Moving Sucks

With our modern overly-mobile society that is built upon the lack of loyalty between employee and employer, and given the fact that many of us go to college out of town, we all move to change residence.  After having done it too many times myself, and after helping many friends move, I can certifiably say that moving sucks.

In college, things are easier.  I once fit all my stuff in my parents' 1981 Buick Park Avenue on my way to RIT from Cleveland.  Milk crates with books, clothes, lamps, shoes, a mini refrigerator, toiletries, some food, and not much else is all a college student has to take.  Packing and unpacking are a breeze.  Carrying the stuff to the dorm room is easy, and there are plenty of neighbors to help.

Fast forward to when you graduate and buy real things like furniture, electronics, kitchenware, collections of things.  Then moving becomes more of an ordeal.  A car or pick-up truck is not enough.  U-haul or Ryder need to be scheduled in.  Movers and friends become more important.  When you know you have to move, you know you have to send out that begging/asking email to get people to help you.  I even once tried having a "moving party," but my friends didn't buy it.  Many of my true friends showed up and would have done so no matter what I called it.  You just hope that the moving date you selected is one on which most of your friends and family are free.  And then you have to start pre-packing to make sure that you don't end up taking too much of their time so that coffee, bagels, pizza, and beer will be a worthy reward for their efforts.  To make matters worse, you probably don't even have cable hooked up at the new place to let them watch TV and be entertained. 

Helping somebody move takes a lot of precious time.  This has to be respected, and here's where getting as much (wo)man power as possible helps.  With the busy-ness of a move involving leases or mortgages, time runs short and most people don't pre-pack enough.  I have been guilty of this on a few occasions as my friends remarked that I should have boxed more things.  You don't realize how much stuff you have until you move, and this sometimes happens after you have criticized other friends for the same thing.  At least moving prompts people to get rid of junk for once and for all.  Besides moving into a hopefully better place, this is probably the only plus of moving.

Friends with hatchbacks, SUV's and pick-up trucks become more valuable in times like these. Then when you help others move, you come across people who don't pack any small things in boxes and have things lying around their whole place.  So you have to just throw things into the first available bag or box without any semblance of organization.  To reduce trips, I like to pack up my car to the fullest, but many people just want to get the next shipment to the new house as soon as possible.  It may seem like progress, but it ends up taking longer, especially if the distance between old house and new house is more than 10 minutes or so. 

As we get older, we have to be careful that we don't give our friends slipped discs from having moved our heavy furniture.  So, it makes sense to hire real movers to move the big stuff, but some people cheap out and expect their friends to do heavy lifting.  No-shows are critical when only 6 people are expected to show up to begin with.  And the difficult part about moving or having friends move is the sense of obligation you feel you have to help those that helped you move.  You just hope you're available those particular weekends.

In a (pea)nut shell, moves should be minimized.  They cause too many social and sometimes physical issues.  Try to be happy where you are.

+ Atul

Comments

[Dave P]

Atul

I've been fortunate in that I have only had 2 moves. My last one was 2 years ago.

You're right in that you are effected by friends and family moving. It's almost as if you're moving too with the demands placed upon you. Try to be happy where you are is a good line.

I really enjoy how you say the things that people think but would never say.

[chancelucky]

I do think American culture is set up to "follow the money". Part of that is the tendency to treat career/workforce considerations as an inanimate resource.
I do think it plays a role in the decline of the sense of "community" in our culture.

[Atul]

You guys said it best. Moving is an all-friends-on-board affair. And I guess trying to be happy where you are limits opportunities. But most Americans do chase money more often than they want to maintain a sense of community. So when you move, you have to lean on friends that you will probably lose touch with if you move out of town. And then you get new neighbors that might not be so nice or desirable. "The devil you know is better than..."