i want it free
Attention readers: The following content is for non-hustler-haters only. Discretion is advised, but please know, this blog isn’t titled "The Hustle of Sistah Ant" for nothing.
Packing stuff for moving is hard to do when you don’t have boxes. Boxes are hard to find in the city of brotherly love. Apparently there’s some kind of ordinance which keeps merchants from putting their cardboard boxes out into dumpsters. They have to crush their boxes indoors. Sheesh. Give a sistah a break.
Every time I have ever moved, ever since I moved into my very first apartment from the dorms years ago, I refused to buy new boxes. It just seemed stupid to me. There are just too many clean useful cardboard boxes out there in the world. And for five consecutive moves in a row, I haven’t had any trouble finding them. Yes, there is a little bit of an art to it. First of all, you can’t get your boxes from a restaurant, or a residential complex - places where who knows what has spilled on (or worse, has been crawling in) the boxes. Secondly, you don’t get your boxes from the hood. I’m sorry - it’s just not a good idea. And this is why: once you find the perfect "cardboard only" dumpster, somewhere behind a retailer that sells stuff on shelves (like a F.amily Dolla.r, or a R.ite Ai.d), you have to open the lid, sniff for stinkiness, do an attentive visual sweep for pests, dampness, or non-cardboard waste, and then if all is on the up-and-up… you have to reach in, or even get in to get your treasure. But, you don’t want to be standing vulnerable inside a dumpster in a place where you could get robbed, which is why you have to do this outside of the hood.
Yes, folks, in the name of free boxes, I have stood inside dumpsters. I’d do it again, in fact, if only I could find a decent dumpster with clean boxes around here. I might have to go to Jersey this weekend to handle my business. Or go on one of those websites where people actually give their used moving boxes away. Anything but pay. It’s bad enough I had to rent a truck and get storage space, which I’ll have to pay for every month (which is still over $500 cheaper than rent). I shouldn’t have to pay for boxes, too. I have some free ones from work, and some I pulled from here and there, but I need more.
Problem is I now have exactly 10 days to get my stuff boxed up and ready to go. So, ah… I really need to get some boxes, ASAP. And while I’m at it, I need to get some newspapers off the bus and possibly borrow one of the packing tape dispensers from work (don’t trip, I literally mean "borrow," not steal) so I can reconstruct my free boxes. My honey has suggested that I just go ahead and buy some boxes… I told him with a kiss that I’d consider it. First, I’ma do some last-minute scavenging and see if I can’t pull another hustle out of my hat. Ants are gatherers, you know.
