JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: It's moving day! No, not for me, thank God, but for my daughter and her family. My part is to be at their current house at 7:15 am (keep in mind it's an hour and twenty minute drive...) and watch my grandson "Paulie" while his mothers travel to Lewiston, Maine to sign the documents. Then, when they return, I'm taking their dogs - yes, again, but only for overnight this time. With their cat safely, if unhappily, locked in a room in the new place, this will clear the way for the local moving company to shift them 33 miles west.
My last move, in 1994, was also with a baby - six weeks instead of four months. Also? I had a seventeen-month old (that's the person who qualifies for a mortgage now. Sure didn't imagine that back then!)
Ross and I also hired a moving company, and, like Victoria and her wife, tried to pack up as much as possible to make the process quicker (we were only going 16 miles west!) However, Ross was a lawyer working something like 14 hours a day, and what little management/organizational ability I had was utterly scrambled by motherhood. It didn't help that we didn't actually start the process until a week before the moving truck arrived, unlike my daughter-in-law, who bought dozens of boxes and began packing as soon as their offer was accepted.
I recall the process only in glimpses, similar to the way people in a car only remember flashes of the terrible accident. There was the moment we were both up at 3am, trying to clean the kitchen while passing the fussy baby back and forth. At one point, I was nursing my son in the cab of the mover's truck, sobbing. For some reason, I have a clear memory of having no box in which to put the under-sink cleaning products, and deciding, "&#$% it, it'll just transfer with possession." Then nothing until Ross and I were standing in the main 40X20 foot room, saying to one another, "How are we ever going to fill all this space?" (Spoiler: we did.)
I've been in the same house since then, and friends and my children ask me if I consider getting someplace smaller, on one floor, say, and with MUCH less yard to maintain. And that would be nice! But honestly? I'm not sure I've recovered from the last move yet.
Dear readers, what are your moving stories?
We've moved three times and, other than remembering that we had boxes in storage, I have absolutely no memory of the process other than the fact that we moved ourselves each time . . . .
ReplyDeleteI'm happy for Victoria, her wife, and Paulie! I've heard the house market up there is crazy. Perhaps it is almost everywhere these days. I hope your sweet grandson has come 33 miles closer.
ReplyDeleteIn 42 years we've moved seven times and I've always done it almost entirely by myself. Found the rental, signed the papers, packed everything, unpacked everything (eventually including 75+ liquor boxes of books). My husband was always working. Once he was on business in China! For the cross-country moves to and from San Francisco, my brother, then a United Van Lines driver, drove our stuff and I flew with our 9-year-old son (and our golden retriever in a crate in the cargo hold) one way, and three years later, with our son, our baby daughter, and two cats in carriers under the seats the other way. For the trip from the Adirondacks to D.C., I packed and drove the 24-foot moving van. Had I ever driven a vehicle that size? No. Did I make out OK? Yes. However, after that experience I have always given U-Haul trucks a wide berth. For the last move, to our farm, I used my pick-up truck and I hired some teenaged muscle to help me wrestle furniture down stairs. I learned over all of these moves that I can shift almost anything by myself if I can slide it (using towels or blankets) and/or if I'm patient enough to proceed a couple of inches at a time. (Selden)
What I remember about moving is that it is easier to move from a smaller to a larger space. Downsizing bites. It is also easier to move when you are young and have young friends with good backs to help you. Moving in the winter in Minnesota was horrible, yet we did that twice. Moving across the country seemed daunting, but we managed to do that too. We used a packing cube company (The actual POD company was not in our area.) but we did all the packing and unpacking ourselves. My husband taped off the space for the cubes in the garage and meticulously stacked all the stuff for each cube out there ready for the arrival of the cubes. Then unstacked and restacked inside the cubes with the sturdy stuff on the bottom. It actually went very smoothly and the cubes were in storage right here in Ocala for the 2 months we rented while they finished building our house. They delivered them when we were ready and came back 72 hours later to pick up the empties.
ReplyDeleteI am still recovering from the Great Purge of 2024, as there are some things I wish I hadn’t gotten rid of, but overall it feels good not to have so much stuff. I love my new home —-yes all one level with zero entry! We don’t plan to move again. But, I know when our family of 5 moved in Feb. 2001 I said I wasn’t moving again until they carted me off to the nursing home. Never say never because you never know.
After getting a quote for long distance moving, it was much easier and less expensive to replace the items I needed, and with my tangibles my family drove up and brought them down.
ReplyDeleteI moved (fifty miles north) with a 3 year old and a nursing five-month old. That wasn't fun!
ReplyDeleteHugh and I moved to Amesbury (from Ipswich, not far) in 2012. I'm afraid there are a few boxes in the basement that still have never been opened. Ugh.
On Facebook this week Celia shared Victoria's column about moving to Lewiston but it was behind a paywall and I couldn't read it. Is there some other way I can access it?
First move (other than into and out of college dorms) was as a newly wedded to USCG ensign from CT to Kodiak, AK. Second move from Kodiak to Boston. Professional movers were part of the military deal all those years ago. Then on my own, from Boston to Seattle with only a few possessions in a VW convertible. Because of those early professional moves, I have hired professional movers to pack and carry ever since. For me, well worth the expense and far less stress on body and soul. Last moves from Seattle to Connecticut (1992) and then the downsize move from CT to FL in 2020. Good wishes for your daughter’s family move, Julia. May they reward you generously for the pet moving services. Elisabeth
ReplyDeleteI hardly remember our move into this house in 1984. We moved from a condo that was smaller but configured differently. Anyway, we moved in here with a lot of stuff, including things of my mother's that my father and step mother had saved for me, like her China and crystal, but very little furniture. Jonathan was 2.
ReplyDeleteThe moves I remember were Jonathan's moves in Boston. Oh, boy. There is a Boston tradition, because of all the colleges and universities, for all apartment leases to end on the same day, and the grand moving day is September 1. I will use a Hebrew word here, "baligan!"
We rented a UHaul (Irwin drove it and I followed in our car. He could barely steer it straight.) for that move and drove it from Hartford to Boston where we collected him from a tiny, moldy, 1 bedroom and moved him into a stately apartment building in Brookline. That gorgeous 2 bedroom had wooden floors, paneling in the dining room, soaring ceilings and enormous windows. It also had a firehouse right behind it with alarms going off day and night. His roommate and his father were helping him and us move everything up but the 4 men couldn't figure out how to get Jonathan's beautiful couch to fit in the elevator. Parked about 30 feet from us was a real moving truck with two burly professional movers. I offered them $60 to get that couch into the elevator and up to my bunny boy's apartment. Done!