More moving lessons that I didn’t know

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Handling boxes during a move is bad for your hands. Sharp edges and box cutters are not a good thing. Add in constant neurotic hand washing and sanitizer and you have major ouchies! I won’t bring up painful cuticles.

What you need is always in the last box you look. Doesn’t matter how well you marked them that one thing that you didn’t mark is what you will need now.

Leaving a home you love is an emotional roller coaster. We’ve had a few expensive surprises. We will need to replace some big ticket items that we didn’t expect. It’s not the end of the world but it means there will be chaos for a while. I don’t like chaos but back to the old house. Over the years you arrange things as you live. You use quality items where it is important to you. It is home. You understand how the light comes in the house at different times. Like the cats, you know how to find the sunspots and enjoy them. Perhaps one day (soon I hope) I will feel that way about his house. It would help if it would stop snowing too.

Best story from settlement – With covid they keep everyone separated during settlement. At the end we met the new buyers. The beloved husband had a basement workshop that had ductwork for a dust collection. Overhead lighting was excellent and there were electrical outlets everywhere. This was a huge plus for the new buyer and we knew it because he asked a lot of questions. What we didn’t know was that anyone walking through and peering into our closets had a look into our lifestyle. We are retired so you don’t see business clothes. In the beloved husband’s closet at this time of year you will see jeans and flannel shirts. Lots of them. All the way in the back where you can’t see is a dress shirt or two for funerals. The new buyer, who I would peg at 40 plus or minus, said his goal is to fill his closet with flannels and jeans. We all laughed.

80 thoughts on “More moving lessons that I didn’t know”

    • Yes, although he’s moving here from NYC, it appears he’s interested in “country living” (which I would not classify my former home as). He’s talking of having a garden. Unfortunately last summer I took mine out so we could sell more easily.

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  2. The snowing and crummy weather at least give you an incentive to unpack and place things to get done and totally “moved in” once Spring arrives. The buyer’s comment made me laugh. Good aspiration to have.

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    • I suppose it’s good not to be distracted by nice weather but I could do without the snow. Yesterday I had birds at my feeder. Today I had lots of birds and a squirrel. They have found me.

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      • Yes, the snow has been annoying, more so because the Winter had been pretty decent until the evening of February 4th. Ah, you’ve been discovered and the critters are happy! So are you! Any chance they followed you in the car from your old house? Maybe the Buyer will not only like flannel shirts and jeans, but also feeding the birds and squirrels and keeping the pond.

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  3. I totally get this. And you know all the noises your house makes. No you to learn that the new noises are not someone breaking in or a ghost, they’re are just “house settling” noises.

    Off to read how the kitties are doing in their new place.

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    • I blame most noises on the cats. One time I had boarded the cats and wasn’t picking them up until the next morning. It was scary all the noises I heard that couldn’t have been the cats! 🙂

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  5. I feel your pain, on the expenses. One week after moving in here the hot water tank, decided it had lived a long and useful life and was time to quit. So it began leaking, and the thermostat decided that scalding water was very good for killing the COVID-19 virus.

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  7. This post made me smile
    “You understand how the light comes in the house at different times” So true and what you (cats) miss, but new place new discoveries
    Somehow your home attracted just the right people – ones that realize how cool the “customized” parts are. I do hope it wraps around them and he gets all those flannel shirts. Best goal ever.

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    • Discoveries, I like that. I didn’t realize that my husband’s closet was all flannel and jeans. But that’s what he wears. What else would be in there! I have some pretty tops hanging in front of my sweatshirts. Throws them off.

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  8. Yes, moving is emotional. You remember the lived life and it flashes in your eyes. Specially if it’s not your own choice to move and you really liked your apartment. I have experience of this!

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  10. I guess there are always surprises when you move to a new home. I wonder what surprises the new owners of your old house will find.
    Will your husband have a work space in the new house or has that gone the way of your pond?

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    • Space for a work shop was one of the major criteria for selecting a house. It’s what took us 5 years to find one as the houses with the good space are usually very large houses. New buyers will find that ponds take some time and work. Last fall we took our our garden and had the area regraded and seeded for grass. Now I hear he wants to put in a garden! Sheesh! If only we’d known.

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  11. Other than college dorms, I lived in 1 house growing up and then moved to my hubby’s house when we got married. I hope I never have to move.

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  12. I can’t imagine anything BUT an emotional up and down at first. It would take some time to make the new home reflect your personalities. I hope the kitties find their new sun spots quickly, too. The younger couple who bought your house are probably really thrilled!

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    • Up sizing is easier. They are coming from an apartment in NYC. They are ecstatic with all the space and big yard. They brought their two young daughters after settlement to run around the yard! The neighborhood is turning over. There are 4 couples with young children close in age living close. That’s a great way for kids to grow up.

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  13. I don’t own any flannel but my closet is fully stocked with retirement clothes. I have a few dresses but I’m starting to think that they – other than a few summer sun dresses, maybe – are really not me anymore. I can’t think of anywhere I want to go to that would require me to put on a fancy dress.

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  14. My hubby and I are both jeans/flannel folks…….the “good stuff” that we rarely have to wear (I say “have to” because we kick and scream the whole way when it comes to dressing up!) is in the back sight unseen. Retirement turned us into extreme casuals! You will find those sunny spots in the new house and everything will soon feel like HOME.

    Hugs, Pam

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    • During the summer I like to occasionally wear a summer dress but a casual one. The other day I cleaned out all my pantyhose except for 2 pair. First they were at least 10 years old so who knows if the elastic still works and I rarely and I mean rarely wear them. I have trouser socks in case I dress up using my black exercise pants and a nice top. Back in the day I loved to dress up and had quite the wardrobe.

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  15. What you need is always in the last box you look … erm, isn’t that because you stop looking when you find it? 🤣🤣🤣

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  16. I loved your account of closets. Flannel it is!

    I thought I had labeled things well before moving, but I lost my favorite cookbooks and didn’t find them for two or three YEARS! I still resist the urge to hug them.

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  17. Oh yes! The hands! It took a good month or more for my hands (and finger nails) to recover from the abuse of packing and unpacking every item I possess. Note to self: downsize possessions even more before next move. And use gloves!!!!

    Deb

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  20. Flannel shirts and jeans are good goals even in a house you’ve loved for years (P.S. I’d have bought your house just for the work room!). When it comes to organizing boxes for a move, Murphy’s Law ALWAYS rules. No matter how facetious one is about listing enclosed items. It’s just a universal law that the thing you need will always be in the last box. Because I handled such volumes of paper over my work career, whenever I moved, everything had grease marks on the boxes since I have already super dry skin. Paper (and boxes) sucks any moisture out of one’s hands. It got to the point where I wore surgical gloves for extended times just so the hands didn’t get cut or crack. Better to have left blood on boxes than official legal transcripts. 😬

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  23. And winter is already so hard on hands! The only luxury items I currently use are soaps (handmade with no funky preservatives by a widowed artist on a farm in Florida who rescues animals) and the shea butter hand cream from L’Occitane. As long as I keep using those, even with all the hand washing/ dishwashing, my skin doesn’t split.

    Add in cardboard boxes, though, and bloody fingerprints might be inevitable.

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  24. Some years ago now we got a home inspection to start dealing with advance work on possible big ticket items, proactively. We haven’t gotten them all done, and I’d bet there are some new ones now since the home inspection was awhile ago, but thanks for the reminder to stay on top of all of that. We will be moving someday too. The two of us don’t need 4 bedrooms and 2 floors, though it is immensely helpful for fostering cats!

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    • What is annoying is that we had a whole house inspection prior to buying which did not show any of these things except for the fireplace. The inspector said it didn’t work. Owner had a repairman in but it still doesn’t work consistently. He also missed the rusted dishwasher. It works but the prongs are missing coatings and are rusted. Not good. We didn’t need 4 br either but now that we have 3, I’m missing my dedicated cat room. The third bedroom is alternately supposed to be a guest room/temporary music room/cat room. Big shoes to fill.

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  25. omg – yes. Our closets say so much about us!!

    My hands are hurting in sympathy with yours. Winter is tough on our hands to begin with, but the demands of a move just add further injury. Hope this tough haul is behind you soon.

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    • I’ll likely whine a bit yet. Some spring will go a long way to making me feel better! Oh yes and some healthy hands. My husband’s fingers are actually splitting.

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      • Ouch!! That’s an ongoing hazard of winter. It doesn’t need the rigours of a move to make it worse 😕

        As strange as it may sound, this winter I’ve been using olive oil generously slathered on my hands every day and then the excess blotted off. I’ve found it feels wonderful and really helps keep the small cuts at bay.

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        • I never realized how many little cuts and nicks you get from handling boxes. Put the sanitizer on and you know exactly where everyone is. Olive oil sounds like a great idea. One cosmetic company does a lot of products with it in.

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  27. I expect that you’ll start to feel better all the way around once SPRING arrives, Kate. Your hands will be healed, your boxes will be unpacked, you’ll all be settled in and the SUN’s return will signal smiles all around.

    For now, keep breathing . . . it has been a roller coaster.

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    • Yes there has been so much going one. Too much, too fast, too old. Right foot, left foot and all of that. I must learn to live in a bit of chaos. Yesterday I realized that the tan color the former owner painted the entire house was too tan for me. I will repaint slowly with a warm beige tone. Slowly. One room at a time.

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  28. So true about the boxes… the tops that you have to fold in were always poking me in the ribs or upper arms leaving some colorful bruises. We had to replace all the appliances in the kitchen, not a surprise for us but makes you wonder how people can be so thoughtless about what they do to stovetops, dishwashers, etc. Our poor little house was not loved… it had a lot of deferred maintenance. It is loved now. Your new owners were the right ones… I like his thought. The peeps that bought our little condo aren’t going to be as kind to it as we were. I don’t know why that makes me sad.

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  29. I bought different duct tape, with “kitchen” living room” & “bedroom” and “office”… sadly mr. science used one roll for all boxes… fantastic!!!! …great that the new owner had the same thoughts ;O)))

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