2010 Moving Support Thread - Page 2

[MamaFern]

avent, any new updates? how is your dp's back?



we have some more info on the house we are considering. it is looking hopeful! we want to put in an offer soon, once we get an inspection done and do some more researching.

other news, i found out today that im pregnant! i have had a feeling for a few weeks but today i got my bfp. 6 people in a small 3br house..it will be a practice in simplicity! the good thing is that we would be all moved and reno's done and everything set up by nov. when the babe is due..

im going to paint it all exactly how i want and we will put in some new windows and totally redo the bathroom. it will be a lovely home when we are done with it! im really getting excited! New home, new baby.. so much can happen in such short time!

[avent]

MamaFern, DH's back is getting better, but is still off. Mom's going to stay until at least Monday.

We're making progress with packing, though, and since we focus on it on weekends we should have some time especially devoted to it in a couple of days.

We also told people we were dreading to tell, like our babysitter. That was hard.

Congrats on the baby!!!!

[marimara]

Hello all. I belong in this thead. Our house is currently up for sale, been about a month or so. We've been here 3 years. We are military and while we don't have orders to move yet we wanted to get a jumpstart on it. Plus we are downsizing and simplifying our lives and this is the next step. We live in a 4bd 2000+ sq ft house and will be moving into a 2bd apt when our house sells. The local market here isn't as depressed as other areas of the country but we will be taking a loss.

I've got the house decluttered now and we have showings about once a week, we've had 7 since we listed at the end of Feb. I am literally jumping out of my skin in anticipation of moving. I've never really liked this house, we settled on it, we couldn't make up our minds, we had some pretty life changing events happen right around the same time and I don't think we were thinking straight . But luckly, this neighborhood is close to base and lots of other military people live here and our price is good so I'm hoping it won't be too too long. Things are starting to grow and spring is arriving so I think that will bring the new family who is going to live here!

[MamaFern]

avent, thanks

wonderful news that your dp is healing up..backs can take a while to get strong again which is difficult, especially if you are a busy person!
im sorry it was so hard telling people. the last time we moved it was over 10 hours away and some people were pretty sad/upset. me included..but it was necessary. im pretty sure we are where we will stay for a good long time, if not forever..it makes me to feel that way. we have been searching for quite a while.


marimara, welcome! good luck and happy house selling!!!

[rhiOrion]

Oooh, I didn't know this thread existed. I haven't read all of the previous posts, but I imagine I belong here

We just moved from our rented townhouse into a house of our very own! But, although it's spacious it lacks closets. Finding a place for everything is sort of difficult.

We've had a huge mess of boxes covering our whole dining room (which is really just an extension of the living room) for a month. Last night I finally got fed up and stacked everything neatly along the wall. But now it's a race against time. I know that we'll end up looking for something in one of those boxes and they'll end up strewn all about again. And it's a race against time because if there is one thing I'm sure of, it's that sometime in the next six weeks I'm going to go into labor.

I really overdid it last night with the moving of boxes, so tonight I think I'm going to start just getting a few boxes unpacked every night.

This weekend is the last weekend that we have the overlapping lease on the townhouse, so we have a ton of cleaning to do. I'm so not looking forward to that. I can't even imagine my 8 month pregnant self leaning over the tub trying to clean it. I'll be so glad to mail off those keys on Monday and be done with it forever.

[avent]

Welcome marimara and rhiOrion!

My brother came by today but we ended up not doing anything for the move. We just sat around and drank coffee and talked. Mom's still in town so it was fun. But he's coming back tomorrow so we can actually do some work. He said he'd be by early but with the time change, who knows?

I think I'm going to go to a couple of open houses tomorrow. I'm not interested in the houses but I want to meet the realtors I'm thinking of hiring and seeing how their houses stage and present.

[avent]

Whew. Hired a friend's college student daughter to come help for the day. We got a lot done! Just having one more (energetic) person to help was great. And having her here meant I couldn't take long breaks, surf the web, clean the house, etc. I've asked her back next weekend.

Brother is coming by to take a lot of stuff out of the house tomorrow.

How is everyone else doing?

[maciascl]

We will be moving the 1st of May. We have been in our 3 bedroom house for 10 years & are now moving to a 2 bedroom apartment and adding another member to our family soon after. I am trying not to freak out! We have been decluttering for awhile now but it never feels like enough. We aren't very material people so I never realized just how much junk accumulates over 10 years without trying. We had a yard sale today & decided that whatever is left is going to be donated. I just need it gone for my own sanity.

Now I need to move on to packing things. We will be getting a storage unit in April so that will help. I am just having a hard time figuring what to pack when. Any suggestions on that? What can you really pack ahead of time how far ahead of time?

[avent]

Originally Posted by maciascl

Now I need to move on to packing things. We will be getting a storage unit in April so that will help. I am just having a hard time figuring what to pack when. Any suggestions on that? What can you really pack ahead of time how far ahead of time?

We've been decluttering too but we're also putting stuff into storage so we can properly stage the house. We're 2 months out from our target date and we've already stored quite a bit.

We've gone through room by room and packed up everything we can live w/o for 6 months. Examples:

--All our books except ~10 for me and ~DH and 10 for the kids. We'll be relying on the library.

--All knick knacks and decorative items

--All seasonal stuff

--Kitchen items we use infrequently such as out fondue pot and large roasting pan

--All homeschool stuff we've gotten ahead of time but we don't need yet

--All extra tablecloths, linens, etc.

--All art supplies except crayons and paper (we're not super artistic)

--All CDs except a few

--Musical instruments

--80% of the toys

--All clothes I am saving from the older child for the younger one, that won't fit until at least next year

--All DVDs and VHS tapes (Netflix here we come)

--All photos

--All of our filing once I've got it organized

We're almost to the point where we can do more rounds, which involve putting away even more stuff as we get closer to the date. We're just going to keep adding items as we don't need them anymore, until the last week when we'll put the rest in except what we really need, which we're taking to my parents' house to stay for awhile.

ETA: After not having some of this stuff around I am hoping to declutter some of it as it comes out of storage. But we don't have a lot (relatively!) after decluttering. We'll probably have ~60 boxes for everything for all 4 of us, not counting furniture.

[mumkimum]

Holy cow - we had pictures taken today & will be up 'on the market' anytime now. Woo hoo! (finished this with lots of help from my mom & sister who came in, and after having a baby on tuesday. It's been crazy around here and probably with extra crankiness on my part, I'll admit). But our realtor was really impressed with what we'd been able to do, and this is a really good time to be available in our area (medical students coming here who are looking to buy a house now).

I guess we're on to the chaos of trying to keep the house up, empty, clean and be able to run out at anytime. Yikes. Anyone with tips for that, I could use it.



And for packing stuff into storage -- we pretty much packed away same stuff on avent's list there.

[avent]

Originally Posted by mumkimum

Holy cow - we had pictures taken today & will be up 'on the market' anytime now. Woo hoo! (finished this with lots of help from my mom & sister who came in, and after having a baby on tuesday.

Wow! Congrats on the pics and the BABY!!!!

[marimara]

Originally Posted by mumkimum

Holy cow - we had pictures taken today & will be up 'on the market' anytime now. Woo hoo! (finished this with lots of help from my mom & sister who came in, and after having a baby on tuesday. It's been crazy around here and probably with extra crankiness on my part, I'll admit). But our realtor was really impressed with what we'd been able to do, and this is a really good time to be available in our area (medical students coming here who are looking to buy a house now).

I guess we're on to the chaos of trying to keep the house up, empty, clean and be able to run out at anytime. Yikes. Anyone with tips for that, I could use it.



And for packing stuff into storage -- we pretty much packed away same stuff on avent's list there.

Congrats!!!

Our house is currently for sale so I can tell you what I've been doing to keep it clean. Basically every morning I have to clean the whole house. Before I leave the house I have to make sure it's almost show-ready because the realtors around here call like 20 MINUTES (!!) before they want to come show it. Dh does the vaccuming we do that about 2x a week, more if we have time right before a showing.

Some tips I learned:

Keep a separate trash bag in the main trash bag for food stuff (unless you compost that is) so you don't always to bring out a half empty trash bag just because it has stinky food stuff in it.

Keep a nice smelling candle handy to light to sweeten up the house.

Take away all unnecessary day to day stuff, I admit I didn't completely do this because I have no idea how long we'll have to live like this but it helps. Last year when we tried to sell, I even packed up some of the more piece-y toys so that dd couldn't make a huge mess.

Plan ahead so that you allow time to clean before you have to leave. If you have to leave early in the morn, clean at nighttime.

Make sure you rinse out showers and baths after each use to rinse off any stray hairs.



That's all I can think of for now. Good Luck!!!! I can't imagine trying to do this with a newborn. Kudos to you, and congrats again!!!

[maciascl]

avent: Thanks for the tips! We will get a storage in the next week or so. I think that will be very helpful.

mumkimum: Congrats!!

[Jenn_M]

We are moving in 32 days!! Actually, we'll start moving boxes and smaller things in 27 days! I haven't started packing yet. It feels close yet far away if that makes sense.

I have Tuesday (today) and Thursday off from work this week so I need to get some progress made.

[rhiOrion]

I've given up on unpacking. I feel like a moving failure. But one day it hit me that there was no way everything would be unpacked by the time this baby gets here, and at that moment... i just stopped caring.

[avent]

rhiOrion

I moved when I was pregnant and we didn't get everything unpacked before DS came. It really helped with decluttering later, as we realized we didn't need a lot of the stuff anyway. I had an April baby so I was exactly in your position that March!

[Jenn_M]

Originally Posted by rhiOrion

I've given up on unpacking. I feel like a moving failure. But one day it hit me that there was no way everything would be unpacked by the time this baby gets here, and at that moment... i just stopped caring.

Sending nice, relaxing thoughts your way, Mama!!

[maciascl]

Originally Posted by rhiOrion

I've given up on unpacking. I feel like a moving failure. But one day it hit me that there was no way everything would be unpacked by the time this baby gets here, and at that moment... i just stopped caring.

I don't blame you one bit! Focus on the stuff that must be done ASAP & the rest can wait.


We have a HUGE pile of stuff waiting to be picked up for donation today It will be so wonderful to have it out of the garage so I can start packing boxes & putting them in the garage. Next I need to get my sister to come pick up the china hutch she said she wanted & have the electric company come get the OLD freezer we have no room for. Can't wait to be able to start stacking boxes in the garage!

[BarefootScientist]

I would like to jump in on this thread too if that's all right.

We interviewed realtors this week and will decide whom to go with early next week. We have at the very least some paint touchups, small fixes, and quite a bit of decluttering and cleaning to do before we can go on the market, but hopefully soon. If it sells, we will be moving! And if my DH gets a job back home, we will be moving back to our home state closer to family! He has an interview next week for a job in the city near his parents. If he doesn't get that one, we may be here a while longer, but I think we are still going to move out of this house, as long as it sells.

Wish us luck!

Lots of luck and de-stressing vibes all around! I wish I could help all of you move and you could come help me! I actually don't mind moving, but it does get very stressful. And I've never done it with a kid before. Although he's been having a grand old time decluttering the office with me the last two days. He LOVES shredding paper.

[MonkeyPrincess]

We just found out we are moving. It's a rather abrupt move, due to a crappy landlord and a rental house that is literally falling apart around us.

We staying with friends until we go to settlement on our new house (which is on the same street as we are renting right now). It just sucks the timing doesn't line up. But, on the upside, we will have a few months to save a good bit of money.

I am pretty minimalistic, so there's not too much to pack. I want to be doing something to be ready to move in 2 weeks, but what's out is what we use so I'm not sure how to handle that. Live out of boxes for a few weeks??

I seem to swing from feeling on top of things, to overwhelmed as I walk room to room.

I am also questioning the few pieces of furniture we have - like the kids dressers that were mine when I was little, and I just don't want them anymore.

Anyway, glad this thread is here! I know I'll be checking back frequently for motivation and support.