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I just moved into a new apartment with a beautiful view (see above…oolala) of North Toronto. My fiance and I are both environmental science students and live pretty eco-friendly (as much as we can). So as if moving isn’t stressful enough… add in being environmental? It becomes a mini nightmare. This wasn’t the first time I’ve moved. In fact I counted and I’ve lived in 13 different houses and/or apartments since the age of 16. That’s 13 different places in 7 years. But this was my first BIG move. I wasn’t just moving to British Columbia with a backpack on, or into university residence with my suitcase of clothes and a laptop. No, this was the big one. The big empty apartment that needed desks, beds, shelves, rugs, art, plates, cups… etc.
The first issue was that we had stuff all over. We needed to drive a UHaul to Guelph and back to Toronto to get my stuff and from South East Toronto to North West Toronto (twice!) to get all of his stuff. Stuff Stuff Stuff. Stuff that we don’t even really need, but we couldn’t just leave at our other places. Next was packing. Bubble wrap? … How eco-friendly can those tiny little plastic bubbles really be? Well, we used a lot of it. And what about furnishings? Buying all new chairs, tables and beds didn’t really seem like the right thing to do either. So, here’s a few tips I wish I would have though about before this move:
1. Purge first. I can’t even tell you how angry I was to see the amount of stuff that the fiance got rid of AFTER we moved. It was absolutely ridiculous. On the flip side I’m pretty embarassed about the amount of stuff I brought that I haven’t even thought about using yet, and probably never will. If we would have really gone through all of our belongings and seriously thought about what we needed we probably could have gotten a smaller vehicle, saved on gas, time and packing. So buck up and give those old boardgames to the Good Will.
2. Give and take. Give to the good will, and take from other’s good will. We looked at a lot of different pull out beds and futons (we have people over a lot) from Ikea and different stores. After the first trip to Ikea we looked at what we had in our carts and realized what we were doing. We left our stuff there and started calling friends. We ended up getting a beautiful dining room set, a huge/gorgeous TV stand with built in shelves, a night table, a queen sized bed, a full living room set, a coffee table, lamps, a desk and other little things from family and friends. My fiance’s step-dad’s friend from University’s mother was moving into a old age home, so she had all this really wonderful and great quality items to pass down to it. So you never know who is trying to get rid of their entire house full of great things. Granted the living room set is pretty hideous, but I spent around $300 buying eco-friendly cloth and making slip covers and curtains out of it. If things didn’t match the decorating scheme of the apartment it was very easy to cover it or paint it. Im glad I can look around the apartment and know that we’re reusing so much great stuff.
3. Packing. Ugh. I have a lot of breakable things and we had our cups, plates, wine glasses, etc. We packed most of it with bubble wrap. At the end of it all we had so much bubble wrap and we had NO idea what to do with it. Recycle it? Throw it out? That got us feeling guilty when we thought about how its made. We got rid of some of it on FreeCycle and the rest of it we eventually found a company that would use it. Lucky for American’s you have Earth 911 to help you find recycling places for most things. But besides that I would suggest packing with paper or your clothes. Clothes is one I thought of nearing the end of my packing. I wish I would have thought of that sooner.
4. Find a way to clear your guilt. Offset your carbon footprint from all the driving by planting some trees, volunteering for your local environmental group, donating to your favorite environmental cause or don’t drive for the next year. We got an apartment within walking distance to work, school and friends. This was the big reason we were okay with the big driving trips, was because we’d be making up for it over the next couple years.
5. This is a personal one…. bigger is not better. We looked at 3 apartments in the same building and ultimately decided to get the biggest one. I wish we would have gotten the smaller one. We’ve had to get lamps to light up the big room. It looks empty without more bookcases etc in it. It takes more cleaning supplies. And its a lot harder to keep cool in the hot summer sun.
Anyway, this is my learning experience from my first move. Post your ideas and tips for moving and keeping your green guilt low!
While bubble wrap does have its place, next time see what breakables can be packed between layers of clothing and linens before reaching for the bubble wrap. Also, try wrapping things in newspaper and then recycle the paper after wards, or save it to wash windows and mirrors. Also, there are biodegradable packing peanuts on the market as well and those may be helpful next time. I have moved a whole lot in the last half dozen years too, and I totally understand your trepidation and know how daunting and expensive it can be. Good luck in your new home!
Hi Katie,
Congratulations on completing your move and for thinking about reducing your impact on the Earth during what can typically be a very wasteful process. I realized the moving process was complicated and wasteful so I decided to do something about it and created ZippGo. ZippGo helps people move green by providing a box solution that replaces cardboard. Our reusable boxes are made from 100% post consumer recycled plastic and can be used 500 times each before they are recycled again into new boxes. Since each box can be used 500 times, they replace 500 cardboard boxes over their lifetime. We deliver our reusable boxes to peoples home on trucks powered by locally produced biofuels. We’ll be part of saving a lot of trees and are looking forward to making a positive impact on the Earth.
We plan to expand into the East Coast and Canada within the next two years. You can find out more about us on our website at http://www.ZippGo.com or give us a call with any questions. 800-723-7017
Thanks,
Ash Sud
ZippGo Founder
http://www.ZippGo.com
800-723-7017
Hello!
My name is Spencer Brown, the founder of Rentagreenbox.com and I wanted to inform your blog readers about my opinion about Zippgo.com.
I invented this business model over 5 years ago by detoxing landfills and developing an entire new green Zero Waste way to pack and move without trashing the planet.
I called Ash a few weeks ago after one of my customers called me and said hey why did you change your business name?
I was like, what? We’re Rentagreenbox.com and then I learned about Zippgo. Wow, it’s this guy for real? I’m all for people starting a business, but copying another companies content is just plain wrong.
I called a few times and I finally got ahold of Ash and asked him the simple question “Why would you steal most of my copywrited and protected content, verbage and taglines to promote my ideas as your own?
Why would you say that your ZippGo box is recycled when it’s made from virgin plastic? Why would you and Zippgo Greenwash my concept?
Here’s his plastic box.. it’s a standard virgin resin distribution box and it can be recycled at some point- but he’s saying that it’s made from recycled plastic when it’s not. Check it out here:
http://reusabletranspack.com/templates/web%20special-271712-242012-211512-totes-052808.html
He was a bit cloudy about his plagiarism and blamed it the web guy and said he was planning on a rewrite…5 weeks later.. nothing has changed.
He had a lot of blaming to do and took no responsibility. Zero. None.
I even offered to sell him some of our green packing products and gave him some tips of bio fuel and the more we have learned about Zippgo and Ash’s approach, the more were saying hey, be original and come up with your own copy and content.
He then insisted that “The Guy” who sold him the Zippgo boxes said that they were recycled when it says as a matter of fact on the website that they are not per the product disclaimer:
“Enjoy the benefits of using reusable plastic hand-held distribution containers now and recycle these plastic nestable totes at the end of their life and help save our planet.”
To me and other legitimate green business leaders, it’s just highly unethical and Zippgo lacks the integrity based on the egregious copywrite infrigement of my company, copy and protected concepts.
In my opinion, Zippgo equals Greenwashed.
I have been detoxing landfills for over 5 years and have made over 50,000 Recopacks to date. In this time, we have won countless awards and the prestigious 2008 Govenors’ Environmental and Economic Leadership Award ( GEELA) for new market technologies in recycling. Just last week we won the 2009 California Cool Climate ” Small Business of the Year Award”.
We’re in this business to do the right thing for our environment and economy which is to change the way America pack and moves without trashing the planet.
We have a lot of copy cat companies opening up all over the nation and we encourage and support their efforts when they use their own words, ideas and taglines to help customers move green. Check out Karmaboxx, they’re doing it right and Frogbox is cool too- we dig them and want them to be successful as we all benefit when people move green.
But, someone has to stand up and be honest to the consumer, so they know exactly what they are renting and integrity is so important as this industry develops.
We sell all of our packing materials to moving companies that are heading in the right direction, but in Zippgo case, his claims about his box is just plain greenwashed- plain and simple.
Rentagreenbox has made a huge impact by doing the right thing for the past 5 years and I want to make sure that the consumer is not being taken advantage by a fake offer, or a product that is being presented as made from recycled plasitc when it’s not.
Sincerley Green,
Spencer Brown
founder of Rentagreenbox.com
inventor of the Recopack
1.888.900.7225
Hey Katie,
Great article. As you describe, moving is not typically a fun activity and I’m sure you don’t want to think about moving again.
If you do move in Toronto again, consider using FROGBOX. We’ve been renting re-usable boxes in Vancouver and Seattle for two years and are opening our Toronto location right now. We provide low environmental impact moving boxes and moving supplies. All the details are at http://www.frogbox.com.
Keep up the great blog!
Doug