This weekend I finished moving out of my old house. I took off work Friday, the last day of my lease, to transport the remainder of my stuff and do any cleaning and what not to the old house needed to end my tenure there. Unfortunately, my stuff took up more room than I thought and everything took longer than expected. I started maybe around 10 AM Friday and didn’t finish until around noon Saturday, with an hour sleep and breaks for food and rest. I was reminded again that I have way too much stuff and need to get rid of some of it. Of course, this new spacious house makes that easy to forget.
The weather for the move wasn’t good: Rain and cold. It was mostly an annoyance for the inside stuff, but for the outside and garage stuff, it was a bit rough and definitely slowed me down. That and the lack of sleep made me consider giving up at times, but I pushed on.
Being up until 7:30 AM and knowing I still had another run to make, I just wasn’t feeling like I could make it. I fell asleep sitting in a chair. After an hour of sleep, I felt rejuvenated and was able to finish with some energy after getting some breakfast.
The drive was 35.1 miles, 41+ minutes. Friday there were traffic jams on two of the trips, stop and go. A bit aggravating to add on top of an already aggravating situation.
I moved everything one carload at a time, for the entire move, except one run with a van last weekend to move furniture. I took one load each day from closing on March 21st to March 30th, then six loads Friday / Saturday. That makes for 15 car loads and one van load, a lot of stuff and a lot of driving. That would mean greater than 1123.2 miles and 21.87 hours were spent just driving for this move. Seven of the days though, I took the load before work, so it was basically my regular commute.
If I had a van this weekend, it would’ve gone way faster. I probably should’ve just rented one. I saw a good deal at Enterprise that included more than enough free miles. My hatchback can fit a decent amount for a car, but I have too much stuff for that to be reasonable for a 30+ mile move. Some stuff, like a wheelbarrow, takes up a lot of room in there and makes it hard to make good use of the space.
I moved my compost heap in a twenty gallon plastic storage bin, set in with the rest of the stuff for each of six runs. The only good way I could think of to transport compost in a car. The bin was very heavy. A handle broke off and the side cracked a bit during the process, and it is very dirty, though it should still be usable with a good cleaning. I had to use a wheelbarrow or sled to transport it to and from the car when full. Lifting was rough on the back and wrists.
I technically didn’t get everything. There was some garbage and recyclables that I left on a bench in the garage because there wasn’t enough room in the bins and I would’ve had to do another run to transport it home to handle later. My roommate luckily as fine with me coming back another day to handle it.