Want to move without buying a single box?

So as some of you know, my fiance and I bought our first home. It's 3 times larger than our two bedroom, extremely cramped apartment. We'll finally have some space to put our things. Unfortunately, because we have so much stuff (my fiance had to clean out his dad's house when he died so we have a lot of leftovers that need to be moved) it means we need LOTS of boxes to move. We have a storage unit where we've been storing a lot of things - although we have a two bedroom, we have more than enough stuff to fill a three bedroom place (luckily there are 5 bedrooms in the new house!)

Here are some of the boxes I've packed up on top of our air hockey table (which I got for free off of Craigslist!)

To buy a sufficient amount of boxes from U-Haul, it would cost $379.98 for the 3 bedroom pack - that doesn't even include the boxes for the living & dining rooms plus kitchen! To buy one big package, it would cost $535.66! We don't have that sort of money to spend on boxes so a few months ago, I started keeping my eyes peeled for boxes on Freecycle. I picked up boxes from two people who were giving away their used moving boxes and now we have more than enough to get us through this move! I just stored all the boxes on our balcony while we were looking at houses. (Remember to donate your boxes back to Freecycle once you're done moving to help out others!)

More of the boxes we've packed!

If you need a box or two, U-Haul has a donation program where you can donate your used U-Haul brand boxes and if somebody needs one or two (don't abuse this service) they can pick one up. It's sort of like the "give a penny, take a penny" bowl near cash registers. If you need a box, I suggest getting one when you're renting your truck - don't just make a special trip to take a free box.

Another way to save cash is to ask your work if they have any boxes from shipments that you can have (such as from office supplies or product.) Remember to ask first, but usually you can take as many boxes as you need!

If you can't get boxes from your work, local grocery stores have tons of boxes. Usually, if you go in and ask for the produce manager, you can ask to have all the boxes that fruits and veggies have come in. I've never been to a grocery store where they won't give them to you for free!

By searching out free options, we've saved $600+!

More to come,
Ciao,
Bella