Reduce waste and save money while moving across country

People have to move all the time for various reasons. As we prepared for our 3rd move in 8 years, I realized that some people move less frequently than us. We were downsizing for the mountain view, which made me was acutely aware of the waste we were generating. I wanted to minimize our waste to landfill throughout this process. Making sustainable choices is imperfect and must be intentional. To help me stay true to my goal of minimizing waste, I set some guiding principles:

1. Choose Paper Over Plastic: Paper is recyclable and eco-friendly, although its carbon footprint can be high due to energy it takes to produce.
2. Prioritize Reuse: Reusing items reduces the need for new production, lowering carbon footprints.
3. Responsibly Recycle: Proper recycling keeps materials out of landfills and conserves resources.

As with many environmentally sustainable choices we can make, the outcome ended up being an exercise in spending less. With a quick amazon search for paper based packing materials,? Facebook Marketplace and a Center for Hard to Recycle Materials (CHaRM) nearby, we were able to divert a large percentage of our waste from landfills, and we made roughly $1400. So, what did we learn?

Reusable boxes are pricey. They seem to be priced for a quick move, not a cross-country move. We researched reusable boxes and when we evaluated the options, we determined it was cost prohibitive; especially since we were storing about ? of our stuff for a few months and then going to be moving over the course of a few weeks for the remainder of our stuff. However, MoveBuddah.com does a good break-down of the reusable boxes available out there. We ended up using cardboard boxes made from 100% recycled materials, and since they were from? walmart it made them convenient to procure.

Why pay for waste removal when you can get paid and people will come pick it up? ?In the beginning, I was feeling overwhelmed by the amount of furniture and items we decided wouldn’t fit into our new life in Colorado. With the first batch of items we needed to get rid of, we decided to pay College Hunks Junk Removal to remove our junk from our house. This is a solid option if you have the money and don’t have the time to deal with the waste properly yourself. College Hunks Junk Removal has partnerships with reputable nonprofits to make sure they donate what they can and claim to also recycle as much as possible. However, I realized later in my journey that our waste could have value to someone else.?Not really novel idea, but a realization nonetheless.

For example, I hauled this prickly pear cactus that I dug up on my father's land from Texas to Georgia last summer and had big plans to nurture it in the Atlanta climate. Fast forward 10 months and it was underwater, rotting and I did not think it would survive the winters in Colorado. I was out walking with a friend lamenting over whether I should move this prickly pear across country again as I didn't want to throw it away, and she suggested I put it on Facebook Marketplace. I did, and I got over the asking price for that little prickly pear! I also saved some new material by re-using a plastic pot I had laying around in my shed. After this success, I began to discover that instead of paying hundreds of dollars for someone to come pick up my items, I could list it on Facebook Marketplace. I don't want to make this a love letter to Facebook Marketplace, but I did fall in love with it a little bit.. I listed a couch, a microwave, a frozen coke machine, a standing desks, barn doors from an entertainment center I dismantled and repurposed… Anything that couldn’t fit in our new house and was in good working condition was posted onto Facebook Marketplace. In the event it didn’t sell, I would list it for free.?

Listing something for free was always going to be cheaper than paying someone else to take it away for me. I even got our empty cardboard boxes and bubble wrap picked up to be used in another move. I didn’t think ahead of time about looking for hand me down moving materials,?but I dropped the carbon footprint of the new materials I purchased by giving them a second life. If we ever move again, which my husband says we will not do, then I’d probably see what boxes I could get for free off Facebook Marketplace before I purchased new.?

Check for re-sale first. We landed in Colorado and immediately found a few things we needed to fulfill our dream Colorado lifestyle. However, buying new isn't the most sustainable thing to do. I, again, turned to my new favorite place, Facebook Marketplace, and found options at half price or free. The best item I got was some rocks I needed to fix a landscaping problem. I searched on Facebook Marketplace and got a free load of rocks. You might say, "Christine, why are you so excited about free rocks?" Well, who wants to pay for rocks? My children pick up rocks on every hike and our car door is full of them. I do not want to pay for them, but sometimes you need bucket loads of rocks and stealing rocks from a trail isn’t really “leave no trace”. So, off I went to a strangers front yard and filled the back of my car with their lawn rocks, saving between $20 and $50 a sqft in the process.

Recycling beyond the curbside takes planning & physical effort. With a little planning, you can divert much of your decluttering waste from a landfill. I took roughly 2 car loads of clothes, paint, electronics, DVDs and flexible plastics to the Atlanta Center for Hard to Recycle Materials (CHaRM). I know that all of that will be properly disposed of and recycled where possible. It is important to note that in order to take your stuff to the CHaRM in Atlanta, and many other hard to recycle places, you need to make an appointment. While this is simple, it can create a mental blocker. Needing an appointment encourages you to bring a large load. A load is then piling up and taking up space in the places that you’re trying to make empty. Additionally, when you find a hoard of half used paint cans, you then have to move these heavy things around until they are ready to be loaded into the car. Once it’s loaded, you realize that It’s probably best to load in an orderly fashion to make the drop off easier and you may have to unload and re-organize. At some point along the way you may find yourself questioning, "why do I care this much about recycling, am I a crazy recycling lady?" The answer is yes, yes you are. Luckily, they are very welcoming at the Atlanta CHaRM and at the end of it all I felt super accomplished to know that I had diverted a lot of material from landfill.?I encourage you to push through the mental, emotional and physical barriers and take the extra time and space to use a CHaRM in your area.?

Buying the right amount of eco-friendly material is tricky. I could only find paper tape and paper honeycomb fragile wraps online, therefore I had to buy on Amazon. This is fine until the last minute and you’re trying to get the final boxes packed before the movers come. At that stage, you're desperate to finish this exhausting task, and you might find yourself at Home Depot purchasing some plastic bubble wrap. We ended up with about an 80/20 % split of paper honeycomb vs. plastic bubble wrap. A good reminder, that we can't be perfect with all our sustainable efforts.

Time is finite, and sometimes you can’t wait. With all the time in the world, you can search and search every day for the right re-sale item online or at re-sale shops. However, when you can’t unpack your stack of boxes due to missing the right sized bookshelf, and you decide that buying a piece of furniture instead of pulling your hair out is probably the best move. It’s OK to sometimes put your mental well-being ahead of sustainable choices. By thinking first about my waste impact definitely minimized how often I put something into the shopping cart vs. trying to find a refurbished or repurposed solution.?Each time you divert material from a landfill is a win, and choosing convenience every once in a while does not take that away.

A Few Product Recommendations:?

1. Cardboard Boxes made from 100% recycled material and convenient to procure
2. Honeycomb paper wrap to use instead of bubble wrap.?
3. Paper wrap made from recycled materials.?
4. Paper tape

We are now on our way to being settled into our new home. The daily view off our porch has made this adventure worth it. We continue to think resale or repurpose first, and don’t expect to buy too many new things in the near future. We have vowed that we will never be moving again, but I hope you find some useful tips for you in your next move.