72 ways to save
ELIMINATE RATHER THAN RELOCATE
While you're organizing or packing for your move, sift and sort. Use a heavy hand toward the trash can, and let common sense and these tips be your guide.
1. The Floor Plan.
If possible, get a floor plan of your future residence, or make one to scale on graph paper. Then try to fit your furniture in. If it won't fit on paper, it won't fit when you arrive. Get rid of it.
2. Color-Coordinate Your Move.
If the sofa just won't match, don't move it. Often you can replace furniture and appliances more cheaply than you can re-upholster or refurbish and move them.
3. Ignore the "I Might Need It Someday" Syndrome.
Don't move the riding mower to an apartment. Part with tools you won't have a place to use. And remember, junk is junk. You don't need a furnished attic.
4. Book Learning.
Condense your library as much as possible.
Then investigate the cost of mailing treasured volumes compared to the cost of moving them. The special postage rate for books may save you money.
5. LIQUIDATE OR DONATE
Once you decide what you're going to part with, decide how.
If you're selling a home, the buyer may be your best customer. Some items that can often be advantageously sold with the home are listed in the next section. There are other ways to make a good riddance -- a good profit in the process.
6. It's Not Dirt Cheap.
If you're determined to take your huge outdoor planters, fill them with miscellaneous items instead of dirt. Same goes with the sandbox. There'll be dirt and sand where you're going.
7. The Shirt Off Your Back.
While one dress or one suit doesn't weigh much, the average full wardrobe carton weighs 75 pounds. So if you're never going to wear it, don't move it. Contact your local Goodwill agency and make a donation -- there may be tax benefits.
8. The Sound of Money.
Hundreds of CDs can make for a heavy box. If your taste has changed from rock to Bach, purge your collection accordingly. Some music stores will buy back your used CDs for cash or store credit. Wrap CDs in a large piece of heavy paper, starting at the paper's edge and alternately folding the paper over one CD and stacking another on top (CD-paper-CD-paper). When you have run out of room on the paper, place the bundle upright in a packing carton.
9. Toys -- The Kids'.
Now's the time to clean out the toy box. If the kids are old enough, give them incentive. Let them stage their own garage sale and keep the profits to buy something special -- after you've moved. 
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