The Experience of Moving

I am unpacking from a move. Last week, my family moved two hours from our old home using our favorite moving service after a last minute decision to pack up and live in another city. Moving is tiresome and confusing. There's so much to do, especially as "stuff" is accumulated, jobs are more demanding, kids growing up, and the sheer pandemonium is frustrating.


We used Local Motion, a small company that provides borrowed moving boxes at no charge (you pay a deposit that is refunded if boxes are returned within 30 days). The movers work so hard that I'm always impressed they can have me living in one place in the morning and another by the early afternoon.


We have two weeks left to unpack and only about 10 boxes left, which is very good. I think we moved 80 of them. Thank goodness we now have a basement for all that "stuff." We did donate three car loads of clothes, shoes, and household goods to Goodwill, sold some furniture, and recycled electronics at Best Buy. And yes, still all those boxes. You wouldn't believe us if you saw our house. It's not a lot of stuff, really. I'm just a cautious packer.


Some thoughts of the experience of moving:


Recycled boxes are super. No need to spend money on expensive, brand new boxes or use dirty and broken ones from the grocery store. The problem is that after two or three moves, they are so marked up that the movers struggle to know what I wrote. This led to several boxes slated for the office in the basement and some meant for the kitchen in the upstairs hall. The current design has three pre-printed sections for indicating the room and contents. Since several boxes had been used long after three moves, it seems like a sticker system might work better. Each customer gets a series of labels with their name and a place for the room and contents. Each new customer can place the new sticker over the old one. No confusion for the movers.


There's always something to fix. Walking through our new house, there were a couple minor things to fix but nothing serious, at least from what I could see (this is a rental, so no home inspection). After moving in, we realized the water had been off for a long time. Our water was a very unnatural color. No way I was taking a bath in that. The microhood is broken. And even though we're on the edge of nowhere, there's traffic at 5am. Honestly, I don't care about the traffic. It isn't noisy or excessive. The microhood will be replaced soon and the water is finally normal. I just wish there was a checklist of obscure things to look for during a walkthrough inspection.


So that's where the pacis are. Moving is a good way to find lost pacifiers. Enough said.


The important stuff will always go missing. We planned well and set aside our "important stuff" like medications, sheets, some clothing, basic food items, diapers, wipes, and the critical stuffed animals, essential bedtime stories, and the car keys. Even still, I couldn't find more than one change of clothes for three days and I never thought to set aside some soap or hand sanitizer. Again with the checklist. I'm sure there's one on the internet. I should have Googled.


Moving, working, parenting, living, and holidays don't mix. In general, moving is a pain. It wasn't always this way. The older I get, the more annoying this gets. I actually don't want to move again, for real. I said this every time. This time, I do mean it. Four days off from work doesn't make a move any easier. A month would be better.


There's so much more but one of the biggest moving experiences that bugs me is getting used to sleeping in a new place. That's why I'm writing this instead of sleeping.


Oh and I apologize but I'm sure I'll miss a few people with holiday cards this year. I was organized, prepared, and then I moved. The first pre-move batch went out successfully but I'm sure I'll lose the stamps, the cards, forget who got a card already, or forget people I should send a card to. If you get two cards from me, please pass it along to someone who could use a holiday pick-me-up. LOL