2010 Moving Support Thread

[avent]

The old moving support thread has been quiet since last May, but we're coming up on moving season again, so maybe we should open a new thread each season.

We're hoping to stay in town but downsize to about half of our current footage. Over the holidays we decluttered a lot, maybe 2000 items, but we still have more to do.

I've never moved with children and am feeling overwhelmed. And the packing, the packing.

I'm in denial right now.

Plus we own so there's quite a bit to fix up before we can put the house on the market. Last time we sold the market was very hot in our area and we were only listed for 2 weeks. (Remember those days?)

Anyone else?

[MamaFern]

avent, hi moving support is always good!

we moved in July from one town to another, 10 hours apart..and we are planning to move houses, but not towns in July (hopefully! our 1 yr lease is up then.) the place that i am renting is not my ideal at all, and my mom just told me she is going to help us with a down-payment on our own small house!! im so excited.
we don't have much money, so its going to be smallish...i want to go that way because i don't want to struggle every month trying to pay the mortgage..not to mention that smaller = less impact on the earth and a larger insentive to be very organised! we have looked at a few places that are very promising (one in particular that i can already see our garden and chickens and bedrooms set up!)..but im thinking that in order to get the perfect place i should prepare..

im thinking that the house wont be much smaller than where we are now, but we are kind of cluttered here, so im going to really de-clutter.. i want to have a garage sale in spring and also just take a lot to the thrift shop & free store.
i intend to only move what we really need or what makes our house a home, in terms of beauty..so as soon as spring comes in full force i am going to be sanding and painting and fixing up things that i will be taking when we move.. most of what we have is fairly practical, but things like my kitchen could be paired down (although the kitchen in said house is larger that this one) i figure if you make space for the new it will come, right?


im thinking of doing it one room at a time, starting with mine, since i still have boxes of christmas stuff not put away
my closets are shared with both dd's and one thing that the house i liked most doesn't have is much closet space, so clothing must be minimized (and or stored by season which is possible, there is heaps of storage there, just fairly unaccessable)...i have way too much for my kids anyways, because i dont get the time to go through it and i like thrift shopping and we get a lot of hand-me-downs as well.

im even considering starting to pack up things we plan to take, but don't "need" right now, like books in my bedroom closet and such. just to get them out of the way.
linens are another thing i need to better organize..

oh i love moving to get me going!

i have been feeling pretty stuck in terms of house stuff lately here because the thought of staying another year makes me cringe and the thought of moving to another short term rental makes me feel the same.. so knowing that we will be moving into our own house makes me really want to get doing stuff.. it will all be worth it when we are the owners of our own little house!

oh, another thing i intend to do once spring/summer comes is dig up the things i have planted to transplant and also some things that are growing here in bounty. i love pretty flowering things and medicinal herbs and the one thing this house has that i love is the garden (though at this time of year its massively depressing!)

[avent]

MamaFern, thanks for your reply.

It's great you've got so much stuff figured out.

We're moving from a large home to a rental. We bought a house we could afford when we were both working, when I was pregnant. I didn't think I would want to leave my job after I had kids, but I did. We tried to make it on one income (plus a layoff) and it's just not possible. But aside from that, this house doesn't suit us and is too big. We want to downsize and minimize our responsibilities, as far as possessions. You're very wise to already have figured this out before buying.

[avent]

We currently live in a house that could have been turned into something really fabulous but we never had the time to devote. (Think urban farm type of thing.) Now I am sad we're never going to get to do it.

And also I keep thinking about how I can let this place go when my daughter was born here.

[mumkimum]

Chiming in here too. Last year we were thinking about moving this spring, then changed our mind, then I got pregnant and we were like nah. . . then all of a sudden just decided to go for it, mainly cause our house just doesn't meet our needs any longer and nothing is going to change that - I think we both realized we'd end up hating living here if we force ourselves to do so. So we've been packing and painting the past 2 weeks, and hopefully will be listing within the next 2 (with a baby due in 3-4 weeks from now, yikes!). I'm hating the chaos of getting things ready. . . today dh & I busted out and put the bathroom back together at least and everything's set for me to put back the rest of the 1st floor rooms this weekend.

We're lucky to be in an area where there's a good amount of larger/differently arranged homes that (in this market, anyway) will cost almost the same as we paid for ours - so even taking somewhat of a loss in selling, we won't be increasing our payments or anything. REALLY hoping for something with a bigger or better yard for gardening and better light orientation for indoor plants too (there are like 2 spots in our house that plants will thrive, otherwise forget it).

[avent]

Wow, I can't believe you're doing that work at this stage of your pregnancy. I think I was just waddling around and rubbing my back all the time at that point.

Came up with some logistics today for how we're going to do this and started an online to-do list so we both have access to it from wherever. Also found the cheapest place in town for supplies and posted to Freecycle for boxes. Also got an offer to borrow a van, so that's great!

This weekend is key to get started. We said we would move in the Spring and here were at the end of February, so we have to bust out a lot of work the next two days.

[avent]

OK, we finally got started today with packing, even though we've been decluttering for awhile. We got some boxes from Freecycle and bought some supplies like tape and bubble wrap.

I made it over to our storage unit to figure out how to get in (they had replaced the doors, put in temp locks, etc.) DH is now over there loading in the first 10 bankers boxes, which are all books. Brother is coming by to sift through some baby stuff the kids have outgrown.

So, progress...

[mumkimum]

Today the plan is to pack up assorted unneeded dishes, try to get dd to let go of as many as possible 'kid dishes', and hopefully get the dining room useable. Plus corral all the things we'd designated 'take to MIL instead of storage' for Monday.

And ditto to the I can't believe I'm doing this work being so pregnant either, sometimes it's like .

[avent]

Mumkimum, so how'd it go today?

We didn't do much today wrt the move, but we did get some packing done and my brother made some much-needed repairs to the bathroom. It looks good in there. Just a coat of paint when we get around to it.

Will try to pack a few boxes tomorrow while DS is in his nature program. (We homeschool, so it can be tricky to find time.)

[mumkimum]

Got a few things boxed up - never as much as I hope. Dh picked up various misc. things we needed for city violations we can fix ourselves today (they're picky here, good but also . . . well, time consuming sometimes). I got the baby corner set up so I can box up the rest of the things in that room and then paint the one wall that's green.

We're planning on working on the basement together tomorrow so we can set it up with piles of donations/take to storage/take to MIL/garbage. And it looks like dh is switching some of his work days (thank goodness - he was about to be working 6 days in a row) so we'll have a tad extra time to be working on moving readyness/getting ready for babe cause I really want as much done as possible before the new babe is here.

[avent]

Sigh. DH hurt his back this morning, unrelated to moving. But now he's flat on his back and is in so much pain. This is not good on so many levels, and one of them is the move.

[MamaFern]

avent: im sorry to hear about your husbands back.. you must be worried how you are going to get everything done.. do you have family/friends who can come give you some hands?



we got a big load of things to the freestore on the weekend, and a small load to the dump as well. i love getting things cleaned up! spring is around the corner, and though i have major itchy feet to get into another house i know i will likely be here till the end of june, so i want it to be nice till then. i got our christmas stuff sorted and put away. today i plan to work on my bedroom, starting to get swome things packed up and out of the way and my goal is at least another 3 bags for the freestore.. im still thinking of having a garage sale, but that means storing things till then and we have no storage to speak of so.. the freestore is just easier.

the kitchen is also on my list for this week. i got a beautiful handmade pottery bowl from my friend last night (it was my birthday) she is a pretty well know potter in my town so i can de-clutter another bowl from our stash, and i need to get rid of some mugs and cups too..simplify! its my motto for the next few months. we have a simple life, but we do have quite a bit of stuff even so..its all pretty nice though, im picky and aesthetic in a frugal sort of way...

[avent]

My mom's coming in tonight to stay for a few days and help because of DH's back. Yea for mamas!

What's a freestore?

Oh, and

MamaFern!

[MamaFern]

Originally Posted by avent

My mom's coming in tonight to stay for a few days and help because of DH's back. Yea for mamas!

What's a freestore?

Oh, and

MamaFern!

avent, that's great!! im glad you found some help!
thank you for the birthday wishes..

a free store is like a thrift store, but its all free. its near our local dump and people take stuff there that they don't need but that is still useful and other people take it as needed. its like a treasure hunt too, which is fun.
lots of small communities around where i live have them

[MyLilPwny]

We're moving on Sunday. We hired a moving company to help us move. We started packing over the weekend and haven't finished yet. We're moving from a 1,600 square foot 3-bedroom house that we short sold (its still in escrow) into a 2-bedroom 1,000 square foot apartment. So, we've been getting rid of stuff---donating, selling and throwing away junk. I'm excited because the apartment is new (built in 2003) with a gorgeous view of hills (its in a suburb of Los Angeles) and we'll finally have a window in our bedroom and a normal bathroom. The house that we are moving out of does not have any windows in the master bedroom and the bathroom is all small tiles (very difficult to clean and accumulated a lot of mold) with a weird custom tile shower that is dangerous to get in and out of because it has 2 narrow steps that you have to go down in order to get into the shower. That made it impossible for me to give my daughter a bath without me getting into it too and being careful not to slip and fall down. The best part is that this move will be saving us a lot in living expenses. For the house we were living in, we were paying $3,800 per month (that includes property taxes and it was built in 1955 so its an older home with several problems) and our new apartment will be only $1,485 per month (that includes $50 pet rent for our dog). Another thing that I'm excited about is the apartment has a washer and dryer inside the unit (I've never had that luxury before).

[Jenn_M]

We are going to look at a house tomorrow and if all goes well we will be moving at the end of April!!! We've been in this house just about a year and we still aren't really settled. If this move happens I'm determined to make it go smoothly and to not move anything we aren't in love with.

[MamaFern]

Originally Posted by ThereseReich

We're moving on Sunday. We hired a moving company to help us move. We started packing over the weekend and haven't finished yet. We're moving from a 1,600 square foot 3-bedroom house that we short sold (its still in escrow) into a 2-bedroom 1,000 square foot apartment. So, we've been getting rid of stuff---donating, selling and throwing away junk. I'm excited because the apartment is new (built in 2003) with a gorgeous view of hills (its in a suburb of Los Angeles) and we'll finally have a window in our bedroom and a normal bathroom. The house that we are moving out of does not have any windows in the master bedroom and the bathroom is all small tiles (very difficult to clean and accumulated a lot of mold) with a weird custom tile shower that is dangerous to get in and out of because it has 2 narrow steps that you have to go down in order to get into the shower. That made it impossible for me to give my daughter a bath without me getting into it too and being careful not to slip and fall down. The best part is that this move will be saving us a lot in living expenses. For the house we were living in, we were paying $3,800 per month (that includes property taxes and it was built in 1955 so its an older home with several problems) and our new apartment will be only $1,485 per month (that includes $50 pet rent for our dog). Another thing that I'm excited about is the apartment has a washer and dryer inside the unit (I've never had that luxury before).

sounds great!! simplifying rocks!

[mumkimum]

Finally felt motivated today to tackle one of the bigger projects *I* needed to get done - fixing the paint job on the trim in our bedroom from last year's water leakage. It's all done, thank goodness, now I just have one wall to paint and stuff like that is pretty much done. (of course, there's the mysterious kitchen sink leak I discovered today too but that's not my area of expertise at all). Plus, dh got called off at work yesterday and we finished fixing all the stuff (minus outdoor stuff like concrete work) that the city inspection had us down for violations.

So we're closer and closer to listing the place. Of course there's all the assorted boxes of stuff all over the house to keep taking care of, and unfortunately I can't really handle getting it done too much in my condition (no way I'm carrying boxes all over the house at 39 weeks, I just know I'll kill my back that way). But so nice to have so much of the 'need to fix' list done.



Hope the rest of you have been having luck. And yay! to those so close to moving - how exciting!

[Jenn_M]

Our move is a go!! The house we looked at today was awesome! We will probably start moving stuff mid April!

Now to start decluttering!!

ETA: Well, I managed to scrub the bathroom from top to bottom! Walls and everything. I figure the more deep cleaning I get done now, the less we'll have to do when we're moving out.

[avent]

Today was eaten up with other things but I've got mom here to watch the kids and I convinced my brother and SIL to come over all day Saturday and help pack. My brother has a good car for moving stuff so we should be able to make a lot of progress. Now to get some boxes...