A few days ago, I posted an older article I’d written on moving an entire household a distance of about 800 miles, give or take a few. Ah, the memories…blech!
So, I thought I’d give a running commentary on this most recent insane decision, moving again. Now, a lot of people – especially around here – never move; and I do mean “never”. I’ve heard people say their starter home is also their retirement home – I just cannot imagine. My dad always thought we moved a lot – maybe so, and no, my husband was not military, just retail.
I got to thinking and I realized that I have moved, on average, every three years. Is that a lot? Since I still remember Dad’s comment, I looked back and noticed that, from birth to age 13, I moved three times – that’s when I lived with him, and that was roughly every four years. So what’s excessive?
The shortest time I lived somewhere was six months – as a young, broke, college student. That was extreme, yes, I agree, but the plus side was that I had very little to actually move and since I went back home, a mere two hours’ drive, it was relatively painless.
The longest duration was eight years, when I was a kid. Now, keep in mind that I didn’t change schools and it was the same general area; much like two of our more recent moves, with the kids. Oh, and this one coming up, too.
Back to the present move. We made the decision a few weeks ago, and we’ve been downsizing ever since. Ugh. I did actually throw out some stuff, papers mostly, and we’re selling some furniture and miscellaneous things – garage sale coming up July 10th, if you’re in the STL area! Just sayin’.
The basement is about half done; the garage is looking good. ‘Course, a lot of stuff is now sitting in a storage unit, and more is headed that direction. Thank goodness we have a truck. We’re actually only losing a couple hundred square feet of living space, but, um, we’re also losing the basement and garage! I do have to laugh whenever an apartment complex says they have “lots of storage” – ha!
And yes, the move is just across town. No biggie, especially since our family has moved, oh, from central Missouri to western Missouri, to Colorado (two towns), to Texas (three homes), and back to Missouri. Now that I mention it, just thinking about all that makes me want to crawl back into bed until it’s all over:
First move: not huge, an hour away, two kids, two cats, one dog.
Second move: had two weeks to find a house, pack, and move 800 miles; two kids, one pregnant mother, no pets.
Third move: same state, three kids, no pets, husband working nights, house not ready for six weeks so lived in four different hotels. Fun times, I’m tellin’ ya!
Fourth move: to a 900 square foot house, three kids, one dog, long, hot, dusty drive through New Mexico and Texas. ACK!!!!
Fifth move: to a much bigger house, on a ranch, where we had $800 electric bills. And that was just for one month. Acquired a cat.
Sixth move: I swore this was the LAST one. Ha. Don’t swear, it’s bad. Same area, though, still in Texas.
Seventh move: 800+ miles, two days of driving. One U-haul, one car, one truck pulling a 20-foot trailer, one mother, one husband, me, two kids, two dogs, two cats. This was supposed to be for a year, tops. It lasted three.
Eighth move: now you’re all caught up!
So there you have it – I’m tired reading all this, but have to get my behind in gear and stick with The List. Yes, I meant to capitalize that, The List is a must-have for any adventure such as moving – especially now that we’re down to one kid, one dog, but still two cats; oh yeah, and FOUR hamsters!
Robin Writes 