The first time I moved as an adult, it was to a dorm room in the oldest building on my college campus, up a hill and five flights of stairs. Thankfully, there were burly football players to help.
Since then, I’ve moved 10 more times. I’ve done moves cross-country with a U-Haul, with the help of friends, with movers in one day, and while eight months pregnant. None of these were as easy as my recent move with my 10-year-old son, right next door.
It might seem obvious, but a move is a move, and it still ranks high on the list of stressful life events. It would have been easy to be complacent given the short distance, but I was determined to purge before we ever packed a box. That made it easy, and so did the help of 15 friends — mostly moms and kids — all coming together to help.
Courtesy of Deborah Goldstein.
We hadn’t planned to move
When my son and I moved in October 2020, I knew our place was temporary. I underestimated how long we’d actually stay. I’m not a huge fan of moving, and that pandemic move, in one day no less, was stressful enough to keep me from wanting to do it again.
Yet, the perfect circumstances aligned. Our landlord decided to sell our rental, which we didn’t want to buy, and our next-door neighbors were planning a move. We loved our neighborhood, which was also a half-mile as the crow flies from my childhood home and a three-minute drive from my aging mother.
I checked in with my son — how do you feel about buying the place next door? Thankfully, he was in and getting as excited as I was. After touring the home together and mutually confirming it was the right place for us, we put in an offer before the house ever went on the market.
My son had an idea
With my son old enough to weigh in on the process, he had his own thoughts. He suggested an old-fashioned fire brigade line, with friends and family all lined up from one door to the next, passing our belongings along.
I had to admit, it seemed like a good idea, so I created an Evite and pressed send.
Then, on a mild winter weekend in January, we gathered all our smaller belongings together in the kitchen nook by the door. About 15 friends and family members came to help us move those items to the entryway of our new home. On the other side of the house, my niece and nephew moved some heavier items from door to door.
Everything we’d collected was transferred in 30 minutes, and yet there were still things to move. My girlfriends said, “You have us here, put us to work.”
So, they emptied the cabinets in our old kitchen and moved my clothes from closet to closet. My cousin unpacked the new dishes and glassware into the new dishwasher, and a friend cleaned out my junk drawer, which I highly recommend.
The next day, professional movers carried the heavier items — beds, bookcases, desks, and couches- in under two hours, which helped keep expenses low
The help of so many others made our move less stressful
After the previous high-stress experiences, I gave myself a month to get settled next door, which turned out to be plenty of time. The bulk of our things were moved that weekend, and smaller items like artwork and tchotchkes came over the course of the month, once I knew where everything would go. I was grateful for that extra time.
A few weeks after our move, I was comparing notes with a friend in New York City who also bought a new place and moved around the same time as we did. I made some comment about how “next time I’d do it this way.” I was grateful when she reminded me that there won’t be a next time. Owning means I don’t need to move again anytime soon.
