Moving Day Approaching

My husband and I decided to move into a different apartment that allowed us to rent short-term (important at the time because we were not sure my husband would still have a job come Fall, and if he did, we want to continue to house-search). Our moving day is this Friday, and I still have a lot to do!

One important thing to remember about moving is that it is tiring! In the midst of packing and trying to get addresses changed, etc., we are both continuing to work full time. I hate to say it, but it's wearing me down. The other trick is trying to battle the stress. Moving all of your possessions is an anxious thing, especially if you're one like me who likes to "put down roots." Despite all of this, we have found some ways to make the move a bit easier.

First of all, we're moving to a nearby town. I know that's not always something one gets to choose when moving, but a lot of these tips will only help if you're moving close-by, not a state away. Although we have only been married a year, we've accumulated a lot of stuff, and most of it we either love and use now, or know we want to have when we get a house. Now, if a house has not happened for us within the next couple of years, we may decide to get rid of that stuff as well, but for now, we'd rather not have to buy it all again (especially when they were wedding gifts we didn't have to pay for to start with). There are, however, things we are willing to part with, and part with them happily we shall. Having so much to move, and moving it all ourselves, we knew was not going to be possible all at once. If we could, we would move it all in stages to our new place, until we just had to move the furniture and absolute necessities all in one day. However, we have to move out of our current place on the day that our new place comes available (and even then not until after noon). So we made the tough choice to get a storage unit for a month. I'm not an advocate of storage units generally. If you can store something far away and pay to keep it there and not see it for over a year, then you're wasting your money! (Things that don't count are boats, RVs, and such that you don't want to take out during the winter and your city won't let you leave in the yard.) This way we have moved most of our small, unneeded things (such as office supplies, unused dishes, clothes we don't need for the next couple of weeks...) to the storage unit until we can move into our new place. Then it will be loading up what's left on moving day!

Moving is a great time to assess what you use and what you don't, and also to deep-clean where you live (and someone else will soon be living). Next time you start to spring clean, think about pretending that you're going to move. How many boxes of stuff do you want to deal with? Clothes to move? Would you take it across country with you? If you have a hard time knowing to part with something or not, this is a great way to see how you really feel about it.