Moving Day

I’ve moved many times in my life. Perhaps a dozen total, five or six in my adult life. Moves have always been predicated by major life changes such as a new job, or a decision to go to college, or moving closer to an existing job to eliminate a commute. The move I made today was for a new reason: to start a life with someone.

I suppose it wouldn’t exactly be proper to call this moving day, a more apt description would be that this is the day my move ends. My girlfriend and I have been together for nearly a year now. She makes me the happiest I’ve ever been, and she makes me a better man. There has definitely been a strain though, with us living an hour and a half apart. We’re rectifying the situation by moving in together. I’ve moved from my apartment in the town where I work to a house we’ll share - it’s just a short 15 minute drive from my work. She will be making the larger sacrifice, leaving her apartment and more importantly her job to come live in this rental house with me. It’s a big change for both of us, but we’re both incredibly excited.

The beauty of moving such a short distance is that one can take time with a move. I’ve spent the past week making a single run every night to the new house, my car crammed to the gills with stuff. This method allowed me to take my sweet time and move slowly. It also saved from having to rent a significantly larger UHaul. Save for my couch, mattress, and a few other odds and ends, I was able to move everything in only my Kia Soul - or as I call it: the hamstermobile. It’s amazing what you can fit in a tiny car if you take all the seats out and put your mind to it.

Today was UHaul day - the day my mattress made the move from the apartment to the house. Other than cleaning supplies, the old apartment is cleared out. I’ll still need to finish cleaning it up, but I’ve got until the 30th to finish. From today I will be living in our new home. This will the first time I’ve lived in a detached house since high school, and I love it. It’s just a rental, and by no means our dream house but it’s a lovely place to start the rest of my life with her.

She still has another week left at her job, so she won’t be moving down for another week. The largest benefit of this is logistics. It’s difficult enough to try to manage two moves in a short span of time, much less in a single day or weekend. By staggering our moves a week apart it gives me time to get my belongings unpacked here at the house, and gives us two full weekends (this one and next) to get the move completed. When it comes to moving my girlfriend here, we’ll be moving all her belongings in one shot - but that’s a decision predicated by her 1.5 hour driving distance to the new house.

Hodgepodge of stuff in the new house

It’s good to get moved in to the house. I’m glad my move is basically over. There’s still the stresses of getting all her things here, and figuring out how you combine two households of things into one, but it’s desperately exciting. For the first time, I’m legitimately very very excited for a move - not for the fact that I’m moving, but because I’m starting a life with the woman I love.

Typed on MBP