.

The one and only way to permanently change your address with the many entities you deal with on a daily basis is to contact them and inform them of your new address.  This is the only way to ensure you will be receiving your mail at your new place two years down the line.

Posted in Difficult Things to Move, Settling into Your New Home | 1 Comment

Letting Go: Learning to Love the Dumpster

Posted on January 11, 2012 by Devie Lin

There are many things that define Americans, some good, some, well, less than savory.  One of these things is stuff.  As Americans, we put a high priority on having stuff, the best stuff, the newest stuff, the most expensive, most practical, coolest stuff.

But time goes on, and in time what was once some primo-luxery stuff might become, well, just stuff.  And that stuff is stuffing up your closets, drawers, trunk, car and garage floor.  You probably pay it little mind, if you come across it at all.

When you move, though, this stuff is going to come to light.  It’s going to pour out of its hiding places with a wave of nostalgia, humor and possibly disgust.  It might be covered in years of dust.  It might smell of mold.  You might not remember where it came from, or what it was meant to do.

But it’ll be there, and you should be ready to part ways with it.

If you don’t need that stuff, your new place doesn’t need it.  Don’t take it along out of stubbornness because you spent $50 on it back in 2003, or because it could still be of use, hypothetically speaking.  It’s best to just get rid of unneeded stuff.  You can sell it, give it away or simply toss the most useless things.  Perhaps have a , and save some money on moving in the process.

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Thawing a Frozen TV

Posted on January 9, 2012 by Devie Lin

You wouldn’t ever put your $1,000 flat screen in the freezer, but you’re doing essentially the same thing if you are moving it across the country in the wintertime, especially if you leave it in the vehicle overnight.

LCD screens are made of liquid cells, liquid that freezes.  For this reason many TV maintenance manuals tell you to keep your TV between certain temperatures, usually above 40 degrees.  Using your TV in colder temperature can result in permanent problems, notably with the functioning of the screen.

However, just because you shouldn’t use your TV in freezing temperatures doesn’t mean you can’t move it in these temperatures.  All you need to do is give your TV time to warm back up to acceptable temperatures.  24 hours will usually be enough, but give it two days to be on the safe side if temperatures were especially cold during the move or if your TV is especially large.

Posted in Difficult Things to Move, DIY Moves | Leave a comment