Things I Have Learned In The Past Week

It takes more than nine days to move out of a place where one has lived for nine years. Although the bulk of our possessions are now in the new house, we still have stuff in the condo which we have to get out before we can paint it, fix it up, make it pretty for potential buyers (hey, wanna buy a condo?) I am living in fear that we will never get the last few things out.

It takes three times as long to pack up one's things and move them out of a three story walkup than it does to actually move them into a house and unpack them. Provided you know where you want things to go. If you are at all confused about this (or fear you lack the closet space for all the black dresses you never wear) you may end up with lots of unpacked boxes.

Oddly enough, square footage means nothing. One can double the square footage of one's living space and still fill a place up with all one's stuff. It is nice that we don't have to much new furniture, but disturbing because I never thought our place was so crowded, but obviously, it must have been. Of course, I didn't have boxes of clothes sitting in the living room and I actually had books on the bookshelves, so perhaps things won't look so crowded a week from now. Perhaps.

If someone offers help, take it. I am the sort who feels awkward about accepting any sort of help, but moving has pretty much smacked me upside the head with all that I am unable to do on my own. My mother has been doing lots and lots of babysitting. Our friend, David, helped out on Sunday by offering boxes, an extra car, and an extra set of arms--we moved a lot of stuff out of the old place and we couldn't have done it without him. THANK YOU DAVID! (And thanks to Kristen for letting us borrow her husband for the afternoon.)

This is the house we will die in. I am leaving Julian with the task of moving my stuff out of this place sixty years from now. I can't do this ever again. I realize that all my talk about moving to London, Paris, New York, Mars is just that, talk. I am never leaving Chicago because just moving two miles pretty much kicked my butt. Attempting to relocate to another city would probably kill me.

I have some pretty impressive allergies and will have to get tests to find out precisely what is causing my mucus membranes to itch this much. I am thinking dust mites. I will have to adopt new house cleaning habits (i.e. I will actually have to clean house) in this new place. We bought a Swiffer, but I am suspecting this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Thank you for all your kind words of support.

Comments

Anonymous said…
"One can double the square footage of one's living space and still fill a place up with all one's stuff."

So true. Why is that???
Anonymous said…
Sorry we couldn't help. We got rid of a ton of crap at a garage sale - whatever didn't sell went to the thrift store for a nice fat tax deduction. I feel great. We keep purging and purging. Glad you survived.

Joel and Julie and Grace
Anonymous said…
When we moved into our current house, I told my husband that a frickin tornado would have to pick it UP for me to move again. Of course that was before he decided to get a PhD... somewhere else... argh. Another couple of moves are in my future - the thought of which makes me want to sit down and cry. But I've got three years until the girl child gets out of HS (she refuses to be budged from her friends, and we respect that). Moving is just hard in every way - even if it's a couple of miles away.
karrie said…
Now is probably not the time to tell you that we still have stuff in the basement storage area of our old condo. (We ended up renting it out, but ugh, someday we will sell it and who knows what cluttery crap James has hidden down there.)

I used to have a mantra that I would not own more than I could move in my old Volvo. "Stuff" makes me nervous, and stuff makes my husband secure.
PBnJ said…
I can sooooo relate! We at PBnJ's house are going thru a huge move after living in the same house for 5 years, the same town for 7. Tons of stuff all over the place. We've already had 2 weekends' worth of garage sales, and still have tons of junk! And the house looks like one of those snow globes someone turned upside down and shook!

Just know that you're not the only one! :)
((hugs))
Anonymous said…
I told my husband that he will have to drag my cold dead body from this house. Moving sucks.
Anonymous said…
You'll be delighted to know that I still have shit in the boxes it left London in 4.5 years ago. It has moved from London to Colorado to Atlanta and back to Colorado again. It now sits harmlessly in Dave's garage. I don't even know what kind of shit is in those boxes anymore. But in the meantime I have manage to become a more benevolent and productive person than ever before. So all the shit is irrelevant really.

Dan
(yes, I really posted something)
Anonymous said…
Where are you? *sob* I miss this blog!

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