Weekly Lists #187: Things Moving Taught Me

In the past 6 months, me and the bf have heard we needed to move – because the apartment we were renting was sold. We decided to buy a house, rather than rent again, we visited a bunch of houses, we made an offer, we bought it and we moved. That’s a lot for just a couple of months. And through all this? Here’s 5 things moving taught me!

1. Priorities change

One of the only things I really “needed” when we were looking for our apartment, was NO gas stove. I don’t like cooking on it, I’m not used to cooking on it… I just didn’t want to do it. Suffice it to say: our apartment did have me cook on a gas stove.

So, in all honesty, I should have known this already. Nonetheless, we ran into the same thing again this time. We started out with a short, but very specific “wish list”. The main features being: the house had to stand alone, we wanted a kitchen island, we needed a garage and there had to be a big, reinforced attic.

The house we bought? Has half of those things. Because, as it turns out, our priorities shifted to “new”, “little to no work”, and “sure, bright pink isn’t my favourite colour for our bedroom wall but if that’s the biggest issue, we’re doing alright.” (for real though – bright pink? in the master bedroom? What were they thinking?)

2. Stuff. So much stuff

Stuff to take care of, stuff to cancel, stuff to collect, stuff to buy, stuff to get rid of. And so. much. stuff. to move. Here’s to friends with vans and free time that they’re willing to spend on your move, right?

3. If it can go wrong? It will

Changing my phone over to a separate account? It took 3 weeks. And, actually, as I’m writing this? It’s still not quite done.

Closets that can go crooked? Yes. Following all the steps on an Ikea wardrobe and still having it do a weird thing where it bends a bit in the middle? Yes. Boxes breaking – especially the ones with breakable stuff in them? Happened. Completely losing some things? Yes. And I swear I went through all the boxes, but I still can’t find my charger!

Just be prepared for the fact that things will go wrong, and aim to find the funny side of them, always. It’s either that, or cry.

4. Decluttering beforehand? No thanks

This was one of those things that everybody was telling me we needed to do before we moved. But honestly? We were moving from an apartment to a house – how on earth were we supposed to know what exactly we would and wouldn’t need?

I found it way more useful to just throw everything in boxes in the apartment and to then – as I was unpacking – go through things slowly. It also helped me be way more thorough than I think I would’ve been otherwise. After the move? Well, I was (am) just about fed up enough with everything… That throwing some stuff away? Sounds right.

(also, we moved across a second hand store, so we can just dump everything we don’t want there. That helps too :p )

5. Lean on each other

This was the main one. We moved in the middle of a heat wave. In the middle of some of the busiest weeks at my job, and right through a big project on the bf’s work. Oh, and we had to move the move a couple of weeks forward because our car had to go in for reparations and we needed it for moving.

In other words: we could’ve easily gotten really crabby with each other. And we did – don’t worry. But, also, we gave each other space and allowed each other to bitch about everything (from the weather to the neighbour to the elevator to the weather again – seriously, a heat wave, okay?)

And we always chose to see the funny side of things. Well, after occasionally ditching the other in favour of a 1-hour-walk or an extra-long-shower. But still. We leaned on each other. And I honestly don’t think there’s anyone I would rather be doing this with than the bf. So there’s that, right? 🙂

Anyways, that’s 5 things moving taught me. A 6th could probably be that even I have a limit to how much I can combine with blogging, and apparently this move was it. But still – who cares about a bit of a delay, as long as all posts are going online on the right day, right?

-Saar