Moving Support Thread - Page 15

[PancakeGoddess]

We're moving in 4-6 weeks. Those flylady tips are nice. Smokering, when do you move?

[artemis33]

Smokering did you move yesterday? How'd it go?

I joined this thread last year and enthusiastically started the process of decluttering, but then DH was offered a promotion at work and decided to take it ans stick it out there another year. Sooooo, I lost momentum quickly, unfortunately.

But here we are again, a year later, thinking about moving this summer. I'm still not certain it will happen, but I do know I want my house decluttered either way, so I am starting again.

I listed a few things on craigslist and freecycle over the last 2 days and have a bunch of clothing in bags that I don't want anymore. Hopefully some of this stuff will actually LEAVE the house soon lol.

So is anyone else still planning a move sometime this year? Just you and me PancakeGoddess?

I'm doing the 2008 decluttering challenge, so that should help

[Meg_s]

We're planning a move! We don't know when or where - there are a few possibilities that we're waiting to find out more about - but it will be a move, and hopefully sooner rather than later.

The basement is full of my husband's boxes, as in you can't walk through the room full. I have a dream of a beautiful organized basement but can't touch his stuff so am waiting... and in the meantime working on our apartment. It's amazing how much the atmosphere is changing through decluttering, AND how much smoother life runs and how much easier it is to clean up at the end of the day.

[ollineeba]

Just the thread I was looking for!
We moved into our new home around Thanksgiving while our old starter home was still on the market.
We left quite a bunch of things there, to make it still look lived in (although clean and uncluttered) and it FINALLY sold today.. and they want to close on the 30th- eek! I don't know how we are supposed to get everything emptied in 12-ish days. Oh, and I'm due on Sunday with our third child :
It's a lot of stuff.. I think freecycle is going to be my friend this week. And everything else can just get boxed up and taken care of later. It's just such short notice- UGH.

[Baby Makes 4]

We just bought a house in a city about 200 km away.

We will be moving from a living space that is about 1500 sq feet into about 1100 sq feet and losing a double car garage that we currently only use for storage.

We figure we have to get rid of about half of everything we own in the next 6 weeks. We take possession in less than 2 months!

[Nature]

I joined this thread way back last year in the middle of the summer sometime. Well we FINALLY got approved and accepted into the housing we wanted! And now we're looking at moving this apartment we've lived in for 6 years.. in less than 2 weeks.

Did I mention I'm due to have a baby on Feb 12th? Oh this will be so much fun. hahah

[Thalia]

Bumping up this excellent old thread (if I do say so myself) because there's a good possibility we'll be moving in the next 2 to 6 months. I sure hope we will be. We finally got serious about our house search in August, and have been looking ever since. We are currently in negotiations for one property, but I don't know if it is going to work out. If it does, we'll probably be moving in late February or early March!

Anyone else moving out there with this crazy housing market?

[jennifercp8]

We're moving in February- it is an in-town move, but it still sucks. I will be 7 months pregnant when we do it, so I am trying to start packing now.

We have decided to bring a carful of stuff over to the new house every time we go over. We closed on the house in November, and we are renovating. But we have designated a portion of the basement for storage - so I have already brought over a bunch of Christmas stuff. I think I am going to pack my formal dining room next, and then my sewing/craft room. Unfortunately, I am going to want most of my sewing stuff for diapers and clothes for the new baby, so I am thinking of packing only what isn't getting used and leaving the rest accessible.

[Thalia]

Ours will be in-town, too. Thank goodness. There's a possibility that my mom will fly into town to help with DD while we are getting ready, which would be fantastic. The sellers we are working with are going to take the weekend to think over our latest offer, so we'll see.

[Thalia]

Well, we have done another round of offers and counteroffers with the sellers, and have put in our final offer. If they don't take us up on this one, it's back to the drawing board.

[sunanthem]

I'm moving tomorrow, an hour away. I'm moving from the countryside to the city. I started packing today. My SIL has been living with me for a few months and she was supposed to move out today but she got the huge rental truck stuck in my driveway and we have to wait till morning for a tow truck to help us. Ah the joys of moving!
We are moving from our house to a smaller rental home and hopefully we can rent our house out. I sure will miss my house but won't miss the area, I can't wait to be in the city again with so much to do and see and to have neighbors again!

[Thalia]

Hooray! They accepted our offer!!!!!!!

Closing is scheduled for 2/17! So much to in the meantime!

[Thalia]

We have now moved up the closing to 2/10, which means we will move at the end of February. Today I started feeling rather overwhelmed about it all. If I were still childless, I think I'd feel fine about it. But I have no idea how I'm going to find the time to pack while working full-time out of the house and raising a toddler, and my husband's job is more demanding than mine is and involves a commute. I'm also not looking forward to the mess and the break in our routines, since routines are what gets me through the day with a little one at this stage.

Okay, vent over. Just needed to get that out there!

I started reviewing moving companies today and cross checking them with the BBB. My goal is to get estimates from three companies with good reviews on Yelp.com who are also accredited by the BBB.

Here are my other short term goals:

• Arrange to have contractors come and do estimates on work in the house that'll we do after closing but before we move in.
• Arrange to have the Salvation Army come and do a pick up of all the stuff we need to give away before we move.
• Purge every room of the house of junk and earmark stuff to be donated.
• Once we settle on a firm moving date, arrange for utilities at the new house.
• See if DD can stay at our friends' home the day of the move so it won't be boring/traumatic/dirty/dangerous for her.
• Decide if there is anything we want to move ourselves.
• Order packing materials/scrounge free boxes.
• Join Angie's list to help in finding some of the people we need to help us with repairs and maintenance issues from the inspection (chimney sweep, plumber, HVAC).

That's all I can think of for now but I know there is lots more!:

[auntieM]

Originally Posted by Thalia

We have now moved up the closing to 2/10, which means we will move at the end of February. Today I started feeling rather overwhelmed about it all. If I were still childless, I think I'd feel fine about it. But I have no idea how I'm going to find the time to pack while working full-time out of the house and raising a toddler, and my husband's job is more demanding than mine is and involves a commute. I'm also not looking forward to the mess and the break in our routines, since routines are what gets me through the day with a little one at this stage.

The first thing that came to mind when I read your post was, "Ask for help!" Friends often want to help & don't know how. We also hesitate to ask for what would be easily & gratefully given. I love it when a friend trusts our friendship enough to ask for help. An extra pair of eyes to watch the babe & hands to pack the boxes might relieve some of your stress & be fun at the same time.

[Thalia]

Originally Posted by auntieM

The first thing that came to mind when I read your post was, "Ask for help!" Friends often want to help & don't know how. We also hesitate to ask for what would be easily & gratefully given. I love it when a friend trusts our friendship enough to ask for help. An extra pair of eyes to watch the babe & hands to pack the boxes might relieve some of your stress & be fun at the same time.

That's a good idea. I will have to think of how we can have our friends help. It'll be challenging, because our place is very cramped as it is, and with all the boxes, it'll be hard to have room for even us, let alone helpers. Also, many of our friends have young kids at home or are pregnant, so it may not be possible for them to help with the stuff we need help with. But I will think about it!

[alison_in_oh]

Congratulations! We've also bought a house and are planning a move. We're closing on 2/19 but we're not moving until early July (and thank goodness, because my second child is due in mid-February, LOL.) It'll be long distance though, I think we're planning to drive the ~1600 miles.

I'll be watching this thread. It seems to me that toddler supervision while you pack and/or clean can be the biggest help, and most any mommy friends will understand and be willing to pitch in with that. And maybe meal support so you can use your valuable after-work time on moving stuff and not cooking?

[Thalia]

Thanks, Alison. Good ideas!

We are still waiting for the seller to finally settle on a closing date. They moved from the original date to the 10th, and now they want to move back to the 17th, which we can no longer do. Sigh. But they are letting us into the house tomorrow to get some estimates from contractors, so that is progress.

[insahmniak]

I can't believe I can actually jump in on this thread. We've wavered so much about whether or not to settle down in this city. But the economic reports have us wanting to hunker down. (DP currently has a fairly secure job.) So we started looking and this amazing deal fell right into our laps. We have pushed closing out to March but we're currently under contract. I don't foresee any problems (knock knock).

About children and moving....I'm feeling kind of guilty about this but I'm actually taking my 5 y/o out of town with me and leaving DP to move us on his own. Sounds harsh on the surface, but DP has very good friends who will most certainly help him a great deal. And with the "family" out of the way I think he's much more likely to have an easier time of it. Make sense?

The biggest reason I'm taking DD out of town is that she is a clutter-hound. It's truly terrible. If she witnesses us declutter her stuff she's gonna freak and that's going to take way too much time and energy to deal with. We've simply got to do it while she's not looking. And what better way to distract her than to take her to visit distant cousins and bring her back to a brand new house?! At least that's the plan. By the way all the things that are forcibly decluttered will be put into a box. If DD misses something and can name it and describe it with enough detail that we can identify it then she'll get that back. But no peeking in the box on her part. She doesn't need any visual reminders of those most precious possessions that she will certainly have forgotten about.

(Wow. I don't think I've ever sounded like a most terrible partner AND mother in the same thread before!)

Anyhow I'm happy to join this thread. Best luck to those of you who are still in process!

[Thalia]

Originally Posted by insahmniak

About children and moving....I'm feeling kind of guilty about this but I'm actually taking my 5 y/o out of town with me and leaving DP to move us on his own. Sounds harsh on the surface, but DP has very good friends who will most certainly help him a great deal. And with the "family" out of the way I think he's much more likely to have an easier time of it. Make sense?

It makes total sense and I wish I could do the same! Luckily, our DD is too little to be super attached to lots of stuff, and so far we've managed to keep her stuff under control. My biggest worry is how to keep her distracted when I need to try and sort and purge and pack OUR stuff.

We now finally have a fixed closing date, the 17th. DH's parents are driving down from Milwaukee to watch DD so that we can do the closing.

We brought contractors to the house for estimates last week. We were able to hire a great painter, so that's taken care of. Part of me doesn't want to pay someone to do something I can do myself, but then I remember that if I wanted to paint the entire house, I'd have to hire someone to watch DD while I did it. And I'd never see her since I work full-time. That makes me feel better. Now if I could only find enough time with DH to talk over paint colors choices...

We're also trying to decide whether to convert a closet downstairs into a powder room. The house only has one bathroom, on the second floor. There is a space we can convert, but it's going to be tiny. And probably expensive, anywhere from $5,000 to $12,000 (we are still waiting on the estimates). But it sure would be nice to have a main floor bathroom if and when I get pregnant again. And for potty learning.

[Thalia]

Also just wanted to update that we now have three quotes from movers and will be getting the last one on Saturday. I'll be glad when that is finished!