10 Facts about Moving

1. Moving sucks.

I already knew this from moving out of dorms and my parents’ house. Moving is a necessary evil in life if you don’t want to be stuck in the home you grew up in. That doesn’t make waking up the next day to a house full of boxes any easier.

2. Unpacking is daunting.

I don’t mean this in the sheer volume of things that have to be unloaded from boxes. (Though that is daunting in and of itself.) No, unpacking is daunting because I haven’t existed in my new house for very long. I don’t know which shelves are easiest to get to when I need a pan to cook. I don’t even know which rooms all my furniture should go in. Everything is set out in roughly house shaped configuration. It’s just enough to make it feel like I’m not squatting in my new house.

3. My life needs reorganized.

This one isn’t necessarily bad, it is just inconvenient at times. My tape is no longer next to my writing desk. Most of my writing has been done at my sewing desk because it is on my porch with three walls of windows. My dresses are in the closet of my writing room because my bedroom closet is too small. I use more than one plate in a day because I now have a dishwasher. I’m figuring out how to live in my new space one task at a time.

4. My old furniture doesn’t fit.

I collected furniture for five years tailored specifically to my old apartment. Now, in my new house, the furniture that was necessary is obsolete or inconvenient. I expected this on some level, but I couldn’t know for sure about every piece of furniture until I was actually in the house. Currently, half my furniture is sitting in corners waiting for me to decide if I am going to donate it or find a place for it.

5. My house has many quirks.

These quirks generate a range of emotions in me depending on which one it is. The fact that my front door locks after I step out to get something from the car elicits a fair amount of frustration. Especially since I had to climb in through my bedroom window using a neighbor's step ladder. On the other hand, the fact that my house has whimsical decor scattered about makes me quite happy I chose this house.

6. I have no idea where anything is.

It could be argued that this should go with unpacking, but I find this to be a completely separate issue. I have the choice of spending ten minutes playing search and find for the item that I need or to give up on the idea entirely. My energy level is the major determining factor in my decision making process.

7. I unpacked my art before my dishes.

My mother, unsurprisingly, did not agree with this sentiment, though I think if she lived in my house all the boxes would be unpacked already. The thing is, the house was just a space I existed in the first few days I lived here. There was no me in it and I needed that me factor in order to feel like I was supposed to be here. So, I put up art on my lovely picture shelf and scattered my plants throughout my rooms. It’s more of a patch than a true fix, but it took me years to figure out how to exist in my old apartment. My new house will take me a few months at least.

8. My house groans and hisses.

I am used to noises. I had upstairs neighbors at my old apartment and I have two cats, but my new old house has the obvious creaking floors and the less obvious sound of the boiler singing in the basement. It also seems to groan randomly, and I swear there's some sort of goblin living in my fridge that taps on the wall to show it’s anger at me moving in.

9. My cats did not agree to moving.

If their protest wasn’t apparent through their unending yowls on the drive here it was in their twitchy prowling and refusal to eat a decent amount of food the first few days. I am lucky to have well behaved cats who don’t find the need to revenge poop and pee everywhere. Though, I don’t know if that would have been better than the anxiety filled days when we first moved in. I was so proud of them when I found their food bowls empty.

10. I don’t know where this move will take me.

It’s new here. I shopped in my new town many times before I moved, but living in it is something different. I explored shops on the square my third day here and learned about a few things I could get involved with. The next day I went shopping again and spent ten minutes driving around because I was fighting my anxiety with going somewhere new because I did not want to get drive through for the third day in a row. The not knowing is exciting in the long term, but looking at it close up and having to take steps towards those new things is hard. I have to build myself up quite a bit. New isn’t easy, but I moved here because it’s new. I need the new. I need the progress. I don’t want to disappoint myself by standing still.