10 things we've learned from moving

in no particular order:

1.  You cannot say, "Moving isn't so bad," if your last frame of reference is moving as relative newlyweds with a six-month-old child. Add three more children and six+ years of accumulated stuff, and you've got a completely different story.

2.  It helps to know someone "in the know" at Home Depot. Our carpet was ordered at the first of September, scheduled to be installed on the 25th. On the 22nd, Brendon just happened to stop at the flooring desk to check on our order..."Didn't anyone call you? Somebody should have called you. It's on backorder and won't even ship until October 5th. Earliest possible install is the 12th." Uh...we have to move on the 26th and be out on the 30th. We've already hauled off the old carpet. Four young children on concrete and tack strips for two+ weeks, not really a good idea. Panic! Long story short(er), I told my friend and Home Depot employee, Bethany, our plight, and lo and behold our carpet was installed October 2nd. Hooray, Bethany! And thanks to my mom and dad who let us crash at their pad in the interim week. It was worth all of the hassle in the end; we looove our carpet!

 
Making carpet angels.

 
    Alex loves it so much he rolled over for the first time on it our first day in the house.

3.  Half of the "fun" of moving is finding all of that stuff about which you say, "I'm sure it'll turn up one day when we move." You know...the missing pieces to toys and puzzles, and socks that, as it turns out, were not actually eaten by the dryer. Plus there are the things you'd completely forgotten you still had, like some of these gems we found in the garage clean out: Rhinestone earrings I wore to my senior prom, a set of Sapp Bros. koozies given to us as a wedding gift from someone in Wyoming (?!), and my original Cabbage Patch doll, Nella Carlotta.

 

4.  You're never as good of a housekeeper as you think you are. (And I knew I wasn't a very good one in the first place, anyway.) It's one thing to have these inadequacies revealed to a crew of strangers from the moving company, but it's much worse when the crew is made up of your friends and people you have to face at Sunday School the next day. I tried to get most of my dustbunnies before the move, but after what was dumped out of my refrigerator vent for all to see, I'm pretty sure I'll have to go inactive.

5.  The Murphy's Law of Moving escapes no one. Our washer and dryer BOTH went on the fritz the day we moved in. What?! Thankfully, Brendon has gotten them back in working condition with a little research and one $15 part; one was an issue related to the machine, the other related to the house. Sure, new ones would have been nice, but the pocketbook can only take so much in one month's time.

6.  Speaking of laundry, I've learned that one (and especially anyone with four children) can never, ever, ever possibly overestimate the value of a dedicated laundry room. With a door. I swear I have done more laundry just this week than I did in the entire six previous years, just because it's so EASY! It may have changed my life. (For those of you who have never been in my old house, the washer was in the playroom, not exactly conducive to sorting, and the dryer was down the steps in the middle of the garage. I'm sure you can feel my pain.)

7.  Craigslist rocks! We forwent a garage sale and listed all of our bigger ticket items instead. Best decision ever. We made just as much money as we would have with a full blown garage sale, but with only a fraction of the work. It was so nice to just put the rest of the junk out front with a "FREE!" sign and not have to haggle with someone over a quarter.

8.  It's totally worth the money to "buy" stuffed animals from your five-year-old hoarder who wants to get in on some of the craigslist action. Then generously donate them to the "free" pile mentioned above.

9.  It's probably not realistic to expect to move a four-month-old around from one house to another, and then another, and move him to the crib for the first time at the same time, and have him be okay with it. You wouldn't know it from the picture below, but we've seen some serious, inconsolable meltdowns. He's recovered mostly, but I think the whole experience has made him even more of a momma's boy than ever.

 

10. We just have to accept the fact that we won't be totally moved in for a while...quite a while. Maybe a year or more? With school to hold, babies to love, and laundry, dishes, and dinner to handle, who's got time to unpack? (I might also have to accept the fact that people cannot resist asking, "So are you all unpacked/moved in?") I'll keep you posted.

Feel free to share your own moving lessons in the comments!