How to move your life

I made it to Edmonton! And I’ll have more updates soon, but life has been busy with packing, moving, unpacking and trying to figure out my new hometown.

Until I get to all the joys that come with that, enjoy this photo essay of how to pack up your life to move to another province.

First thing’s first, get your crap and put it in boxes…

No, that’s not all. There were more boxes…

And a trunk (that trunk came over from Italy in the late 50’s when my dad and his family immigrated to Canada).

As you can see, everything is labelled. I cannot express how important this is because it makes you look super organized when you’re really not. Also, you can make labels like this one:

Yes, I own a box of nail polish and other miscellaneous crap. I also showed a lot (A LOT) of restraint by not calling this box Misc. Shit. I did this out of consideration of the family members and kids who were helping me move. I’m like a goddamn saint.

As you pack you can stare out your living room window at the Uhaul across the street, because it’s the same size as the one you’ve reserved and you can try and mentally calculate if all your stuff is going to fit.

You go outside because you need to remember that the outside world still exists and take a better look at the truck:

Oh yeah, that’s gonna be good.

For the next couple of days you live your life out of boxes, please see how to set up your make up station:

And finally, the eve of your packing day arrives. You get a call from the Uhaul agency to confirm your pick up time and they say they’re on Annacis Island. Fun fact! Annacis Island is not the store you stare at from across the street that you reserved as your pick up location a month ago. The woman over the phone explains that they moved it to her store since the one I wanted was booked up, but she gives you an extra 100km for free. It’s all good.

Packing day arrives! You set out to Annacis Island to pick up your truck. And you get there and they tell you they only have one truck. It’s definitely not the truck you wanted. You ordered a 15 foot truck and they say Uhaul only had a 26 foot truck available.

After some calls to Uhaul and pleading with the rental lady, you get nowhere. They give you $100 off (plus they’re giving you the original rental price promised for the 15 foot truck) and you’re on your way with your truck meant to move a 4+ bedroom house.

Fun fact! That $100 off was supposed to supplement the gas for this huge ass truck. It did not.

Here’s what a 26 foot truck looks like:

That worrying I did that my stuff wasn’t going to fit? Not at all necessary.

That was a fully packed truck.

After everything was in the truck I said my goodbyes and marvelled at how big my place actually was without all the crap in there…

After that I said my goodbyes to the house where I lived for the past three and a half years (and grew up running around)

And prepared for the big journey.

I’ll report on the trip across the province in a few days. Come on back for more!