This Renter's Guide is/was the largest special section ever at the Des Moines Register in special publications, and I am very proud of this piece.
Once again, It's just a bit of what happens....when I think out loud...
I am a professional mover. I have perfected the art of packing and unpacking the entire contents of my quasi-young life in a day. The past ten years of my life have been, let’s say…mobile. I have uprooted my “home” 19 times. I have made residence in seven different cities, four counties, and one state. I have had 11 roommates, lived in two basements, seven apartments, two houses, two townhomes and one “home on wheels”.
I, like an increasing percentage of people my age, rent. Renting has its advantages. It gives you the freedom and the flexibility to pack up and jump ship if you want to. It doesn’t take an expensive mortgage to have a home.
While roommate(s) can be great, nothing beats having your own place. The air conditioner can be set on “freeze out” mode without anyone complaining. You no longer run the risk of your roommate(s) eating all of your food, leaving the refrigerator door open, or drinking your last imported beer. Have you ever meandered around your own place in nothing but your birthday suit? It can be quite freeing! (Just remember to close your blinds).
Moving can be one of those inevitable and unpleasant realities of adult life and the physical task of moving ranks right up there with taxes, heartburn, and irritable bowel syndrome.
Being the nomad that I am, I offer you one important piece of advice. Hire movers. While there is an additional cost, it is by far the best moving investment. Why not hire a gaggle of men who appear more than obliged to climb the mountain of stairs to your apartment with an over-sized couch strapped to their backs? You get to stand around, point your finger and flex your supervisory muscle while they do all the hard work! The only blood, sweat, and tears you shed is during the unpacking process.
I have misplaced belongings, injured myself, and shattered entire sets of dishes (packing breakables in my underwear drawer seemed like an efficient idea at the time)… all for the sake of moving. I have chased fly away couch cushions into corn fields, and have witnessed my kitchen table and chairs hurl themselves off an uncovered trailer only to be hit and smashed to pieces by a semi-truck… all for the sake of moving.
But packed in all those piles of bubble wrap, I learned a lot about myself. I know that if and when I announce for the twentieth time, “I’m moving (…for the last time, I swear)”, my friends and family will be there. How else will they know/remember where I live this time!
Like I always say, “when the going gets tough (or bored, or cash-strapped), the tough get moving… even if it is one heavy unorganized box at a time.
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