We’re about a week removed from the packing and moving chronicles. We are officially moved out of our townhouse and moved in to our respective homes. I have to say this was the most stressful week in a long time. From having to hire a second moving company, to getting a bigger storage unit, from getting my dogs to get along to getting our things in some sort of order. I hate moving! I’ve moved several times in my lifetime, but these moves that I’ve done with hubby have been in their own category.

I have learned quite a bit from this most recent move though. Here’s 5 things out of the possible 100 lessons I got from moving:

  1. Don’t slack on packing: Why oh why did I wait so long to pack? Every day that I didn’t pack, I knew I’d regret. And I surely did. I don’t know who I was fooling, but I ended up playing myself. If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. While I didn’t fail at packing per se, I should’ve packed 2 weeks in advance at the very least, but a month would’ve done me some good. Doing a little bit each day would have reduced my stress.
  2. Cancel your services the day after your move: While our utilities were handled by our landlord, we paid for our cable and Internet. We had AT&T shut off our service the day of our anticipated move. Well, they shut our service off at 1:00AM on the dot that day. I was still awake! Literally, as soon as the next show came on, our cable box went out and said “your service has been disabled”. I would’ve liked some more cable and Internet, but I guess it was my cue to go to sleep. Next time, I’ll have my services shut off the day after, especially since we didn’t technically move until the next day.
  3. Cancel all appointments the week of your move: I planned on going to my therapy appointment, yoga, and attend my online seminars. I did none of that. I was too tired from the move! I suggest clearing your schedule for the week of your move because things can and will go wrong, and you don’t want to disappoint other people. I rescheduled my therapy appointment, pushing yoga classes until this week, and did the alternative assignments for my class.
  4. Get ahead, don’t fall behind: I shouldn’t have procrastinated on my writing or my homework assignments. I found myself pushing deadlines and winging it on my school projects. Thankfully I got top marks on my school projects, but I was certainly pushing it with my writing. I have a lot to catch up on, and it’s just a lot easier to be ahead of the curve than behind it.
  5. When in doubt, go up 1 size: When reserving our storage space, I went online to see about what size we would need. I figured a 10×10 would be just fine for our things. Then I went to the facility and saw our space. I got claustrophobic just looking at it. I knew we needed a bigger size. So although I paid for the 10×10, I had to come back the next day and pay the difference for a 10×15.

Just a few lessons learned the hard way. In the mean time, hubby and I are adjusting. Frankie and I spent the night with him last night, and we knocked out early. We’re all still exhausted from the change. I do like hubby’s new bed, even though it’s closer to the ground than I’d like. We’ve seen each other every day since the move, so it’s not too bad, yet.

What are some things you learned from moving?