MMR: Moving

It's time for my annual moving rant. I hate moving. It's right up there with grocery shopping for me (which I also hate with a passion). I just find it terribly inconvenient. And it's not that I don't enjoy living in new places, or that I'm not excited to be in a new place (with new people...or the same people). It's just the act of moving that irritates me. If I could just snap my fingers, and my shit was in a new place, awesome, I'd be all for moving. But alas, I am not that lucky.

The first part of moving is finding a new place (and potentially new people) to live with. This can be easy, if you have people you want to live with and an easy to work within budget. But it can also be difficult. Currently, I'm in the inbetween stage. I have potential roommates in Redwood City...but Redwood City is far away. For that to work, my rent and bills would have to go down a bit to help cover the extra gas I'd spend going to and from work. Other options don't seem all that feasable (single bedroom apartments are super expensive). And living with Sean and Christen would be awesome because I do love them. So, really, I'm not in a terrible situation, just gotta talk to people and work out the details.

The second part is really irritating, and that's the requirement of first month's rent and security deposit early when you sign the lease. I will have just paid last month's rent on this place, will have not gotten my sec dep back from the current place, and yet will have to somehow find enough money to fork over for the new place too. I mean, it comes back around the next month when rent is already paid and your sec deposit gets back to you from the old place...but at the moment, that's more money than I like spending at one point in time. That's floating a lot of money...and it can get rather tight. Ugh.

The third part of moving is the packing up. Once again, this isn't terrible, and over the years I've become very efficient at it. Mostly, I throw a lotta stuff away! Clutter tends to accumulate, and really, theres always a lot of crap I don't need to keep. Moving is easier when you consolidate, so I do! This can get annoying towards the end, because there's a base level of stuff you need to keep unpacked in order to live...so last minute packing during moving day can get a little hectic. But mostly, this is manageable, if not a little irritating.

Next up is the move itself. And that can be annoying. Especially if you have to be out of one place the day before you can move into your new place (we'll see if that is the case this year...hopefully not). But in any case, moving shit around is labor. Furniture needs to be moved out of the old place, the truck needs to find room for it all. And if you're moving without the aid of a UHaul, multiple trips can be involved. I'm hoping to avoid that if I end up moving from Campbell to Redwood City, but we will see. And if stairs are involved, triple the pain (at least). Man, hauling my shit in and out of living arrangements is really, really annoying. Why can't I just find a place to live and not have to worry about it anymore? Oh yeah, because I can't afford a mortgage. Sigh...

Then, once you are out of your old place, you have to clean it. And not just clean it, but CLEAN IT! It has to be clean beyond clean. Otherwise people keep your money (part of the security deposit). Hell, at the apartment, we cleaned the shit out of that place, and they still charged us for cleaning. If I had known they were going to do that, I would have saved myself the trouble! Annoying.

And now we get to the worst, most annoying, most irritating part of moving...the transfering or starting up of utilities. Most importantly, getting internet and TV set up. It never, ever happens right away. It always takes at least two weeks to get anyone out to your place to set anything up. So for two weeks, when you go home, you are bored as shit. You have nothing to do! You can't check your e-mail, you can't watch your TV shows, you can't chat with your friends online. Ridiculous! And then when Comcast inevitably gets out there to set up your shit, you have to take a day off work to deal with it, and it's never right. Ugh. Just really, really annoying. My goal this time around is to set up our Comcast appointment well in advance, try to get them in our place the day we move in (or the day after). That would be ideal.

And, finally, there is the unpacking. This part is actually fine with me. Planning out my space, dealing with finding homes for everything, setting up my room as I see fit...and the decorating of the room is the best part! I have tons of posters and such that I can put up and make my room look very interesting. It's always interesting. And my room never looks the same after a move as before it. Change is good, and it keeps things interesting.

So, there, in a nutshell, is why moving is annoying and inconvenient. And I'll be doing it again at the end of September. Wish me luck! Also, if you want to help me move, by all means let me know! I can probably arrange for free dinner! :)