(The North End the Friday morning before Sept. 1. Courtesy of BostInno's own Nick DeLuca)
Moving sucks.
Beyond having to contend with pesky parking restrictions, you're stuck trying to navigate a U-Haul down already narrow streets, made more narrow by the aftermath of Allston Christmas. You then have to haul heaps of junk up five flights of stairs, assemble all that new IKEA furniture you spent too much money on and pray you don't break anything in the process.
Again: Moving sucks. But, a slew of Boston-born startups can make the inevitably sucky experience suck just a little bit less.
First, start scouring Handybook, because the service offers everything from moving help to furniture assembly. Even better, the Harvard Business School-spun startup can bring in a fully-vetted maid to help clean up the pithole of an apartment you've been lazily dwelling in. You do want that security deposit back, don't you?
Second, find a place to store that extra junk you don't need but also don't have the heart to get rid of — like all those ratty old lacrosse pinnies or faded sorority T-shirts. If you're moving from some spacious six-bedroom Allston palace to a cramped South End studio, there's no room for a toaster oven when you already warm your whole wheat in a two-slice toaster.
Luckily, there's Cubbyhole. Developed by former Boston University students, the app lets you rent storage space by the day or month from hosts who have the space and are looking to make some extra money. Cubbyhole verifies every host and guarantees to insure rentals up to $1,000.
Or, try out Fetch Storage, a Boston startup offering "don't-do-it-yourself" storage. A trained mover can come pick up the items you need stored, drive it to one of the company's two storage facilities and *poof* the junk is off your hands. There's also the newly-launched Cubiq, a concierge service also willing to transport all the extra stuff you don't have room for to one of their warehouses.
Amidst the packing, storing, cleaning and assembling of cheap furniture, you'll probably forget to actually heed those pesky parking restrictions and you're bound to get slapped with a fine. Don't worry about having to trek down to City Hall, however; there's TicketZen. Built by the Terrible Labs team, the app allows Bostonians to instantly pay for parking tickets using their iPhone or Android device.
(Don't worry, this story has a happy ending.)
Once you're all done and moved, you deserve a beer. Better yet, you deserve a beer delivered to the door of your new apartment in 40 minutes or less, courtesy of Drizly.
See? Moving day will suck, but it can suck a little bit less.
