Saturday will be the first day of the month, and with it, another raft of homeowners will be turned out on the streets as their untenable mortgages expire. Expect the usual moving mayhem that happens whenever the first of the month falls on a weekend: a shortage of moving trucks, jammed unloading zones at apartment buildings, and a run on cardboard boxes.

One California company is doing a little something to make the difficulty easier. For this move cycle, UsedCardboardBoxes.com is giving free moving boxes to anyone who has lost their home in a foreclosure. The point, of course, is to promote the outfit's products, which are boxes that have been used, misprinted, or overstocked but are otherwise perfectly good.

The freebie pack of boxes, normally $38, includes sixteen boxes of various sizes, a roll of tape, a stack of packing paper, a marker, and a box cutter. To get that, you have to call the company (888-269-3788), provide proof of foreclosure, and pay for shipping, which amounts to $15. (Shipping is usually free, so you're getting about $23 worth of gimmes in this arrangement.) The deadline to apply is Tuesday.

Neal Templin's Cheapskate column in today's Wall Street Journal (subscription required), is a reminder that restlessness -- and the cost of relocation -- doesn't come cheap.

Templin and his wife are making their fifth move in 17 years. In their situation, it's work related. Still, even with the fringes of a corporate relocation, the costs add up. "You spend thousands fixing up the home you sell and thousands more fixing up the home you buy," and that doesn't include the costs -- both in time and money -- that most of us don't consider. Things like transferring automobile registration and insurance, finding new resources, or enrolling in new schools may demand more time and stress than money, but it all counts.

In "The Millionaire Next Door," 1998, Stanley and Danko described research they had done into the characteristics of millionaires. It turned out that millionaires often don't look like millionaires. They don't necessarily drive a Mercedes or even a relatively new car. More interesting, millionaires tend to stay put. They stay married and they don't move all that often. They tend to keep what they acquire. They also don't spend much time on home projects. They don't fritter their energy away, the use it to make more money.

We may be beginning to emerge from decades of bigger is better and more still isn't enough. Maybe we'll become less restless.

Over at My Two Dollars, the author is prepping for a move to New Mexico and explored the cost benefit of using a moving service rather than going the do it yourself route. After crunching the numbers he determined that it would cost him close to $2,000 to take care of everything on his own. When he contacted several moving companies he was able to get an estimate of just over $3,000 to complete the entire move, which the contractors said was likely an overestimation. In the end ,he decided to go with the moving company, a move which he claims may have been the best $1,000 he has ever spent!

The do-it-yourself cost he calculated doesn't even place a dollar value on his time, which would likely make hiring the movers an even better choice. Figuring out how much your time is worth is often tricky, but in most cases you should double the first figure you come up with. By hiring someone else to do the move you also save on the need for a chiropractor or massage therapist as well as the risk of breaking your items or the truck you rented, not to mention the possible divorce attorney fees after you and your loved one come to blows over what to pitch and what to pack..

While we have always done the moving ourselves, our moves have been cross-town rather than cross-country. After running a moving service for college students for several years, I can understand both sides of the coin. The main reason our customers chose to use the service was that the cost and hassle of doing it themselves was way more than paying for us to handle the logistics. If you have a long way to go and a lot of stuff to move then hiring a good moving company may be the best use of your money! Of course doing it yourself makes it easier to avoid any unscrupulous moving companies that might kidnap your furniture.

Another day, another best places to live list.

Kiplinger's Personal Finance looked at cities with strong job markets, cultural offerings and a reasonable cost of living. Some interesting cities that made the list are Omaha, Boise and Colorado Springs, but Houston topped the list. Coming in at number two was Raleigh, which you see a lot of prognosticators talking about since North Carolina has been a really hot state for real estate for the past decade or longer.

Some friends of mine just moved to Houston, and one of the things they mentioned is the property taxes are much higher than they are used to. So while the cost of living may seem relatively low, those high property taxes are probably going to keep prices depressed. Also, with gas prices as high as they are, a city with little or no public transportation is probably less attractive than a city like Boston where you don't necessarily need a car.

Moving is a stressful event, tempers are tested and wallets are opened all in the need to get your life's accumulations from point A to point B. The NY Times covered an issue some people are having with moving services, especially with state to state moves. In these cases a moving company provides a lowball offer for moving your goods, often sight unseen. When the movers show up at your new home with all of your belongings locked securely in their truck they then request a substantial additional sum of cash to unload your items!

If this happens to you unfortunately your options are limited. If you don't pay up the movers may damage or leave with your items and if you do fork over the cash your recourse is also limited. In many states the legislation is not on the books to protect consumers from these unscrupulous state to state movers. When restitution is made through the help of a consumer group the process is often a lengthy and involved one.

I haven't used movers in the past but I have run a small moving and storage business with two of my classmates shortly after graduation. One of our biggest issues was gaining the trust of our customers and assuring them that we wouldn't run off with their futon and mini fridge. Just like mechanics, movers are mostly "good people' but a few bad apples can ruin the reputation of the whole group. Before you hire a mover check out a reference or three and contact your local better business bureau for the company's standing.

My wife and I are thinking about moving. As we've been looking at various apartments, we've had to consider the standard questions: how close is it to the subway, what is the nearest hospital, do the drug dealers seem friendly, what's the homicide rate, how many pairs of shoes are dangling from the nearby power lines...

You know, the standard Bronx questions.

One issue that we've never considered is the distance between our home and the nearest McDonald's. However, a recent study has revealed that our proximity to fast-food restaurants and convenience stores might be among the most important considerations when we choose our next home.

Nobody goes to U-Haul willingly. But unless you've got a couple of friends with big trucks and lots of time on their hands, sooner or later, you'll have to move, and you'll have little choice but to go in and rent the truck.
I've moved more times than I care to count. And I can tell you one thing: That $19.95 price U-Haul plasters all over its moving trucks? That's if you sit in the parking lot. No, you can't turn the ignition on either. That'll cost more.

Here are a few more tips you can use, courtesy of an actual U-Haul manager, as cited by the good guys at Consumerist.

• Book well in advance, at least a week ahead, and use a major credit card to secure your reservation.

• If you make your reservation through the 1-800 number, get your reservation number and call back a day or two prior to pick up to find out where you should be making the pick-up. Don't wait for anyone to call you back.
  

• When you come to pick up, bring your driver's license and the credit card you used to make the reservation.

• Let U-Haul or the dealer know if there's a pick up or drop-off point that you prefer.

• Always take the insurance, unless you have good personal car insurance.

Now, presuming your truck is road-worthy, you might have a better time dealing with your moving ordeal. Good luck.

One of the toughest things about moving to New York was adjusting to the change in space. In Southwest Virginia, my wife and I rented a two-story, three-bedroom house with a huge living room and kitchen, a work area in the basement, a washer, dryer, dishwasher, and about a quarter acre of yard. While I was glad to say goodbye to mowing and assorted household maintenance tasks, I was a little worried about the loss of space. Simply put, our lives easily filled a big house; how could we squeeze them into a two-bedroom apartment?

Some of the decisions were easy. The washer and dryer, king-sized bed, and gargantuan kitchen table all had to go. So did the workroom tools, the two couches, the treadmill, all the basement shelving, a couple of the bookcases, and a lot of the little knicknack tables. My big desk went into storage and some of the carpets went to Goodwill. Getting rid of this stuff was relatively easy: in most cases, I put advertisements up on Craig's List or the thrifty shopper. I offered the items for about two-thirds of their replacement value, then worked my way down until I had a buyer. I saved all the revenues from the sales in a special moving fund. It added up quickly.

Having gotten rid of a lot of the big stuff, I directed my attention to the little things. I started by selling off most of the seasonal items that I rarely used. I got rid of about half of my fans, a couple of air conditioning units, two electric and one kerosene heater, and an impressive collection of Christmas tree stands that had congregated under the staircase. Everything with dust on it went into a questionable pile. If it didn't have sentimental value, out it went.

As much as I love and adore the Christmas season, with every sparkly light and gaily-wrapped gift the time I think of as organizing season comes ever closer. With the end of the year comes W2s, filing, a mess of receipts and never-opened bank statements. How will it all get organized in time?

This year, though, we're starting early. It's not because I got hit by a virtuous bug; no, it's because my five-year-old son has been struggling with behavioral issues in school and his developmental pediatrician has prescribed order. Not only will we have to simplify the playroom, but also my prodigious piles of paper and digital media.

We need help. As luck would have it, this week a friend-of-a-friend decided that it was her destiny to start an organization business. She's a whiz at it, and met with me for an hour yesterday. I thought her philosophy was brilliant, and I'll share it with you.

Laura said that, in order to truly organize your life (and make it stick) you need three things: