Moving tips from a (non) expert

Hi lovelies!

I’m currently plopped on the couch with my feet up, a glass of wine next to me and a show about polar bears on TV. Because I’m REALLY cool, obviously.

Don’t you just LOVE when I upload weird, random pictures of myself with PhotoBooth? Man, I’m a creeper.

You may notice (that is, if you can keep your eyes off that lovely giant litterbox) a bunch of boxes in the first picture. Well, those are there because…*drumroll* I’m moving. AGAIN.

This will be my third move within 12 months (I moved July of 2010 from Madison to Chicago, May of this year from an apartment with roommates from hell to a studio, and now I’m moving back in with a new roommate). I’m pretty excited to have more space again, but moving is still insanely stressful. You’d think that after doing it…oh I don’t know, 15 times I’d be better at it but alas, I am not!

hot mess

A few things I’ve learned from the 14 billion moves I’ve made over the years:

• Always buy more boxes than you need; many places (like UHaul) will buy them back if you buy more than you need, but even if you have leftovers, it’s rarely a bad thing. More often than not, you won’t have too many — I promise.
• If you don’t want to shell out on a bunch of boxes, check the Craisglist “free” section — a lot of the time, people have zillions of leftovers and will give them to you for free!
• Dont’ use boxes that are “medium” or larger if you can help it; even though small boxes will fit less, they are MUCH easier to move.
• Hire movers. I know it’s expensive, and I know it’s scary, but seriously, just do it. It will change your life.
• On that note, don’t hire cheap movers off Craigslist. Just trust me on this one — don’t do it.
• Start packing two weeks before your move date, at a bare minimum. Time slips by quickly, especially if you have a full-time job. A good way to start is by packing up all but a few essential dish/kitchen items & silverware, and set aside just enough clothes for the next 2 weeks, then pack everything else. It can be annoying if you need something in those 2 weeks, but you can make it work.
• Make your last bigger grocery trip (pasta, pasta sauce, frozen stuff, etc) two weeks before moving at the latest, and make your last smaller grocery tip (milk, veggies/fruit, eggs, other perishables) 1.5-1 week before moving at the latest, and keep it small. Only buy what you need, and try to use up everything you can before moving — boxing up/transporting fresh food is a huge pain in the ass. Pack up any rarely used dry food/pantry items farther in advance (rice, extra oats, sugar, etc).
• Pack under-sink stuff in grocery bags and leave it under the sink until you move. (For example, I keep my Ziploc bags, aluminum foil, cleaning stuff, dish soap, etc. under the sink) You’ll probably use it enough not to pack it, but when it’s time to leave, you can just grab them and go, and they’ll be ready to use right away in the new house/apartment.
• Label the room where each box belongs, as well as a simple but detailed explanation of what’s in the box (not just “clothes” or “living room stuff” — try “couch pillows and blankets – living room” and “summer clothes – bedroom” instead). Sounds tedious, but you will be glad you did. Trust.
• Make a separate box (or boxes) for things you will need to use right away — for example, a box of the stuff you keep on your bedside table, a box of your toothpaste and everyday toiletries/makeup, and a box of the food things you use everyday (for me, this is oatmeal).
• As the countdown gets shorter, make a loose schedule of what things you need to do/pack on which day, so you can spread out the work and won’t get overwhelmed at a specific point. This helps a LOT, and it’s also a good way to help you remember to do important things like set aside all sets of keys (to return if you’re renting), change over bills/utilities, etc.
• Use this as a time to de-clutter your life. Never more than when I move do I realize just how much crap I have. While you’re packing, make a few piles, bins or boxes divided into things that you want to donate, things you want to throw away, and things you’re considering doing one or the other, but haven’t yet decided on yet. Moving into a new place is a new beginning, so it’s really nice to get there without all the extra junk to drag you down.

Phew! That’s a long list! Moving is crazy, but hopefully (unlike me) you can learn quickly.

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This week isn’t the best to move because I just started working another part-time job (I already work as a nanny semi-regularly) as a web content manager (!!! yay !! big news!), but my mom also had surgery on her spine today :(

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It’s a long complicated explanation of what she’s having done, but she was in a tremendous amount of pain leading up to this, so my whole family has really been looking forward to a relief from her pain. I’ve been worried about her all day, but my dad just called me a little while ago to let me know that she came out of the surgery and “everything went perfectly,” according to the surgeon. What a relief!!!

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I’m going to watch Millionaire Matchmaker now (classy) and finish my wine, then attempt to finish up packing. Hopefully I can get through these next few days without losing my mind.

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Tell me, what are some of your moving stories — good or bad?

This…

..is what I’m doing right now:

Snugglin’ with this goofy lookin’ guy and catching up on blogs. Aren’t we quite the pair?

I was just reading Julie’s sweet post about how, no matter how foul her mood, she is always cheered up instantly by her Viszla pup, Sadie. While I’ll admit that having two cats can sometimes be a slight (okay, a huge) pain in the ass, I’m still thankful for them most of the time. They are such sweet, playful and cuddly kitties, and they are always there when I need company or just a good snuggle buddy.

Okay, I know — I am a crazy cat lady. Bear with me anyway?

I’ve been very stressed out this week due to my shifting living situation. The apartment that I will be moving into (or would like to be, at least) isn’t 100% available yet (the current tenant is still waiting on word from her new apartment…it’s so complicated!), so I am on pins and needles waiting to hear that my rental will go through. If it doesn’t, I may be homeless in a few weeks!

It is also the last week at my current job, which I absolutely love, so I am stressed and sad and not handling it very well. I’m so grateful and thrilled to start my new job, but it will be hard leaving a place and group of people (I’m looking at you, Kara) that I have grown to love.

Thankfully, though, the gym is always there. After receiving a particularly horrible text message from my particularly horrible roommate, I was furious, stressed out and wanting to strangle someone. So I hopped on the treadmill, turned up my iPod and ran my fastest mile to date! It was awesome. I have never felt my blood flowing through my body like that, and I felt like I could squeeze every ounce of energy from the day’s stress into energy for my legs. After two more, I hopped off feeling lighter — physically and mentally.

Sweat > therapy.

I have been lazy and haven’t been cooking anything exciting this week. I’ve also been eating much less than usual due to stress (this is unusual for me — it takes a LOT to get my mind off of food!), so I don’t have too many exciting eats to share this week! On the way to a friend’s house tonight, though, I did stop at WF and picked up some delicious-looking and in-season strawberries and mangoes! I also grabbed some salad fixins. VERY excited to incorporate those into some meals, ASAP — my body needs fruits + veggies, stat.

While I was strolling the lovely WF aisles, I also snagged a quickie dinner at the hot/cold bar. I had some marinated green beans, cauliflower, broccoli, sweet potatoes and carrots, a bulgur + quinoa salad, some rosemary-garlic tofu and some yellow daal. The daal was definitely my favorite! It was so flavorful and creamy, I wished I had gotten more. Next time! I also sipped a guava Kombucha. All was scarfed up much too quickly to snap a pic :D

Thanks for hanging in here with me while I get my life figured out, guys….I hope I haven’t bored too many of you to tears! More fun stuff to come soon, I promise!

Big changes

Howdy!

This is my friend Amy. She makes me smile :)

Hi Amy!

We decided to put on some cheap (and not so flattering…) sunglasses after a few beers and have a photo shoot. This is why we are friends :D

My life is going through some crazy transitions right now, and one of which involves this lovely lady above! I will be moving out of my current apartment soon, and Amy might be a new roommate. Thrilled doesn’t do justice to my excitement about this!

The issue, however, is that my current lease is not up until August 31. Amy’s is not up until July 31. And, well….as I may have mentioned before, I don’t exactly love my roommates.

I’ve been trucking along and doing the best I can to get by though, and for the most part things have been fine. Recently, however, things have taken a turn for the worse. I’m naturally somewhat of an anxious person when things get stressful, and the relationship (or lack thereof) between the troublesome roommate and I is making me physically ill with stress. Not only does coming home when I know she is there put a knot in my stomach, but she is also disrespectful and even took something of mine (a coach purse), then lied about it when I asked (nicely) for it back.

I’m feeling like I can’t live here anymore, but am not sure if I can afford to move out.

BUT. I am a happy, goofy, hilarious and fun person that is generally positive an optimistic about life.

Those last two are pretty weird, huh? I was trying to emphasize the “goofy” part, hah! Say hello to my friend Amanda in that last one — she is pretty fantastic!

I truly believe in the mantra that if you don’t like something, you should change it. Instead of sitting around feeling miserable, you can get up and do something about it! Life doesn’t always (or really, never does) go as planned, but if you are flexible, positive and willing to go along for the adventure, everything will be okay and turn out exactly like it is supposed to.

Because my current roommate situation has gone from “nuisance” to something that is actually interfering with my happiness and living of my daily life, I have decided to look for a new place to live ASAP as a temporary solution.

This freaks me out for a number of reasons: 1) moving is expensive, 2) living on your own is expensive, 3) I have a lot of stuff and moving is a HUGE pain, and 4) I’m not sure how exactly this will work out. I will have to coordinate the timing of my moving out with someone new moving in to takeover my lease (and who knows how difficult a person will be to find), and I also have to talk to my roommate about doing this. Since she is the type of person that seems to need to control everything, I’m not sure how this will go. I just know that I need to get out of there for the sake of my sanity, and that I cannot afford to pay for 2 apartments at once.

Wish me luck.

Another big change that I’m beyond excited about is that I (officially) have…

…drumroll…

A NEW JOB!

I’m keeping the company name under wraps (at least for now) because I haven’t really ironed out how comfortable I feel about sharing that sort of thing, but it’s for a large and well-known company in Chicago that I’m thrilled to be joining. My start date is April 25; I’ll be part of the editorial staff and will finally be back on salary, something I haven’t been on since I moved from Madison and switched jobs back in June. It’s been a looooong time coming, friends.

Big changes, but happy changes. I hope I can keep improving my life everyday and continue to be the happy, downright KICKASS chick that I know I am (she’s just been hiding from satan roommate).

I’ve had some delicious eats recently, but I’ve scarfed most of them down before thinking to take a picture! (bad blogger!) Salads are back in my life, and I’m so happy about it because I think a big salad a day is what makes me feel the best. In today’s mix:

• huge handful of arugula
• huge handful of TJ’s organic broccoli slaw
• sliced leeks (soo crunchy and add a huge pop of taste without being too onion-y)
• sliced 1/2 bell pepper
• 1/4 avocado cubed
• a few shakes of ground flax
• 3 oz grilled chicken
• TJ’s lemon pepper seasoning
• big dollop of TJ’s Mediterranean hummus

It was DEEELISH. It was so crisp and fresh tasting, but I feel totally satisfied afterward. I also have an orange to munch on later. I’m sorry I didn’t take a picture, but I’m sure I’ll have the exact same lunch tomorrow! :)

I made an internet pact with my buddy Mike last night that we would both hit the gym today, since we’ve both been slacking this week. The universe must have answered my prayers yesterday when I was talking about lacking motivation, because it arrived to my doorstep yesterday in a shiny little package!

I wish it had been SHAPE or Women’s Health, but hey, I’ve always said that the ladymags are the best way to get my butt to the gym when all else fails.

See ya on the flip side!