Here’s a throwback for my playlist.. Oh hey 2008, I see you ;-)

Dose of my “Subway Mixing” Playlist

Today’s preview, The Afters- “Never Going Back to Ok”

It’s no secret that you have to get a little creative with storage options while living in Manhattan. Let’s just say that when our pre-war apartments were built, they probably weren’t as concerned with finding space for 75+ pairs of shoes, seasons of clothes, and multiple sets of bedding. Okay, okay, so maybe I’m just a pack rat, but I know I’m not the only one in the city with this problem!

I got really lucky with my current apartment and somehow managed to get 3 closets, but the clock is ticking for when I will be moving again and saying farewell to my multiple closets. That’s why I was so excited when the great people over at Boxbee reached out to me to talk about storage options. Talk about perfect timing, right?!

Boxbee is a new take on storage in the city that makes the whole process easy by delivering boxes, picking them up, and storing them until you need them again. Even better, it’s totally affordable starting at only $7.50/month!

If you’re anything like me, swapping out your closet by season is a necessity not an option. Even with my 3 closets, they’re 3 small closets and you can only pack them so full before you a.) can’t find anything because the hangers are packed so tightly or b.) your closet decides it has had enough and the bar falls down, along with all of your hangers and clothes {this has happened to me too many times}. Let’s just say neither option is ideal. 

Over the years, I’ve gotten a little smarter with bed risers, underbed canvas bags, and baskets. It has definitely helped with storing my off-season clothes, but it’s not quite the perfect solution. You see, Scooter is a nosey little dog and has managed to rip open all of my canvas bags and make himself a nice fluffy bed pretty much every year. It doesn’t matter how many times I sew the bags up, or if I buy new ones, that little sucker is on a mission to take over all of my clothes and leave them smelling like a little wiener dog.

I looked into getting a storage unit at my old apartment where my 8x10 bedroom was literally maxed out on storage, but none of the companies quite fit my needs. The biggest issue being that most of them were only open during regular business hours, which when you work normal business hours doesn’t quite work out. That and the fact that not having a car just complicates everything in terms of moving boxes. Of course the more affordable services were always further uptown too — not exactly walking distance. Basically, all of the services struck out with me for one reason or another and I just decided to do the best I could with what I had. I didn’t seem to have any other options — that is… until I was introduced to Boxbee! 

So here’s the nitty gritty on how it works. 

1. Have boxes dropped off: Once your create your account on Boxbee.com you can decide when and where you’d like your boxes dropped off. 
2. Schedule a pick-up: Once you are done filling your boxes, simply log back online and schedule a pick-up.
3. Manage storage online: Now that your boxes are safe in storage you can manage them online in your “beehive”. Here you can upload a photo of your boxes and enter a description for all of the contents.

3 steps and boom, you’re done! Easy and totally breezy! Here’s a look at my first go!

I started with one box to see how I liked the service. I scheduled my drop-off and just like magic, my box appeared. I was actually surprised by the size of the box too — it’s much bigger than I was thinking it was going to be.

Next I loaded up the box with my items. A lot of winter clothes, some books and magazines, shoes, and a few home decor items.

Next I entered the contents of my box online and scheduled a pick-up.

And that’s it! The service really couldn’t get much easier and I was pleasantly surprised by how much stuff I was able to put in one box.

I really love that you can manage everything online and schedule pick-ups and drop-offs around your schedule. Super convenient! No need to hail a cab to your storage unit or set aside time to make it there to sort through boxes. For $7.50 a month per box, the service is seriously a steal. The box delivery and box pick-up are both free with your membership too. The only thing you pay extra for is when you have boxes delivered to you. It’s still not bad though at $15 per drop-off + $2/box.

They also have a cool option that allows you to share your boxes with friends and have boxes delivered to different locations. This might come in handy if you and your friends rotate apartments for throwing seasonal parties. Maybe you don’t have room in your apartment for that big box of party decor that you only use every once in awhile. Then again, you don’t want to have to pick up streamers, balloons, and plastic silverware every time you have a party either. Solution? Store the box on Boxbee, and then the next time you or your friends are hosting you can just log on and schedule a drop-off.

So there you have it! No need to ever fret over city storage issues again! 

Thanks again to the Boxbee crew for letting me try out the service! I’ll definitely be ordering more boxes soon.

**Disclaimer: Boxbee’s PR team provided me with a promotional credit to try out their service. This post and all opinions stated are based on my own ideas and experience.

In 3+ years, Chris and I have only somehow been on 2 trips together — both to Washington to visit my family. I usually use my vacation time to go home and he usually uses his for out-of-state boys trips or bachelor parties so unless it’s a weekend trip to visit his parents, we don’t get out of the city much together! Not to mention, it’s tough to get-away together because then I have to find someone to watch Scooter!

Despite the reasons, it was about time we planned a little getaway! I proposed the idea about a month ago and Chris suggested we rent a bungalow on Fire Island. He had rented several times with his buddies from this one guy and he just so happened to have a studio bungalow available for the weekend that was pet-friendly. DONE and DONE!

The trip to Ocean Bay Park on Fire Island from the Upper East Side took about 2 1/2 hours, but it wasn’t too bad! Scoots has gotten much better traveling in his bag — I think he understands he gets to go places when he hops in now. After a bus, subway, train, shuttle, and ferry ride though he started to get a little antsy, but hey we made it!

I got out of the office a little early for the holiday so we were able to get to the bungalow and walk along the beach for the evening.

Fire Island is a small island off of Long Island, and where we were was full of small beach towns. Aside from service vehicles, there weren’t any main roads other that for walking and biking and the whole diameter of the island couldn’t be more than a few city blocks wide. Giving you views of the bay if you look in one direction and the ocean on the other. 

Our bungalow was located in Ocean Bay Park, but over the weekend we took several walks around the island through the other nearby towns of Seaview and Ocean Beach. 

It may have only been a few hours outside of the city, but it easily felt worlds apart. Instead of taxing whisking by you in the city, we passed lots of wagons. Near the ferry docks, there were areas for residents to lock up their wagons. Since there aren’t really cars, this is how people pack things from the mainland to their beach houses. Having a wagon never seemed so cool to me before!

We spent a lot of time in Ocean Beach checking out the views, shops and of course the restaurants!

Of course I had to give the local drink of choice, a Rocket Fuel a try during our visit. Basically, it’s a pina-colada made with 151 and amaretto. I only had one, but I can certainly see how they might get you in trouble!

What would an Anna and Chris adventure be without some delicious food too? Since we were on a little getaway we decided to treat ourselves with some fancy dinner choices including steak and I even tried my first order of mahi-mahi over the weekend {totally delicious btw}.

Fire Island has quite the reputation of being a “party island” so we definitely saw our share of interesting people over the weekend! That’s for sure! They made for good entertainment though and everyone seemed very friendly for the most part. We ended up hanging out with some of our neighbors to the bungalow, a lot of which actually live on the Upper East Side currently and two who turned out to be from a town near my hometown in Washington. Such a small world!

We capped out the weekend by celebrating Scooter’s 11th Birthday {Boo Boo is getting old!} and a visit from Chris’ family on Monday. 

Spending time on the beach followed by a BBQ on our porch was the perfect end to the weekend! Until next time Fire Island!