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I helped my daughter move this past weekend. Prior to the move she
ordered many new pieces of unassembled furniture. She also went from a
two-bedroom apartment to a one-bedroom apartment but kept all her two-bedroom “things.”
This post is late because I can’t straighten my fingers into typing position. I’ve
been using a screwdriver for two days and lifting, tugging, pushing,
shoving---and dropping---boxes. This will be a brief post.
Moving is so exciting---until the day we move. A new place to live,
perhaps a new town to explore, new neighbors and potential friends to meet, all
of it is so exciting until the actual move. Our family has given up on the do-it-yourself
truck rentals. We did that for many years and now when we know a move is coming
we save for a professional moving company.
We don’t select the large national outfits but rather local small companies
with just a couple of employees. The rates are great and we always leave a nice
tip. This move was the best so far because we went from a ground floor unit to
another ground floor unit. Usually there are stairs. The movers were thrilled.
Less agony for all. Her move this past weekend was $705 plus tip. I would have
paid twice, perhaps three times as much. And yet, even though they did all that
hard work we almost cried when they left. Boxes and unassembled pieces of
furniture were everywhere. She must return to work tomorrow. She took two days
off surrounding the weekend. I am the official furniture assembler.
This move will reduce her commute by close to an hour. That’s a
tremendous savings of time in her life. But for the next few weeks she will be
unpacking boxes each evening and as much as she can on weekends. She’s
carefully putting things away rather than cramming it all in willy nilly. Many
years of moving taught all of us in the family that doing it right from day one
will save many hours of pain. Yet, it’s a tedious process and makes the
unpacking a lot slower than shoving it all in cupboards and closets. She lives
a good distance from me and it will not be as easy to help her out this time.
I am 66 and have moved 25 times in my life. My daughter is 36 and this
is her 13th move. I’ve included the college years because she didn’t
live in a dorm and had apartments. With each apartment her possessions grew and
grew. I have friends who are my age and have only moved a handful of times.
Sometimes I’ve envied them except I’m very happy I’ve moved around so much. I
have a huge group of friends from each location and lots of happy memories of
so many different parts of the country. But the moving part is just the pits.
I can’t type anymore because my hands and fingers will not cooperate. I
had a great blog planned for this weekend but it will have to wait. I think I
need a nice soak in the tub with bubbles. And maybe a pound of Aleve.
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