I helped my friend Pamila move on Saturday, shuttling stuff from her storage space to her new bedroom in an apartment she shares with two other women. While doing so I was thinking about my own impending purge, store, and move.

A couple weeks I met my fellow incoming CMU grad student Kerry (at her going away party!) and we talked about the journey from SF to PA. She's moving out of her Oakland one-bedroom into a two bedroom place in Shadyside. Since she'll be there for two years, and isn't sure where she'll be going next, she's packing up and moving everything. Professional movers, $1800.

On one hand, I've been telling myeslf that $1800 can pay for a fair amount of IKEA furniture on Pittsburgh, money better spent there than shipping my stuff across the country, when I'll be coming back in a year. Also, 'my stuff' is one of the things I'd like to test-divest, and get a better perspective on what should go and what needs to stay.

On the other hand, storing stuff coses money too, and no small amount. Researching a few months ago, I found that a 10'x10' storage space (Public Storage) in Berkeley costs $250/month. Multiply that by 13 and it's $2750 for the year-plus. Why pay Berkeley storage premiums when I'm not even in Berkeley? Storing my stuff in Vallejo (20 miles north) would drop the price to $140/mo, or $1820.

Plus truck rental fees.
Plus the labor of moving my stuff.

The last time I moved (well, not the time I moved across the hall six years ago, but really moved) I promised myself that it would be the last time I'd move myself. And I had a lot less stuff back then... The stuff I'm running away from. Such a quandry...

The short of it is that I have a two-bedroom-apartment-full of stuff, and I need to decdide where to put it. I know what storage is like, but I know nothing about the apartment I'll be getting in Pittsburgh, 1 bedroom or 2, furnished or bare. I need to find that out before I can make any other decisions. The right answer might be to split it, putting some in a smaller, less expensive storage space, and shipping some via less expensive means. I'm unsure about my ability to pack my car up with everything I'll want and need for a year.

It bears more thinking about, but not until i have all the information I'll need, so I'll just concentrate on the 'purge' portion of my preparations until I know where I'll be living.