Moving, Stuff, and Food Storage Ideas

We moved to our current duty station 6 months ago from a tiny 500 square foot apartment with the plan, goal and determination, that our stuff would not expand with a bigger place.  I was looking in our closets the other day, and I was floored.  Where did all this stuff come from?  How did we get so much stuff?  I usually have this reaction right before a move, but I have decided to institute a new plan to help us control our "stuff" before it becomes a moving nightmare.  This is not an idea I came up with but the plan is, birthdays are for getting, half birthdays are for giving.  So we are going to start with my half birthday since it comes up first, I am going to go through my closets, and some of my other stuff, and get rid of it, donate it to Goodwill and not get more.  I figure our 6 month anniversary will be a good time to go through family stuff and try to figure out what family stuff needs to be purged.

Also on a moving note... Crate moves.  I haven't had to do this yet since our only move has been a ditty move, but it is my understanding that a crate move is the way to go.  This is where they bring giant wooden crates, kind of like PODS, on a flat bed truck, the movers fill them up with your stuff and then they ship the crates to your new duty station. If you are moving to or from OCONUS, you will automatically get a crate move, but even if you are moving within CONUS, you can request a crate move.  The reason this is better is that in a regular move, your stuff is put on a truck, taken to a warehouse, put on another truck, taken to another warehouse, sometimes several times before it gets to you.  That is so many more opportunities for things to get broken, lost, damaged.  So it is something to think about when your next orders come.

Finally, food storage.  Food storage  is difficult with moving all the time and weight limits for rank, but this is an idea that I got from my in-laws that can make at least canned goods food storage easier to deal with.  At the holidays when all of the food banks are doing their food drives, you purge all of the canned food you have (except for what you are going to use up in that next month.)  Then in January when grocery stores and the commissary often have case lot sales, you buy what you will need for the coming year.  And then you just repeat the cycle.  I know that a lot of us don't have the room or the money for a year's worth of corn and peaches.  The nice thing about buying cases is they fit really well under beds and they are easy to stack in closets.  One thing you can try to make it easier to handle the cost is to take $5 out of your grocery money every week and save it for this purpose.  If you can save $5 a week for a year, you will have $260 saved up for canned goods.  If you will be moving soon, only buy 6 months or 3 months and save the rest of the money to stock up when you reach your new post.  Another idea would be to use when you should be getting new orders as your purge - buy new stuff, point.  If you know you have orders for two years at a certain duty station and you will (assuming things don't change which they probably will) be moving sometime in April, then choose April to be the time you are finishing up the food you have and donating what is left.

I'd love to hear any ideas or comments you have on these things!