|
| Clean, pack, lift, unpack, groan! |
| Monday, January 29, 2007 |
Ever since I moved to the US, I have been moving from one apartment to another every single year. The current place I live in is one I have lived for more than one year. Mainly due to laziness.
Over the years I have slowly but steadily accumulated lot of junk, and me being the kind of person who just cannot throw out a card which was given to me eons ago by some random person, just because, naturally I have a lot of stuff that I just love to tuck away in a corner of the house, and forget about it. Yes I can forget about them for days together, but I cannot trash them, when I do chance upon them.
Same goes with clothes. I have those old fashioned tshirts which were part of my 'US Shopping' before coming here. I shudder when I think I used to wear those tshirts every day to school for the first few months. Then one fine day I went to the Shopping Mall to discover true fashion or trend or whatever you call it. I probably will never wear those old tshirts again, but yet I wont trash them. Every time Christmas comes around, I think of donating them to GoodWill, but it has happened only once in all these years.
I have a whole shelf of books, some bought with blood money, most bought at sale at local libraries a dollar a piece. I was careful for the first three years to not accumulate too many books, as books would be the most difficult to get rid of and lose money when I do chose to return to India. But then I thought what the heck, I was getting these books for such a cheap price, it doesnt hurt to own them. I love owning books, even though I dont read them that often.
Next in line are the furniture. In my first job, it was so easy to get cheap furniture handed over from one generation to generation of singles at work. I got a Queen sized bed for 10 bucks, and decent couch for 35 bucks. So I didnt feel so bad when we had to literally trash the couch in the dumpster when I moved yet again. Even though my possessions had considerably increased by then, moving two time zones behind, and having the challenge of packing every one of my belongings in my car, considerably shrunk them to a certain extent.
Well, this time things are so different. With DH around, we got to buying so many many things, moving is the most royal of pains.
When I was back in school, since school started in August, leases ran till August, so we always had a LOT of time to prepare and get ready for the move during our holidays. I remember being very methodical in my packing, not that I have much to pack anyway. A big advantage I had the first three times I moved out, was that I didnt have to clean up after myself. Even though I realized I was lucky in that aspect, I realized just how much lucky the fourth time I moved.
When I was living with roommates, someone or the other continued to live in the same apartment, thus sparing me the laborious tasks of cleaning the kitchen and washroom sparkling clean and the vaccuuming the carpets of all the hair. I had to do all that the last time I moved. And I have been forever scared to be in that position again. It was a main reason why I had put off moving of my apartment for so long inspite of the atrocious rent I was being charged, and the unsympathetic late fees I was being robbed off.
It was a pleasant surprise when I came to know an apartment complex I have had my eye on, ever since my dissatisfaction with the present management, actually had a unit available for moving in right when my lease was getting over. The last time I tried at the place, I was waiting list number 4! My little town being a small one, with the majority folks working where I do, the business here thrives on how our company does. If our company hires a lot of people, the apartment rents spike up. And if they start firing people, the apartment rates find a trough.
When me and DH went to look at the place, DH loved the huge patio, almost the size of a room. I think that was one main reason why DH agreed to move. :--) The patio was overlooking a busy road, unlike the old apartment where the patio was overlooking the top of a parking spot cover. I liked the big closet and extra storage space. And though it was overall almost the same size as our present apartment, it was whole deal cheaper. So we signed the lease without any reevaluation whatsoever.
We slowly started packing things into litle boxes I got from work. The job just seemed never ending. I still dont know how I managed to pack all our belongings in technically just one weekend. But we finally did it, its over.
We hired movers to do the major furniture moving. Thank god we didnt try to do it on our own with friends, our friends would have become enemies by now ;--) I just had to stand there and tell them where things went and they did all the work. But even they were pretty tired and I felt a little guilty. But heck they charged a huge lumpsum for what they did. Our coffee and end tables are pretty famous within our friends circle, for the one time they helped move it into my place. They are made of stone, and literally impossible to move even an inch without massive effort. Though the movers were pretty strong, and lifted the smallest of the end tables, like lifting a teddy bear, even they couldnt help commenting on the heavyness of the coffee table. Apparently we have the heaviest of coffee tables in town. :--D
Color coordination has been important to me ever since, err..I knew such a thing existed. For example in the bathroom, I want the bath rugs, the shower curtains, even the tooth brush holders to be coordinated, with the wall color. I guess its not too difficult to do that since WalMart has all the similar colored accessories together. Thank god the new apartment had similar wall color as the other apartment, so I didnt have to buy anything new.
I guess moving into a new apartment always feels good. It spikes up your spirits no matter where in the dump they are.The feeling of freshly vaccuumed carpet on your bare feet,sparkling new kitchen and bathroom, clean counters, everything feels so good. I have been pampered with brand new apartments, only 5-6 years old, with the equipment in the house almost brand new. Their tall claim is that they provide resort style living within the apartment complex. Bah! I am yet to experience that.
Though I hate cleaning out the old apartment, I love setting up the new apartment. Setting up the furniture, arranging the kitchen counters, the bathroom, the book shelves, hanging clothes in the closet, hanging pictures, setting up the umpteen stuffed toys, is so much fun! Its like having a real doll house to play with :--D Oh, and I love the windows of this place. I wish I could have these windows for our apartment in India, I have been smitten by them. I dont know why I like them, the little white lines in the glass give it a cute look I think. I used to have these windows in my one.. two.. three.. fourth apartment, and I loved it. I know I can get very picky and obsessive at times.
Unfortunately I havent been able to set up the new apartment yet, because I have a nerve numbing sprain on my leg, with is preventing me from doing any of my regular chores, leave alone anything else. :--( DH has been a darling, bringing my dinner plate right to my nose to eat, although he cannot stop making fun of my situation. He watches me, taking baby steps, and times me on how long it takes for me to go to the kitchen. I have been taking Tylenol for pain killers hopefully it should get better soon, else I am screwed. |
posted by SK @ 5:06 PM  |
|
| 2 Comments: |
-
Windows look really cute :-)! Man, I really appreciate your taking the effort to move. I think I will stay put in my apt till they actually start demanding my entire salary as rent (I SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO hate moving)....
Have fun at your new apt!
-
Hey Thanks Arch! I hate moving too, but I hated the other apartment's management more! :--D
|
| |
| << Home |
| |
|
|
|
|
Windows look really cute :-)! Man, I really appreciate your taking the effort to move. I think I will stay put in my apt till they actually start demanding my entire salary as rent (I SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO hate moving)....
Have fun at your new apt!