Moving Support Thread - Page 8

[Kavita]

Okay, I'm back. Things are going a little bit better--we got a bunch of things done this evening. (Well, night and morning--it's four am and I'm still up sorting through crap!! DD isn't letting me do too much during the days lately . . . she's being a teething unsettled toddlery clingon.) We threw out a bunch of stuff and recycled a bunch of stuff and sorted through a ton of papers and shredded a bunch of stuff.

Also, I designated a place to put the things that will stay here with the house, and started getting a pile together for our buyer. (Manuals, warranties, parts for things that stay with the house, spare tiles, etc.)

I threw out all cosmetics and hair care products that I had before my marriage! (Our 4th anniversary will be July 1.) :

Next I am going to designate a place for things that we are personally taking with us in the car--important papers, jewelery, clothes and toiletries for the trip and first days, photos and our wedding DVD, etc.

Okay, so I may get through this yet . . . .

[wifty]

Originally Posted by PajamaMama

We're moving to Overland Park, KS from Tallahassee, FL sometime between now and my husband's July 30 report date at his new position.

Hey there! We are moving to kansas city, KS....just a couple minutes above overland park. We looked there for houses, but didn't find anything we liked in our price range (which is low! lol).

We are moving during memorial weekend but hubby won't be with us til the end of his year on June 26. Sigh. I will miss him.

Anyways, I have a 3.5 year old dd and if you find you need a 'friend' or something, let me know. I will be looking for people to click with and hang out with occasionally too.

with smiles amidst the boxes,
rebecca

[channelofpeace]

Can i join too?

My dh just got a job this past weekend. We will be moving from Kansas to either western WY or eastern ID (eek! we aren't sure yet!) at the end of this month/beginning of next. I am totally freaked out. I have never moved before! I went from living in my parent's house to the house we lived in when we got married. To say i am feeling a little overwhelmed and daunted would be an understatement. I have a client due at the end of May so if she has had the baby by the time my hubby goes up, we will all go together, and i'll go separately if she goes later. So that give me a little less than a month to declutter/pack a house i have lived in for five years with three small children.

And yet, here i am, on MDC, when i should reeeeeally be cleaning or something productive while the baby sleeps

[MamaFern]

im slowly decluttering for out move.. our official moving date is the last week of june, so now at least i know that i have 6 weeks or so to get organised, packed and moved. i do daycare till the very end, so its going to be hard to get everything packed up while i still need some toys and kids stuff around, but im doing my best with all of the other things, linens, clothes, books, other random stuff..im really trying to simplify and yesterday and today i have filled 2 big green garbage bags to send to the thrift store..mostly kids clothes, toys and junk thats accumulated around the house. moving is exciting and a lot of work.

[Tinas3muskateers]

We are in!!!! Unpacked, put away, living the good life in!!! However now its time to move my father in, so now we get to de-junk his house woohoo lol.

We are going to hold a garage sale, any tips on that? whatever is left over is going to the city mission. Also my dad has a lot of older stuff in super condition. lots of vases, cookware, etc... how do I know I am not selling some priceless vase for a quarter? I so do not want to see my fathers stuff on the antique road show lol.

[USMCbaby]

We are moving in 17 days. Tonight DH asked me when we were going to start packing and I just ignored him.

I have a book that I really like, The Idiots Guide to Moving. It has a countdown that is helpful and a section on Moving Sales.

Where do you guys get boxes from? I don't have time to dumpster dive. I looked on Craigslist. I know U-haul is $$$$$. I need to figure out something fast. We have to have everything done by the 23rd. We pack the truck the 24th and we are on the road the 25th.

After 2 days of driving, we have 2 days to get settled before DH starts his new job. :

[Kavita]

Originally Posted by USMCbaby

We are moving in 17 days. Tonight DH asked me when we were going to start packing and I just ignored him.

I have a book that I really like, The Idiots Guide to Moving. It has a countdown that is helpful and a section on Moving Sales.

Where do you guys get boxes from? I don't have time to dumpster dive. I looked on Craigslist. I know U-haul is $$$$$. I need to figure out something fast. We have to have everything done by the 23rd. We pack the truck the 24th and we are on the road the 25th.

After 2 days of driving, we have 2 days to get settled before DH starts his new job. :

For small boxes for packing things like books (don't want to pack them in a big box, too heavy!) I got wine boxes from a local supermarket. I just went and asked if they had any. They are a good size and shape and pretty sturdy.

The rest I got from DH's work, so that won't help you!

[Thalia]

USMCbaby: I second what Kavita said: I've heard that grocery stores, liquor stores, and bookstores often have boxes that they are happy to give away. Do you have Freecycle in your area? That's another good place to find boxes.

Tina: you did it! Awesome! Do you have any tips or wisdom now that you've made it to the other side?? I believe there's a couple of garage sale tip threads going in this forum, too, or maybe they're in Frugality and Finances.

[Alcyone]

I second freecycle for boxes. I see them posted all the time, and I'll be posting some too in about a month. Not that mine will help you!

For books I always put a few in each box, so there isn't a box of books. No one wants the box of books. But six books and three pillows? No problem!

[cupofjojo]

Our box resources:

Liquor stores - wine boxes great for glasses and vases. Also toy parts.

Copy place or Office Max/Depot, Staples - ask for their paper boxes from their copy centers. Places like staples use their own logo boxes for customers so the boxes the paper comes in usually gets thrown away. They make great book boxes and kids clothing.

Craigs List or Free Cycle. I found a folks on craigs list who were having yard sales and asked if they would let me get their boxes afterward. Got lots of them that way.
Also, Good Will, Salvation Army, Disabled Vets, etc. that come into ares to pick up donations - call and find out when they do pick ups and could you get boxes from them. Some do it some don't.

[oneKnight]

For boxes if you aren't completely opposed to walking into WalMart, try hitting up the housewares department (best sized boxes) around 11pm or midnight and asking for some boxes. The overnight stocking is the best time to pick up boxes, but if you wait too late they will all go into the crusher for recycling.

[UberMama]

I definitely recommend CraigsList for boxes. I just found a lot of 40 misc sized boxes on there that I am picking up tomorrow.

Also, try nurseries. My MIL works at a nursery, and they get boxes upon boxes full of various soils and such (all bagged, so the boxes aren't dirty or anything). She gave us at least 20 boxes medium sized or so.

[cupofjojo]

Originally Posted by oneKnight

For boxes if you aren't completely opposed to walking into WalMart, try hitting up the housewares department (best sized boxes) around 11pm or midnight and asking for some boxes. The overnight stocking is the best time to pick up boxes, but if you wait too late they will all go into the crusher for recycling.

That's great that you can get them from your Wal-Mart. Our Wal-Mart will not give any away because they get credit for everyone they return.

[Kavita]

Why oh why does moving have to be such a pain in the butt?

Our new house has carpet over hardwood floors in the entire first floor except the kitchen and sunroom and bathrooms. We are planning on taking up the carpet and having the hardwood refinished, and wanted to do this before we moved our stuff and our selves in. We close on the house we're selling June 1, and the one we're buying on June 5. It will take the movers one day to pack, one day to load, and 7-9 days to get across the country to the new place. It will take 5 days to refinish the floors. So, if you figure out the algebra there it means that if we have the stuff moved on May 31 and start the floors in the new house on June 5 the day we close, they will not be done and dry in time for the movers to put our stuff where it belongs in the new house.

We asked our buyer if she will rent back to us for 2 stinking days, and she said yes, no problem. Then her realtor who is a paranoid suspicious person read her the riot act of how dangerous this was for her liability-wise and that if the movers broke something or fell she's be in deep crap, and scared the daylights out of her and made her change her mind. : : So that makes about three times the work for us, as they will put all of our furniture and boxes from the entire house into the kitchen, sunroom, basement, and detached garage, and then we'll have to re-move it all when the floors are dry. Sigh. It will really delay us getting moved in. But it seems better to do the floors before we get settled, rather than moving everything around again once we do. So we'll just suck it up.

So now anyway, we've set our moving dates as: Packing May 29, Loading May 30, DH leaves either May 30 or 31 in the car with our doggies, I fly out with the baby somewhere in there, and eventually we meet up in a hotel in Louisville and then we'll close on the house. We'll stay in a hotel or with friends or something for a week or so, till we close and the floors are done and our beds are unearthed and moved out of the kitchen!!

This is tangentially moving related, but I got really mad at DH yesterday because he took the dogs (who were originally my dogs) to their vet appointment for a small animal certificate of health, required at least theoretically for entering the state we're moving to with the dogs, and he let the vet pressure him into fully vaxing the dogs!!! I could not believe it. I had had the older one vaxed to the hilt when she was younger, but in recent years after a lot of research I had stopped vaxing them for everything but rabies. I have always gotten a pet sitter in our home rather than board them, in significant part because I did not want to give them all those vaccines that they require to board them at a facility. I could not believe that he would do something like that--I mean, our baby isn't vaccinated!!!! Why would he think that that would be okay with me?? (He said, "I looked on our paperwork and saw that you had vaccinated them before." I was like, uh, yeah, did you notice that the last "annual" vaccination they received was over five years ago???!!) I was so stinkin' mad! : Well, now I know never to let him take DD to the pediatrician alone!!

The other exciting piece of news is that the appraiser (pre-appraisal) told our realtor that she's not sure based on looking at the neighborhood sales whether our house will appraise for the sales price that we agreed upon with the buyer!!!! So that would really suck! She did the appraisal today. Hopefully it will come out well. We did find out that we will have to change all the deadbolt locks because they are keyed from the inside too. We got someone to come do that.

On the positive side, I hired a babysitter today that sits for my friend's baby, and she was really awesome and my DD loved her! She watched her/played with her for four hours in the house/yard, and then after the sitter left she was tired out from having so much fun and nursed and fell right asleep and napped for three hours! So I had a very productive day! I finally got fed up with waiting around for the moving company to pack us, especially because DD is getting into everything in her toddler-y way, so I requested that they drop off some boxes and tape, and they did, and I've started doing some of the packing. It feels good.

[ollineeba]

kavita- you sound stressed! but at least things really seem to be moving along for you and you sound super-organized. just think, in just a few weeks you'll be in your new place!!

[Kavita]

Originally Posted by mama2babybeans

kavita- you sound stressed! but at least things really seem to be moving along for you and you sound super-organized. just think, in just a few weeks you'll be in your new place!!

Thanks for the positive words! I am super stressed about some of these undecided details! I can't wait to be in the new place! Although it's weird, because I am sure that once I'm there (in a new state all away from my friends and the place I've called home for almost a decade!) I will very possibly be wishing that I were back *here.* Since we are moving to an entirely different region of the country for DH's work, and it's not even like it's an idea we came up with ourselves (he's in research, and his employer/research lab are moving to another institution, so he either goes or is out of a job. And we're in a terrible city/state for his field, and they made a very attractive offer to bring him along.)

So for us, it's not only just the hassle of moving from one house/apartment to another--it sort of represents starting a whole new life too, and leaving this one. I wish I could sort of get the move over with, and then be able to put my attention back onto my life that I was enjoying before this whole moving crap started taking every spare moment and brain cell. But once I get moved, I won't be here or have my normal life anymore! I'll be gone and I won't be able to see my friends or do my activities anymore! I haven't seen my best mom friend in about a month already! I know I sound probably like I'm in about the third grade here, and I know I'll make friends there too and establish a community of support. But I feel like it's taken me a lot of time and effort to establish the friends and minimal support system I have here, especially after the enormous life transition of having a baby and quitting full time professional work to stay at home and be a SAHM, and get my "sea legs" as a mom and meet some other moms so I wasn't totally isolated and alone during the days. Even now, in the past month or so, I've been feeling isolated, because I've been so unavailable because it seems like every freaking day there is some other crisis with the sale of the house or some contractor or inspector or appraiser that requires me to stay home the entire day rather than taking the baby to the pool or the park or the library storytime or making any kind of plans to do anything. It is affecting my mothering in a not so good way. It's kind of bumming me out, and I'm feeling a little panicky that my time here is going too fast on one hand, but then the moving stuff itself seems like it is both too slow at times but too fast at other times too. And it's bringing out any/all issues that DH and I have in our marriage, so that's making me a little more freaked out.

Well, thanks for listening if you've plowed through this whole depressing angst ridden post! It feels better to at least be able to articulate how I'm feeling about things.

[oneKnight]

I'm not sure what. I am just worried.
We are making an offer on a small house next week. We are "prequalified" for $42k loan and the list price of the house is $45k. I mean hopefully we can get it for less than $43k, but I am worried that if we have to put extra money into the house then we won't have much leftover.
We have one income at the moment that barely makes ends meet here, fortunately the expected house payment is about $150 lower than our rent now. The problem is that we will probably have to pay June's rent AND "buy out" the lease. That's um, expensive but we have the funds to pay it, we expected that. I'm just not sure how we can pay BOTH, we didn't expect to be "so close yet not quite" on the loan.
AND we will probably immediately have to buy a fridge after the move.
It's really stressing me out tonight and DH is just zoned out into the computer screen.




Maybe if we sold his computer?


The packing and actual moving I can handle, it's all this "unknown" and up in the air feeling that I can't handle. And being 7dpo doesn't help either.

[UberMama]

oneKnight - Same here! (Going on 9 DPO even..) I've even secretly thought of selling DH's PC when he's no help and glued to that thing. Anyway, we can't find a rental to save our lives, and we have to get out of our current house soon (landlord harassing us like you would NOT believe, it's terrible..). Meanwhile, we're packing and decluttering like mad, yet we don't even know when or where we're moving! UGH!!!!

Kavita - I think what you are feeling is normal!! Don't get down on yourself for feeling sad. A few years ago, DH and I realized his job was at a dead end (no raises in five years, no COL even!, stuck in his position as he was at the top). He found a job an hour away and we moved. It was so hard. Here I was in this new place, new job for DH, new house of course.. and I felt so scattered. It took me a good month or two to feel semi-normal and realize why we did this and be happy we did it. It was so hard at first. I wanted to move and for DH to quit that first job, and when it happened? I was crying because I wanted it back.. the normalcy, aka what I knew.

It gets easier, I promise. Here we are moving into another city this time (not as far as last time though) and DH still has the same job at least. Just leaving a house we've had so many memories in is difficult, but it's needed.. the landlord harassing us is now affecting mine and DH's health even as the stress is just too much (not being sure if the landlord is going to yell at us again, try to come in the house and see me naked .. again.. ugh!).

I hate how stressful moving is on most anyone doing it. I know it's easier said than done at times, but you just gotta think of the possibilities once all is said and done. I'm excited about the possibilities for us.. just praying it happens soon.

[oneKnight]

Our landlord isn't harassing us, she is simply ignoring us. We had to call regional management (her bosses) in order to get our dang toilet fixed! We are SO out of here!

[UberMama]

BTDT! We are either ignored when it comes to problems (um, the furnace has only worked 1/4 of the time for two years now). OR when we politely ask for something to be fixed, we're yelled at among other things.. or given terrible advice (told to buy space heaters with three toddlers in the house? I don't think so..). It's frustrating. Then knowing he saw me naked, because he walked into our home to get the rent (that wasn't due for two more days). So I feel for ya.. I DO!