Moving While You Have a Cold

Being Sick is Bad Enough

Moving is stressful. The whole process is a sort sickness of its own. Add a cold to the mix, and it becomes an even bigger ordeal.

Here are some tips that will help you deal with moving when you are sick.

1) Go to the doctor, now. While most of us will just want to tough out a cold, this time would be a good time to indulge yourself to go to the doctor. They should be able to prescribe you an antibiotic or something that will help speed the healing process along or at least alleviate the symptoms. Let them know you are moving, so they will hook you up with something good.

2) Get your flu shot. This may not help you know, but if you know you are planning to move the following year get your flu shot. A little preventative maintenance never hurt anyone.

3) Get help. Ask friends or family to help you with your move if you are sick. Even spring for hiring someone if you can. Here you can find some great moving companies that will help you out. You can even try hiring a neighborhood kid or someone for cheap to just help you for a couple hours if you are on really tight budget.

4) Start packing early. Start packing as soon as possible, and getting anything out of the way that you can. Leaving everything to last minute may work when you are healthy, but when you are sick it may not work at all.

5) Rest whenever you can. If you are not working on moving, you should be lying down trying to sleep. Even take a sick day from work if you need to. Sleep as much as possible.

6) Hydrate and eat healthy. Eat vitamin c rich foods, soups, hibiscus tea and lots of water. Do not indulge in alcohol or other substances that are harmful to your immune system.

7) Take over the counter medicine. Sudafed in particular gives you a lot of energy while alleviating your symptoms. While your focus may be dimmed, you can do a lot of the physical stuff while taking Sudafed.

8) Do not worry too much about organizing. Getting everything done is going to be challenging enough. If you have to pile random things into boxes and bags don't be too hard on your self. Your goal now should be not a perfect move, but just to get the move done.

Before I Move What Should I Do with My Compost?

Generating fertilizer via your own food waste is not only a green option, but it is also a lot cheaper than buying actual soil. Whether you have a compost bin, pile, heap, tumbler, etc, you may be caught in a bit of pickle when you need to move. What are you to do with this food waste that is in your yard? This can be especially unattractive to buyers who do not know about composting!

First off, moving it with you is out of the question if you are moving a long-distance. Transporting insects and bacteria from one region to another can have disastrous effects on ecosystems. Your only options really is to get rid of it before you go. Here are some ways to get rid of your compost:

Bury it. 

If you have the space in your yard, considering burying the compost. Any fertilizer you have already created you can put in plant beds. The food waste can go in a 2+ foot hole to make sure the person moving in doesn't know about it. 

Contact a gardening club and/or organization.

Most communities have a group of individual interested in gardening. You can try contacting gardening clubs and/or organizations to see if anyone is interested in the compost to haul it off to use for their garden. 

Explain to the groups that you are moving, and that you don't want the compost to go to waste. Avid gardeners usually will not turn down a good, rich compost. Plus, people love to do others favors. 

Craigslist. 

This may seem an unorthodox approach, and I'm not honestly sure if it would work. Try posting an ad for your compost on Craigslist. Just put up the ad  that you are moving, and want to get the compost out of your yard. Then say something along the lines "if you want it come take it for free". If you are especially enterprising you could even try attaching a price tag to it to make a few extra dollars. 

Ask friends, family, acquaintances, etc. 

Not everyone will respond kindly to be offered food waste, but you may know someone who is interested. If you are nervous about bringing up the topic, just start small talk about gardening. Ask the person if they are interested in using compost, and maybe offer your compost if they want it.

Get a Junk Removal Team

If you have a bunch of other junk you need to get rid of in addition to the compost, you could consider hiring a junk removal team. These type of workers will remove anything you ask them to from your property. 

Save Money on a Move By Checking Your Tire Pressure

Keeping our tires at the right pressure is a good idea all of the time, but it can be especially useful during a move. We are trying to save every penny we can to make sure our budget will fit with our new lives after a relocation. Whether you are renting a moving truck or using a personal vehicle to make a move, checking the tire gauge beforehand can save you some money.

Properly inflated tires can improve your gas mileage by up to 3%. With the gas prices these days, that can make a huge difference. Also, taking care of your tires lowers maintenance costs as well. All you need is to do is go to your gas station to get easy and free (or very close to free) tire pressure self-service.

Checking your Tire Pressure is Easy!

Step 1: The Tire Gauge

We recommend that you purchase your own tire gauge to check your tires. There are gauges available at air pressure station at gas stations, but these are often inaccurate.

You can buy a gauge for $14 to $15 at just about any auto parts store, and it is small enough to fit in your glove box. It will last pretty much forever, and provide you with the convenience of checking your tire gauge at home.

Step 2: Checking the Pressure 

The gauge measure the pressure in your tires by PSI, pounds per square inch. Larger vehicles have a high PSI, smaller vehicles have a smaller PSI. Check your owner's manual to see what PSI your tires should be at or most of the time the PSI specifications are listed on the driver's side door on a small sticker. If you aren't sure what your PSI should be, you can ask a mechanic for their recommendations.

Important Note: Never have your PSI 5 more or 5 less than what is recommended. It can be dangerous to you and your vehicle, causing unnecessary wear. You should always try to have it at the recommended level for maximum fuel economy.

Before you check your tires, you will want your vehicle to be cold. This means that you should not have driven on them for at least three hours. If you need to go to the gas station to use their gauge, make sure the gas station is as close as possible, preferably 5 miles or less away. If you have the time, it may be a good idea to fill up your gas tank or hang-out for a couple minutes to let the tires cool off before checking the pressure.

To actually take the pressure, place the air pressure gauge on the tire's nozzle, or the valve stem. This is a pencil-width nozzle on the side of the tire, and it will be obvious what it is when you see it. Place the gauge evenly onto the valve stem, it is normal for some air to escape making a hissing sound. Once you have the gauge firmly down on the gauge stem the flow of air will stop and you'll be able to get a gauge reading. The gauge reading will be in PSI, either in digital form or a metered stick, depending on the model of tire gauge you are using.

Step 3: Adjusting the Tire Pressure

To fill your tires you will need to park your car centered on the source of air. The hose will need to be able to reach the vehicle's tires. You can move if your car if the hose will not reach all of your tires, depending on how you park. The air meter usually costs 50 cents, but sometimes it is free. We recommend trying to find a station that does not charge for the service.

First, you will want to remove all the caps from the valve stems. Next you will either check your tire pressure or refer to your notes that let you know how much air is in the tires. Start with the tire that needs most air.

Fit the air nozzle onto the stem until you here the air of your tire stop leaking. Apply firm force to make this happen. Next you will squeeze the air nozzle to start filling the tire. As you fill the tire take breaks frequently between short bursts of air to check the gauge of the tire.

After you have filled the tire to correct pressure remove the hose and replace the stem cap. Repeat with all of your tires.

Once you've completed all four tires you are all done! You can hit the road knowing you are getting better gas mileage, and your vehicle is preforming optimally.

No Open First Box=A Disaster

Making an Open First Box is much like a Survival Kit 

We had finally moved all of our stuff halfway across the continental U.S. Most of it was in storage and in boxes still, but the journey was completed at least.

I always look forward to unpacking. It is sort of like Christmas when you empty all of the moving boxes. Before I get started, I always clean all of the bathrooms, because the thought of someone else's germs freaks me out a little bit.

Then disaster struck.

My open first moving box was missing. An open first box is the box you pack with all the items you will desperately need when you finally arrive to your new location.

The first thing to go wrong was me realizing I couldn't clean the bathrooms. It was very early in the day, and I wasn't sure what would be open yet. I thought, okay it can wait.

Next my two kids started bugging me. Usually in my open first box I would have toys and such to distract them, but as we already know I didn't have this luxury. Imagine as I go from catastrophe to catastrophe a 4 year old 6 year old incessantly bugging me with the all so common "I'm bored" and "he keeps bugging me" and other lovely things us parents somehow tolerate.

It wasn't that big of a deal until little Samuel said, "I'm hungry." I realized that I was too. All my first-day snacks, kitchen utensils and paper plates I had designated were in the open first box.

I realized we would need to go out to explore the new area to get some of the essentials which wasn't something I really could do on my budget. God bless credit cards. I went to get my cell phone out of my purse to pull up Google to help me find places to go buy stuff, but my phone was dead. I bet you can guess where my home phone charger was- in the open first box.

Luckily, I had my car charger out and ready to charge up my phone. Crisis averted, somewhat. I still had to listen to two cranky children while getting lost over and over again in a new area while spending money that I really didn't have to spend.

To this day, I have no idea where my open first box went. I thought I had packed it in the car, but I must have left it. I never found it when we emptied out the storage unit a year later either.

Lesson learned: never, ever forget to bring your open first box with you on a move. Also, if you don't pack an open first box, all of the above could happen to you anyways. I don't know how people can manage with it.