You've probably heard me mention it before, but we're moving.
Yay and ugh!
We're excited to be moving closer to our family, friends, and familiar territory, but we're also stressed over everything that's involved in a move. I actually Googled "stress from moving" and over 32 million hits popped up on the screen. Apparently, we're not alone.
It's very easy for me to get overwhelmed from it all {if you looked up worry wort in the dictionary, you'd see my picture}. And, this move in particular is especially challenging because we own our current home and we have a toddler. Hello meltdown!
The funny thing about moving is that it's been done before by millions of people and they all survived. Look at military families and missionaries - they move all the time. I just need to keep reminding myself of that. And right after reminding myself of that, I need to pray.
You might be thinking how our moving process is coming along. Well, for starters you'd never know that a move was about to take place. Why you ask? Well, to date I've packed one plus negative one boxes {that would be zero}. We don't have a signed lease agreement for our home yet. Oh, and the new place we're about to call home...it doesn't exist yet. To say there are a lot of loose ends right now would be the understatement of the year.
A nervous breakdown could possibly be on the docket for me this month, but then again maybe not, because a funny thing happened to me the other day. It just so happens that I heard the silliest little story from a sweet 82 year-old-lady about moving her family from New Jersey to Florida back in the sixties. It involved a caravan of nine people {two grandparents, two parents, and five kids}, five dogs, three goldfish, one chicken, and one bunny rabbit. Let's just say the movers never showed up, the goldfish spilled over in the front seat and had to live in Coca Cola until water was available, one of their five four-legged fur babies bit the chicken, and A/C didn't exist. Whoa! It will probably go down as one of the best moving stories I've ever heard.
This chaotic but humorous story reminded me of one thing. There will definitely be hiccups along the way, but things will most likely work out for the best. It's a good little mantra to live by, not just for moving, but for life in general.
I really love hearing from you, so feel free to share your moving story - funny or not!
Jen
xo
Here are some tips that might be helpful:
ReplyDelete-Take your time packing. You don't want to deal with broken items. Moving companies can help you do this if needed.
-Label everything. This makes unpacking and finding items much easier.
-Choose the right moving company. You want a company that will take away your stress - not add to it!
Hope those help you with your move!
One of my best friends is moving from Ohio to South Carolina in two days. I was amazed at how organized she was........but a foot note......she doesn't have a toddler. The movers are coming and will load things but she is packing everything. She had alot of large totes. Everything went in those......and she used packing paper from Home Depot. Some of the tops weren't staying shut all the way so she duct taped them. She did check with the movers and they said that the plastic totes were okay. I think they would be easier to unload that all those huge moving boxes.(Oh and all those totes were labeled as to what roon they were to go in.)
ReplyDeleteOkay a funny.....once when we moved my husband couldn't find his shoes. He had to wear shoes that he used to paint in to the closing.....that was funny. Also one time we moved on Christmas Eve. We just put the tree on the truck and moved it with all the decorations. Everyone thought that was so funny but nothing bad happened.
Good luck.
Great advice! Do you know where she got the large totes from?
DeleteI love your Christmas tree story. That sounds like something I would have done! LOL!!!
Hope the planing for the move falls into place soon. I really don't like moving all that much... I'm a "put roots down" kinda gal. But I do like the opportunity to cull all that stuff that hangs around and you never quite know what to do with.
ReplyDeleteMe too!
DeleteNo moving advice just something funny. The last time we moved, we moved into our new home across the street from our old home. You would think moving across the street would be easy peasy. Wrong. I think it would be easier to move across country....I can not even begin to tell you how many "loads" of things we hand walked across the street. You can't really justify renting a Uhaul to cross the street. Our daughter was 3 at the time and she would load up her little red wagon and take over a load. She has never used her wagon since!
ReplyDeleteGood luck with your move. Remember all the good reasons why you are moving and everything will fall right into place.
Thanks for the encouraging words :)
DeleteHope you all are settled in your new home across the street :)))
I just moved 6 months ago from Florida to Georgia :( blah it sucked!! The part that sucked the most was getting my old house all ready for the renters moving into it. We own it so we had to make sure everything was taken care of and we were doing things up until we walked out of the door for the last time. Oh an it gets Better... This move is temporary! We are moving back next year. Awesome.... Good luck with your move!
ReplyDeleteYou sounds like us! We've been painting, priming, re-painting, door installing, puddying, grout cleaning...ugh. We're ready to be done!
DeleteMy husband and I have only moved twice... once was across the country and we just loaded up everything we owned in our car. And the second time was across town the week I was due to have our first baby. I love packing and started packing even before we signed the contract. But un packing is rough no matter the circumstance. Good luck! It's always exciting starting something new :)
ReplyDeleteThat's crazy that you were moving the week before your due date! Looks like everything turned out okay :-)
DeleteIf you get a moving company make sure you say that the estimate that they give you will be the actual price. Our moving company apparently estimated about half of what it should have actually costed, but they said in the contract that they would not exceed the estimate and saved us about $1,500 dollars! Megan
ReplyDeleteGreat advice! It's always best to get it in writing :-)
DeleteMoving is one of my least favorite things. It's right up there with washing dishes and scrubbing the bathtub. I seem to always have issues when dh is driving the Uhaul truck and I'm with the kids. We had the time that he and his dad took off in the truck from the gas station, leaving me to take two toddlers and a month-old baby into the restroom because I had to go. This was a dirty, nasty restroom and I cringed the whole time I was in there, trying to balance the baby on my lap since there was no clean place to change him. Another time, I was pulling a trailer down the freeway when it started fishtailing really bad, we spun around and off the road. Fortunately, no one and nothing was hurt, but I decided I was not about to continue our 1500 mile drive (I was about 5 miles in) pulling that trailer. So, three hours and one storage unit later, we finally got on our way. I dread us moving again. We're finally at the point where we have too much furniture for just one Uhaul truck. I have no idea what we would do!
ReplyDeleteHa! Yep, I put it in the same category as cleaning toilets except a million times worse.
DeleteYou know I really feel for you in the stinky bathroom. I remember a similar experience and I only have one. Good thing you guys are staying put for awhile.
How far are you moving from where you are living now? We moved ourselves from Michigan (back!) to Florida a little over ten years ago. We rented a big truck from Budget and a car trailer so we could tow one of our cars. We even stuffed that car full with stuff like bedding and our TV. We called around and got several quotes on truck/trailer rentals and we were able to negotiate a better price. I think we saved about $600 just by asking if it was their lowest price. Do you belong to any Alumni or professional associations? You can check your benefits and maybe get a discount that way too. Ok, back to our moving story...we flew my best friend up to help us drive back to FL. In my car, I had one dog and two cats who cried most of the way. It took two days but we made it and it was fairly painless. Good luck! Thanks for stopping by my blog! I am now following you as well and look forward to checking out your tutorials! What part of FL are you in? We live along the Space Coast.
ReplyDeleteThat's crazy! We're in Tampa, but we're headed a little further East...hello Mickey ;-) I know A1A forwards and backwards along the Space Coast; it's my old stompin' grounds.
DeleteWe checked around on prices and I think we're going with Pods. Thanks for the great advice Florida friend :-)
Oh, man! I needed to read this today. We are getting ready to move from Arizona to New York and there is SO much to do! I can't even look my house in the eye right now, and we have a bunch of those little projects to do to get the house ready to sell/rent, too. The bad thing is, I have to get the house all decluttered, etc before we can even have a realtor come and tell us which projects to mess with, so the pressure is high. Hopefully we both come out of these moves alive to tell the tale!
ReplyDeleteThat is a BIG move. We got past the decluttering stage and DIY fixer upper stage and now we're just waiting on a contract. So much work I tell ya!
DeleteGood luck to you all. I hope it's not too bad :-)
So, glad you visited my blog and shared yours with me. I love it! I can't wait to dive in and read all that I can. Your newest follower. :)
ReplyDeleteHi Jen, thanks for stopping by today! The thought of moving can be very overwhelming, but I think if you just take it a day at a time... it'll be ok! :) It's a great way to help you "de-clutter." ;)
ReplyDeleteWhat helps me a lot when I start feeling stressed is to just call on the Lord's name... "Oh Lord Jesus..." It always calms me down and there's just something so sweet about His wonderful name. :)
I'm so glad to have found your blog and look forward to reading more! Much grace to you with your move!
Hi Jen! Moving pretty much makes me want to barf too! I have moved 7 times....I am a military wife and we are moving this summer. Hubs just got his orders 3 weeks ago (notification that we are moving) and in one week we planned a house hunting trip, booked the flight, booked a rental car and called the bank to arrange the mortgage and a realtor to begin looking for homes for us. So that following week we flew to the city we are moving to - 2 kids in tow - and found a home in 4 days!! It was draining!! We 'gave'er' on the trip. Luckily we had a great real estate agent (recommended by a friend) and found a beautiful home, arranged for a house inspection, completed the mortgage application, met with the real estate lawyer and registered my youngest at a local school. We have a binder called 'our move 2012' which has all our paperwork in it..and oh yes we currently live in Virginia and are moving back to Canada (we are Canadian) and so have to do a country to country move... plus our oldest is a senior and waiting to hear about college acceptances right now so we are working on that too. We also have to complete an inventory list as part of the military moving requirements and inventory/ document each item we own(can you imagine??), date purchased and value...crazy, but it forces you to be organized and is a good way to document your belongings for general insurance purposes. We have collected our medical records/dental records/ kids school transcripts so far. I created a table in Word with items to action and dates to keep us all organized. That along with the binder really helps. I wish you luck in all your plans...it will all work out!! It really will!! (or we can barf together!! haha!)Heather
ReplyDeleteHi Jen, we are in the exact same boat. The only difference is that we have a conditional offer on a new build and they don't start building until we sell. I actually consalted the magic 8 ball last night because this house is not moving. Hang in there! Here is a post from my blog about our trials and tribulations, you are not alone :) http://www.lifestylesofthestayathomemom.com/2012/04/making-this-house-home.html?m=1
ReplyDeleteTake care!
to begin, you are off to a good start -- praying! let the Master over all worry warts do His work. and we'll tag along following your journey. and as a little gal i know at the wonderful age of 19 months would say, 'amen'.
ReplyDeleteI feel your pain. I am about to graduate college so I have moved twice every year for 4 years. It sucks a lot. And now that I am graduating I am preparing for the big move into my first apartment. I have also found that I am one of those people who would prefer to just throw it all away and buy what I need once I am in my new place. Anything to keep from moving those big boxes all day. Hope your move goes well for you!
ReplyDeleteOh, I remember those college years. At least back then you don't hav as much to move. Thanks so much for the kind words and best of luck to you as a new graduate!!!
DeleteThat sounds like such a fun story. I bet it was definitely encouraging for you. Moving is not my favorite way to spend any amount of time.:) I hope everything smooths out.:)
ReplyDeleteWe joke that Cameron lived in 3 houses before his second birthday! Moving= not fun. Living closer to me= loads of fun!
ReplyDeleteThank you for stopping by my blog today!
ReplyDeleteAs you figured out, I just moved as well... yes it was stressful!
But I'm now unpacking and it's FUN (especially if you have a glass of wine while doing it lol.) It's fun to be able to unpack knowing you're about to make new memories with your family in a new home... fresh start.
Good luck to you and your family! Everything will turn out ok. It always does... right?
Love,
Your new follower!