Turn Your Cross-Country Move From Scary to Enjoyable

How to reduce stress from a life-altering experience

Doing a cross-country move is difficult enough when you have plenty of time to make plans. The degree of difficulty changes greatly when it all must happen within a matter of weeks. This is something I learned from experience this past year, and not only did I survive it, but I also managed to enjoy this life-altering endeavor.

As of last mid-December, my fiancé and I were living in New England when she applied to a job on the California coast. She was quickly hired — it happened so fast. After receiving her start date, we determined that we had a little over three weeks to get all of our stuff ready to move and transport ourselves and our dog and cat to our new home. No big deal, right?

In no small part due to my fiancé, who I swear possesses superhero powers, we made every deadline and reached our destination safely and in a timely manner. We even had some fun. Here are some of the things that we learned along the way.

How to get all your stuff to the other side

Moving out of a modestly-sized one-bedroom apartment and only owning one vehicle, we were unsure of the best way to transport our belongings. We decided we would fill our car…