I always wind up forgetting some of my shipping supplies when I go to the post office, and then I wind up having to buy something from them that seems to be quite over-priced and also under-quality. This usually makes me pretty annoyed, and I tend to be annoyed at the post office anyway. I don’t want to come across as one of those people that always need to have something a certain way, but there are definitely two places on this planet that will wipe the smile off of your face: the DMV and the post office. No matter how resolved you are to go in there and keep your head high you always wind up leaving with leaky-gut symptoms. Thankfully, the post office right by house is usually amazing. Unless a certain lady is on duty, and then not so much. Come to think of it, I haven’t seen her in a while…

Here is a list of packaging and shipping supplies you may want to consider keeping on hand in your car for those days when, spur of the moment, you throw the box for your grandma in the back seat so you don’t keep forgetting to send it:

• Address book. Unless you have all of your addresses in your phone, like a lot of people, consider keeping an address book in your glovebox. You don’t have to put the names down, for safety purposes, but you should be able to tell who the address belongs to by what letter it’s filed under and then the city and state. This might not seem like it belongs under “shipping supplies” but, believe me, if you don’t have the address that baby isn’t going anywhere.

• This might seem pretty obvious but I guess it’s not, because I always forget it. I have taken to keeping a roll of packaging tape in my glovebox so that I don’t have to keep spending upwards of 4 dollars on a new, crappy roll at the post office.

• Black Sharpie. Yes, even these should be considered as shipping supplies. A Sharpie is a good way to make sure the address is big and bold, and that it can be written on just about anything and still show up. And they fit nicely in a center console.

• I keep a book of stamps in my glovebox and I also keep one or two in my wallet. The time that I didn’t I accidently put my letter in the letter box without any postage and I had to call to have somebody come fish it out.

Packing supplies can really make or break the whole moving experience. I have moved numerous times. Like, a lot. Sometimes it was just a dorm room, and then sometimes it was just a one-bedroom apartment, and then a two-bedroom apartment, and then a house, and most of them was more than once at each kind of place. Thankfully, I have not yet had to move now that I have children, but I know that it’s coming. And, thankfully, I have had plenty of experience so that I will know how to make the best of it when that time comes.

It goes without saying that the best moving experiences I have had were invariably linked to the best packing supplies. Granted, the one at the top of the list also came with an entire crew. They wrapped big things up in heavy duty brown paper. They wrapped everything else up in brown paper too, and put them in boxes. They came with the boxes that have the sections for kitchen materials. They came with the boxes that have the hanging metal rod so you can just transfer your clothes right from the closet to the box. Not only did they come with the packing supplies but they did all the packing and moving and transporting, too. And the unloading.

So, yeah, that is not the type of experience most people will have, and it was a one-time thing for me too. But the thing I learned from that time is that the materials are a must. This is because I have tried to be super cheap and I wound up on the verge of a breakdown. So not worth it.

When I say that I was trying to be cheap I mean that I was using hand-me-down packing supplies, all of which were some sort of awkward shape or size and I found myself playing a virtual Tetris game in the back of the moving van. The last thing you want to do after packing boxes and carrying them down three flights of stairs is move them all around trying to figure out how to make them fit and also best utilize the space of the moving van since you were too cheap and got the smaller one (another way that I was trying to be cheap and just wound up shooting myself in the foot).

I’m not suggesting you go in debt buying the highest quality products, especially since you are more or less just going to be getting a one time use out of them. I am suggesting you take the time to figure out what type of packing supplies are the best for the job at hand.