7 Things (I Learned While Moving) This Week [#44]
A weekly list of things I found interesting, posted on Sundays. Sometimes themed, often not.
1️⃣ Hiring movers is the best.
We’ve used Two Men and a Truck twice now and have been very happy with them both times. It was expensive to have them drive a couple of states over with us, but we had our stuff the same day we arrived. Plus, they know how to move things around corners and upstairs that I’ll never understand.
2️⃣ A fresh coat of paint makes all the difference.
Our previous two apartments had each been painted between tenants. This rental home was not, leaving it feeling distinctly…lived in. It was a pain to fill all the drywall holes and paint ourselves, but it has made it feel like our home rather than someone else’s.
3️⃣ Related: Get paint chips before sample paint.
Those paint chips are free for a reason; use them! This may seem obvious, but after priming your wall, go ahead and tape a few colors up there and see what it looks like in different lighting throughout the day. It’ll save you from buying too many sample paints.
4️⃣ Also Related: Let a small area of sample paint dry on the wall before buying a larger amount.
This also seems obvious, but you learn a little more each time: Paint a small area and let it dry before covering the wall. Again, it’ll look different as it dries and in various lighting throughout the day. Make sure you actually like that color there before committing.
5️⃣ Don’t worry too much about all the boxes. You’ll find space for your stuff. Or you won’t, and that’s okay, too.
When we got into the house (with the moving truck only minutes behind us), I was pretty concerned that we wouldn’t be able to fit in all of our stuff. I grew more concerned as the boxes kept piling in, one after the other. Our living room was full. Our kitchen was full. Our bedroom was full. I was stressed. How would we even move around it all to unpack?
But humans are excellent puzzle solvers, and a new home provides all kinds of opportunities to play three-dimensional Tetris.
In the end, the only thing we ended up having to send back with the moving guys was a large couch that we had inherited from my wife’s grandparents. And we knew going in that it would be a stretch to find a place for that.
Plus, packing and unpacking have been good chances to review if we actually need to keep a lot of our stuff. Many donation trips have been made and will continue to be made over the new few weeks.
6️⃣ Prioritizing internet and TV/entertainment hook up pays off.
As the Chief Technology Officer of our home, it fell to me to make sure we would have internet at our new house. There’s only one provider option in our area, but luckily Spectrum makes self-installation super easy these days. I picked up their modem from a store in Ohio and kept it with me in my car on our long drive.
Though it may seem frivolous, one of the first things I did (once we could move things around a little) was hook up the internet, our Apple TV, and the PlayStation. It brought a semblance of normalcy at the end of a long day, being able to relax with our usual shows and games. And it made for a happy wife. 😉
7️⃣ Get out and explore your neighborhood for things to be excited about.
Besides the job opening for my wife, the big draw for us to move to the Adirondacks was the chance to do more of our favorite outdoor activities. Right behind our home is a rails-to-trails system, so we took the dog for a walk down it on our first night. We found an athletic center within walking distance.
Driving back and forth to the hardware store gave us plenty of time to scope out a few restaurants and bars that we want to check out. And we ogled at the many “mom and pop” corner stores that just didn’t exist in our last neighborhood.
It is very easy to lose yourself in unpacking, decorating, and general nesting in a new home. But you’ll lose out on the chance to form new habits if you never venture out the front door. Our next adventure will be to try out the ski resort a few minutes down the road!
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