Alright so you’re moving to California.
First thing. Where exactly? Because people say California like it’s one thing and it’s not. It’s like saying you’re moving to the East Coast. Nobody says that. They say New York or Boston or Miami. Same here. Where you go changes everything.
San Francisco is not LA. LA is not San Diego. San Diego is not Sacramento. Sacramento is not the Central Valley. I could keep going.
I moved to the Bay Area about seven years ago. Thought I knew what I was getting into. I did not.
Let me just run through the stuff that nobody told me.
The apartment thing is gonna mess with you
Okay so you’re looking at listings online. You see a place that says 800 square feet. In your head you’re like cool that’s plenty of space. I’ve lived in 800 square feet before. No problem.
Here’s the thing. 800 square feet here is not 800 square feet where you’re from. I don’t know how to explain it. The layouts are weird. The closets are tiny. There’s no storage. None. You open the door and there’s like a coat closet and that’s it. No linen closet. No pantry. No garage. No basement obviously because California doesn’t have basements.
So all your stuff that used to live in closets and garages and basements? Now it’s just out. In your living space. Looking at you.
I brought a sectional couch from my old place. Loved that couch. It fit perfectly in my old living room. Here it took up the whole room. Like the whole thing. You couldn’t walk around it. You had to climb over it to get to the kitchen. I kept it for two months before I finally admitted it wasn’t gonna work and sold it on Craigslist for way less than it was worth.
If I could go back I would have put that couch in storage until I figured out the space. Instead I spent two months annoyed and then lost money selling it.
That’s what I tell people now. Move your bed. Move your kitchen stuff. Move a couple chairs. Everything else? Put it somewhere else for a minute. Live in the space first. See what actually works. Then go get the rest.
We have storage units and I swear half the people who rent from us are new to California who just need a place to keep their overflow while they figure out their apartment. They rent for a month. Then another month. Then they come grab their stuff when they’re ready. It’s so much smarter than what I did.
Parking will make you want to scream
I’m gonna tell you a story.
I showed up with my U-Haul at 3pm on a Saturday. Found a spot on the street maybe a block away. Not ideal but whatever. Started carrying stuff. After like two trips a guy comes out and goes hey you’re gonna get a ticket. I’m like nah I’ll be fine. He shrugs and goes back inside.
45 minutes later there’s a ticket on the truck. $110. I’m standing there holding a lamp just staring at this ticket.
Then the next morning I come out and the truck is still there but there’s a note on it. Handwritten. It says “you blocked my driveway. next time i call tow company.” I looked and yeah I was maybe two feet into their driveway. Didn’t even notice.
So here’s the deal. In most California cities you can reserve parking for your moving truck. You go on the city website. You pay like 30 bucks. They give you these signs you put up saying no parking on whatever day. People see the signs and they move. You have the space.
You have to do this before you get here. Like a week before. Some cities make you put the signs up 72 hours ahead.
It’s annoying. But it’s less annoying than a ticket or a tow truck showing up while you’re trying to move your bed.
The weather thing is a trap
Everyone thinks California is warm.
I live 10 minutes from the ocean and I’m wearing a hoodie right now. It’s July. There’s fog so thick I can’t see the end of my street. My friend lives 20 miles inland and it’s 95 degrees today. Twenty miles. That’s it.
You don’t know what your weather is gonna be until you’re here. So don’t get rid of your jackets. Don’t get rid of your sweaters. Bring them. Worst case you don’t need them and you put them in a box. But if you get here and it’s cold and you donated everything you’re gonna be buying new jackets and that gets expensive fast.
Also check if your place has AC. A lot of places don’t. Not because it doesn’t get hot but because it only gets hot for like two weeks so people just suffer. My first apartment had no AC. I spent that two weeks sleeping on top of my sheets with a fan pointed directly at my face. It was miserable.
The car thing costs more than you think
You have 20 days to get your California license and register your car. That’s the law.
The license part is annoying but whatever. The registration part hurts.
California charges registration based on what your car is worth. I had a Honda that was maybe 6 years old and I paid almost $300 to register it. My neighbor moved here with a newer Subaru and paid over $600. It’s not a small thing. Budget for it.
Also they do smog checks. If your car has tinted windows or any modifications that were legal where you’re from, check if they’re legal here. I had a friend who had to peel tint off all her windows because it was darker than California allows. Cost her money and time and she was mad about it for weeks.
Make a DMV appointment before you even leave your old state. The wait times here are insane. I’m talking weeks. If you show up without an appointment you’re gonna be there all day.
The first few weeks feel weird
Nobody told me this and I wish they had.
You move here and everyone’s like oh you’re in California that’s so exciting. And you’re like yeah it’s great. But inside you feel kind of lost. You don’t know where anything is. You don’t know anyone. You go to the grocery store and everything costs more than you expect and you have to figure out which brand of tortillas is the good one and it’s just a lot.
That’s normal. I promise it’s normal.
I spent my first month here feeling like I made a huge mistake. Everything was hard. Even small stuff like finding a good pizza place felt like a project. I was tired and stressed and my apartment was full of boxes and I just wanted to go back.
But it passed. It takes time. You gotta give yourself time.
One last thing
If you’re moving here with a lot of stuff, you’re gonna need to downsize or store some of it. That’s just the truth. California apartments are small and storage space is rare and you can’t just put things in a garage because most places don’t have a garage.
We’ve got storage units and we help people with this all the time. New movers come in all the time. They rent a unit for a few months while they figure out their apartment and then they slowly move stuff out as they make space. It makes the move so much less stressful.
If you need that, we’re here. If you don’t need that, cool. But whatever you do, don’t cram everything into your apartment and hope it works. It won’t. You’ll just be stressed and tripping over boxes for months.
Anyway that’s the real stuff. Not the blog post version. Just what I actually learned moving here.
If you have questions about your specific situation hit me up. Happy to help.
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