In an effort to document the move, I thought I’d share our experience. Have you ever moved before? It’s a real process. A horrible, hellacious process.
I kind of see why people avoid it.
We moved most of the big furniture in three loads the weekend before last, with the help of my parents and brother bear. That was the heavy lifting. The dining room set, the office furniture, the extra bedroom set… My darling husband told me multiple times over the next week that we hardly had ANYTHING LEFT TO MOVE. (Snort. Ha. Hoohoo.)
Then, I started boxing up the kitchen. (32 boxes.)
Then, we started moving all the Christmas and fall decoration boxes. (More than I care to admit.)
Then, we looked at the garage. (Oh.my.Lord.)
This isn’t even mentioning all the closets and bathrooms and yard furniture…
When last Saturday arrived, the day of our official move, there really was a lot more to move. Like everything we’ve ever purchased or been given in the past four years. I kept thanking my lucky stars that Clean Sweep never came to my house and put everything we owned out on the front yard. Because that would have been embarrassing.
*Surprise* If you bring it into your house, you’ll eventually have to move it out of your house. (You are welcome for that gem of information.)
Luckily, we had lots of help with the move – both of our parents, Ryan’s friend Jon and our friends Pam and Dave. We had the use of four trucks and a dump trailer. We are so blessed to have wonderful friends and family. I mean, who in the world would want to help someone move?
The big move started at 7 a.m. (much to my dismay, I hate mornings). And I think we made three trips with all the trucks. So what is that, about 15 filled loads? Approximately? (I’m not a math person.)
And I kid you not, within fifteen minutes of the last truckload being unloaded, the heavens let loose and it poured the rest of the day. I cannot make this stuff up! (And I’m publicly declaring that I’m happy Ryan insisted we begin at 7 a.m. Even though I groaned and cursed and slept until the first person arrived to help and Ryan had to CALL MY CELL PHONE to get my lazy butt out of bed.)
And since moving, Ryan has been on a kick to get rid of everything we own and move into a hut off-the-grid. He really hated moving all this stuff. And he truly couldn’t understand how much stuff two people can acquire over the course of a few years.
Two people can easily acquire enough stuff to furnish a 1,400 square foot house and fill every available spot of shelving in a large basement. And we are not even close to being hoarders.
What about you? Would you be embarrassed if Clean Sweep put everything you owned on your front lawn? Would it even fit?
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Stephanie says
moving every 3-4 years with the military is actually a plus in my eyes because it helps me re-evaluate what all we have and do we really need it?!? luckily, the Air Force moves it for us…….. otherwise it wouldnt not be so bueno!!
Carrie @ Hazardous Design says
Congrats on the sale of your house! I don’t envy you with having to move though. Moving sucks! Glad you guys made it though unscathed 🙂
Jennifer says
oh my gosh, now I want to go clean out a closet. I know what you mean though. when we moved from our apartment to our house, somehow the house was immediately filled up. we kept asking each other “WHERE did all of this stuff come from??” I shudder to think of what it will be like to move out of this house. THE BABY STUFF! oh my lord …
~Jennifer says
Congrats on your new home!! I know what you mean about moving!! I did it twice in one summer…haha. Eeek!! Needless to say we’re now in our forever home. : )I can’t wait to see all your new house projects and decorating!!
amber waves of grain says
You make me want to start cleaning out my cupboards, shelves, closets and basement right this very minute. I don’t want to have a million boxes to move whenever my husband decides he’s found the farm of his dreams.
yeoldesandwichshoppeva says
I would be mortified if Clean Sweep ever came to my door, but fortunately, I don’t have a front yard, just a sidewalk ;).
Congrats on completing the final move! Moving is heinous (army brat here – moved 13 times before I was 18 – and for some reason it always rains!) It’s always astounding HOW MUCH people can fit in a home. You have my sympathies. I’m such a pack rat that I have to force myself to make monthly Goodwill donations to keep my shelves from overflowing.
I know unpacking and organizing everything is going to be a pain in the butt and will take a while, but I can’t wait to see how all your rooms will look once they are settled! Get some rest!
Leigh says
Moving is the worst! Glad you made it through. I wanted to get rid of everything when we moved too.
Comeca Jones says
Our move is in one more month.I am packing and purging now!
Shannon says
I’m pretty much the exact opposite of a hoarder. I throw everything away (or donate it, or have craptastic yard sales where no one shows up). So needless to say, I kinda like moving. It appeals to the organizer/list maker in me. Of course, if I had your tubs of Christmas decor to move, I’d probably hide under the covers too 😉
Speaking of Hoarders, John is so obsessed with it that he has a favorite psychologist (Dr. Zazzio?) and calls her “The Zazz”. We need professional help. Maybe the Zazz can help us.
Biz says
This most recent move was Bud & I’s second as a couple.
Each time we move we purge.
We literally start getting rid of things we don’t want to move.
When we get where we are going and we start unpacking we do another purge because we don’t have a good enough place for somethings or we wonder how they slipped past the first purge.
As a military family and a growing family!!! We realize that we need to be careful with how much stuff we accumulate.
I want to be a minimalist, but honestly that is a difficult task.
So for the time being, I’ll do my best to be picky about what we bring in, so that we don’t have to bring it with if we don’t want later!
Best of luck unpacking everything!
Have a Blessed Day!
Biz
Kristi says
I so hear you on the over accumulation of stuff. It makes me a little sick every time I think about how much we have. It doesn’t help that we really don’t have much storage in our house and that stuff stares me down from every corner, closet, and horizontal surface. :o) Glad that you got it all moved. Now you can start accumulating again!
DecorandtheDog says
Oh, moving. I decided that I am going to die in this house…or do what our neighbors did. They just had a garage sale inside their house when they moved. They just left whatever they didn’t want in the rooms and let people wander around and buy crap. Genius!
Katie says
We moved across the country two months ago and I’m still finding stuff in closets wondering, “Why did we drag that across 8 states?”
The amount of *stuff* we accumulate is amazing. And I think I’m pretty ruthless about getting rid of things…
I feel your pain.
Ally says
We considered buying a house this summer, but decided against it. (Husband, my 7 month pregnant bod thanks you!) but picturing packing up all this stuff and moving it almost did me in. And we have been pretty diligent about cutting down clutter in our 800 square foot house–I can’t imagine what would happen if we actually had lots of rooms and closet space and stuff. Oy.
Kristen @ Old House New Folks says
Congrats on the big move! I hate moving and always swear that if I ever move again, I’ll deplete my savings just to pay someone to do it for me. 🙂
*claire* says
yay move! so glad you all are in the new house! i’ve enjoyed the tweets 🙂
i secretly wish we could move so i could pack stuff – is that weird of me?? maybe i feel that way b/c we’ve never moved… when we bought our house all we had was a carload of stuff from college. now, i’m sure it would be much worse! luckily, we have no storage space, so i’m forced to purge fairly frequently…
Amanda @ Serenity Now says
I would DIE if the Clean Sweep people came to my house. SO embarrassing! When T and I moved into our house, we did most of it by ourselves. I think his parents may have come by to help us with a few of the big things, but it was really not fun lugging all those boxes (in the snow!). So glad you are all moved in!
Cindy @The Flipping Couple says
I was amazed (AH-MAZED) at the sheer amount of stuff we had to move after just one year of marriage. We had a totally last minute move, which didn’t help (I had grandiose plans for purging BEFORE the move). I definitely hope it goes a little better next time, but I’m afraid we’re going to have a heckuva lot more stuff. dang it.
Emily says
Congrats on the move!! Oh man, I hate moving. My least favorite thing is the packing. Ugh. Gross. Luckily, my husband used to be a professional mover, so he normally does about 95% of the packing/moving part…reason number 997 why I love him 🙂 For this reason, he also makes us purge unwanted things multiple times a year, so thankfully I don’t think I’d be *too* embarrassed if Clean Sweep made me put all my stuff out on the curb- but still, when you move, you realize how much you can live without, and how much crap you own!