RiverBender Blog: I'm Moving
Well, it’s official. The lease has been signed. The utilities are set up in my name. The furniture has been budgeted for. I am moving.
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I’m not going far, so no worries. I’ll still be coming into the RiverBender.com office every day and reporting on all the wonderful things happening in the community. I’m just crossing over a few city lines and settling into a new apartment.
I’m counting down the days. As of this writing, I have a little over two weeks until I get the keys to my new place.
So that being said, I haven’t even done the really hard part of moving yet, where I pack up all my belongings and transport them and scrub the apartment and organize everything and try my best to remain patient. I’m in the very early stages of this move, where all the paperwork is done and I’m just now starting to go through my things and make big piles to donate or toss or bring with me. It’s basically the equivalent of spring cleaning, except with a deadline.
But even still, it turns out moving is a giant pain.
It’s been awhile since I’ve moved, and apparently I was wearing rose-colored glasses when I looked back on those previous moves, because this is hugely inconvenient. This move has been months in the making. I can’t tell you how many phone calls and emails I’ve exchanged to iron out the details. I have so many important starred emails in my inbox right now, and I’m still certain I’m going to lose vital paperwork before I get the keys.
In order to budget out this move and avoid dropping a big chunk of change at once, I’ve been making purchases for the new apartment over the past few months. A vacuum cleaner here, a set of glasses there. I have a lot of items already, but somehow there’s still a giant list of “things I’ll need” that I’ve been slowly whittling away at.
And, of course, there will be the many items I realize I have forgotten. I see several last-minute Walmart trips in my future.
The big purchases are still forthcoming, however, and my bank account is trembling in fear of the next few weeks. I need a mattress and a couch, and I’m eyeing those Memorial Day sales like there’s no tomorrow. I was promised that this weekend is the time to make all those buys, and I’m banking — no pun intended — on saving some money.
But the best part has been getting all the secondhand items that the people in my life no longer want. My parents are passing along a wooden table that used to belong to my grandparents; the perfect breakfast nook! My grandma and I cleaned out her basement last weekend and I took home boxes of dishes that will be perfect in my new kitchen.
Not only are these items helpful, but they have sentimental value. I’m eager to have pieces of my family with me in my new space.
And last night, I started the big clean-out: my closet. A confession — my bedroom looks like a tornado went through it. There’s clothing everywhere, spilling out of drawers and piled up on the floor of my closet and in towering stacks on a chair in the corner.
This is my shameful secret, something I’ve tried to keep hidden from the folks of the Riverbend, but it’s the truth. I am a slob. And the irony is that I wear the same seven outfits over and over again every week, anyway. What am I doing with all these clothes?
This weekend was my chance to start going through these clothes and make some tough decisions about what I actually wear and need to keep versus what I can part ways with. And it took me forever. I filled up trash bag after trash bag of clothes to donate. I folded and organized. Ironically, my space has never looked better, and I’m just a few weeks away from leaving it.
So anyway, moving has been quite the process, and it’s really only just starting. I’m looking forward to the big day and I can’t wait to be settled in my new apartment. But in the meantime, I’ll take any advice you have to share.
What should I avoid and what should I be doing to make this as seamless as possible? Or should I just accept that the day of will be hectic and chaotic and stressful, but worth it?
Either way, it’s a new chapter, and I’m excited to see what will happen next. New space, here I come.
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