Just because you don’t have for large home improvements doesn’t mean you can’t change the look of your home. In fact, many of the most dramatic changes you can make will cost you little, if anything.

The first step in decorating for pennies is to take a walk around your own home. See if there’s anything that can reuse, even if it means repainting it. Small pieces of furniture moved from one room to the next can bring new life to a room. A side table can double as a nightstand and two nightstands set side by side can make for an unusual coffee table. Don’t have pretty curtains? Use a sheet to cover the windows. Or switch the curtains from room to room for a new look without spending a penny.

Your next option is to shop in almost-free places. Thrift shops, garage sales and websites like Craigslist are all good options. Hardware and paint stores sometimes sell cheap cans of paints if they were mistakenly mixed or mismatched. If you only need a can to paint a single wall or a piece of furniture, this could be a good choice.

Finally, use accessories to bring life to an empty room. A vase with flowers, a few frames with photos (or you can frame pictures taken from calendars or magazines) and even a small rug under the coffee table can brighten up a room and cost almost nothing.

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Relocating is an expensive endeavor, especially if you have lots of moving boxes to take along or details to finalize. While it might be the last thing in your mind, figuring out when to move can save you not only lots of money but also a number of headaches.

One of the most important things to consider is the cost of your mortgage. If you already own a home and are planning on buying another in your destination city, you need to decide how you’ll manage the expenses associated with it. Are you planning on selling the old house before you buy the new one? Can you handle two mortgages? Would it be better to rent a home until the old one sells? The answers depend on how much money you have available or whether you can pay two mortgages at once.

Moving expenses and shipping your boxes to another state might be cheaper during the summer or at the end of a calendar month, since these are the preferred times for moving and moving companies can get away with charging higher fees. If you’re shipping moving boxes that you need immediately upon arrival, keep in mind that winter weather can cause delays on the roads and complicate your plans.

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If you run a business from home or have your own office, you will need to move it with you when you relocate. Bringing your office along can be complicated if you don’t plan well and in advance.

Before you do anything else, make sure you hire a shipping company that has any experience moving office. Sometimes known as “office removal specialists,” these people will know what should be packed in cardboard boxes and what shouldn’t, how to protect valuable equipment and how to dismantle and reassemble office furniture.

If you have electronic equipment, make sure it gets boxed using padding material and thick cardboard moving boxes. Always seal moving boxes with quality packing tape so there’s not risk of contents getting spilled or shift around.

Aside from moving the actual office equipment, you will need to move the logistics of the business. This means getting new business cards, renting a new office, changing your business address and making sure your clients can find you. If you can’t provide services at a distance, you will need to plan on finding new clients upon arrival.

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The first and most important service offered by moving companies is, of course, the actual moving. This can mean helping you pack your moving boxes and moving them, or can simply be about picking up your things and delivering them to your new address.

Some companies offer additional services. Some will help with international shipping, cargo freight, or courier forwarding. Others will help you organize storage space if you’re not moving directly into your new home and instead staying in a hotel for a few days. Companies that specialize in international shipping and delivery can also help with customs, including letting you know whether certain items will require a tax payment on arrival. In some cases, it might be more expensive to take something along than to buy a new one on arrival.

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So, how do you save money before you even buy moving supplies and boxes? Simple, before you buy moving boxes and packing supplies you should go through your items and simply just throw stuff out. Yes, I will repeat it again, Throw Stuff Away. You know what I am referring to, clothing and shoes sitting in the back of your closet that don’t fit you and haven’t worn in the past 5 years, old furniture such as tables, chairs and lamps that have been sitting in your garage collecting dust, luggage that your old uncle Buck gave you with broken zipper and squeaky wheels, stacks of old magazines, books and newspapers.
You should think of moving as starting a new chapter in your life, so don’t schlepp all that old baggage with you it will just slow you down.

You might be saying, hey I can sell those old chairs, clothing and stuff. Well then, sell them, but in most cases used items will not bring much money back to you when you will consider how much time and effort it takes to sell them. For example, I had a coffee table I purchased new for $300 and when moving I put it for sale on a classified website. It took me 2 weeks to sell and I spent almost 2 hours a day checking emails, talking to frugal people on the phone, showing the table to thrifty people and reposting the ad daily till I finally got fed up and sold it for just $40. Now most of you will be saying, hey $40 that can still pay for 12 large moving boxes and a starbucks frappachino, yes very true but the stress in dealing with bargain hunters looking to buy my item was hell, very frustrating and used up a lot of time. In the end I decided to throw away and donate other items I had instead of selling them which included lamps, magazines, outdoor chairs, night stands, clothing and other similar items.

Just remember, the less stuff you have to pack, the less boxes and moving supplies you will need to buy. Also you will get packed so much faster when you have less stuff that needs packing. So if you want to save money before you even buy moving boxes, go through items you don’t use and throw them away or donate them to a charity.

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