Moving is a stressful. If there's one thing that Joanne & Co. taught me it's that nesting is important, and even more so when you're an adult and you're moving your entire life around (as opposed to your sleeping bag for a month).

Things I did to make it less stressful:

• Used Augusta Movers. They weren't the cheapest of the companies I surveyed, but the owner was super-responsive, it was very easy to set up, the team was punctual and hard-working, and they did a great job packing things up. They also stressed in every email that you have to pay HST even if you're paying cash, which I appreciate. At no point in the process were there any surprises, which is about the highest compliment you can pay to movers.

• Ordered Frogboxes plastic boxes, as opposed to buying or scavenging cardboard ones. You're an adult now; you can do better going to the LCBO every day and getting Alberta Premium boxes. These things are clean, strong, convenient, water-repellent, and easy to move. You can put fragile things in them and not worry they'll be crushed, you can half-fill them and they'll still stack, and they make loading and unloading a breeze - they stack perfectly and uniformly. They'll end up costing a little more than cardboard boxes (~10% in my case), but not having to deal with the mess and cleanup of all that cardboard made it worth it in a second.