Well, it’s finally settled. The last time I posted, I wrote to tell you that Boyfriend and I had officially found a place to live. Now, just about 1 month later (I am so sorry!) we’re all moved in and settled.
I debated putting some photos of our place on here, but I’ve ultimately decided not to. That’s our special little piece of the world, and I’m not really inclined to share it with the Internet… yet.
However, I will share with you some things I learned while packing up, moving in, and organizing:
- Learn to let go. It was difficult packing up my childhood bedroom, and deciding what to keep and what to throw away. It was even more difficult doing this with my clothes, since I knew there probably wouldn’t be enough room to take everything with me to the apartment, but for some reason I had trouble just throwing things away. When I started packing I made a rule: if I hadn’t worn it or used it in 1 year, it was being donated/thrown away. Turns out, I didn’t really stick to that rule – as I sorted through my things, I found myself making excuses for why I needed to hang on to something, or why I couldn’t donate it. Now my half (okay, 3/4) of the closet is full to bursting, and I’ve also got clothes in the coat closet, in bins along the top shelf of the closet and, of course, in my drawers. I’ve also got things still in boxes that have no where to go except back to my parent’s house because I couldn’t bear to part with them and felt that they had to be carried with me to my new home. Guess they’ll just be sitting in the basement of my parents’ house until I have a basement of my own to store them away in.
- Accept help, graciously. Boyfriend decided he wanted to be Mr. Macho Man. He asked 1 of his friends for help with the move and was determined that the two of them would be able to get all of his things (including all of the furniture [with the exception of 1 couch and a TV that I brought]) into the rented truck, driven from NH to RI, unloaded, and carried into the apartment in a reasonable amount of time. He actually asked me to please refrain from arriving at the apartment until he and his friend had unloaded everything, as they could handle it all themselves, and I wouldn’t be much help when there was two big, strong guys to handle things (yes, this lead to a spat). It turns out that about 2 hours into phase 1 (load things into the truck) they realized they needed help – the furniture was heavier than they thought (Boyfriend had movers when he moved into his old apartment, and some of the furniture was new, directly from the store and still in boxes), the day was hotter than they’d anticipated, and there was far more to pack up than they’d realized. Boyfriend considered calling moving companies to come help, but his parents just happened to call him to check in, and he [grudgingly, I’m sure] asked them to come help. His parents assisted them with loading things into the truck and drove down to RI to help with unloading.When they got down to RI my father and I met them there to offer more assistance – Boyfriend’s old apartment had been on the first floor – our new apartment is on the 3rd floor (note: only 2 flights of stairs, the “1st floor” of our building is garden level, meaning it’s a level below ground level – almost a basement). If 3 strong men had trouble getting the furniture onto the truck from the 1st floor apartment, they would definitely have trouble getting it up the stairs of the new apartment. Even with 4 big, strong men the bedroom furniture was an absolute bear to move. My boyfriend spent most of the afternoon apologizing to everyone for the inconvenience, and telling them that next time he would accept their help the first time they offered, instead of recruiting them at the last possible moment. Lesson learned.
- Learn to cook before leaving the nest. Or be prepared to eat a lot of fast food and frozen meals. I’ve been quite motivated to cook us actual meals each evening, rather than grabbing take-out… but the fact remains that I can only really cook a couple things. So while I experiment in the kitchen (Monday night I tried steak – mine was horrible, but apparently Boyfriend’s came out perfect, so that’s good), I’m probably going to need to be resigned to keeping Domino’s on speed-dial for any dinner emergencies.
- Having separate spaces is key. My boyfriend works from home sometimes, and I need someplace to work when I’m doing my freelance work, so we decided we wanted to try to find a 2 bedroom apartment so that the smaller bedroom could function as an office space. This was probably the best decision we made. My parents graciously bought us a brand-new couch (that has a queen sized pull-out bed) for the office, and I brought my TV from my room at home, so in addition to having a space to work that doesn’t inconvenience whoever is not working, we’ve also got 2 TVS, which is essential since I have a very low threshold for EPSN, NESN, and MMA fights. And as great as my boyfriend is, his patience for Keeping Up With The Kardashians and anything on HGTV or Bravo isn’t that high. So we’re able to spend time together and, when we need some space or to get some work done, we’ve got somewhere to go that isn’t the kitchen table or bed. It’s nice, I like it.
So that’s what I learned. Nothing Earth shattering there, but a bit of food for thought. Let me know what you think in the comments!