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Moving day with movers is rather different from moving day without movers. I came home last Thursday to find almost everything in boxes except the cats, the bed and ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
heisenbug's desk... collapsed into the bed, woke up and went about taking the kitties over to the new place in a Zipcar, where we installed the little yowlers in the back bathroom with their necessities plus and blankets and we left them.
The movers showed up -- four of them, with an ENORMOUS truck. They ran a ramp straight across from the bed of the enormous truck to a point about midway up our front steps, which was kind of amazing to see, and they made all our stuff disappear while we packed the last of the bits fromheisenbug's office. When I ran out of useful things to do, I walked over to the new place and hung out with the kitties in the bathroom, reading bits of The Joy of Less and ordering pizzas.
The very best thing we did is pay the movers to unpack. Sure, they put some of our stuff in strange places, but they took all those boxes AWAY. We worked along with them on the unboxing -- I had a giant utility knife that I kept with me all day -- and when they left we actually had all the packing paper in garbage bags plus the spare energy to get going on the organizing. Amazing. Of course, we let the kitties out of the bathroom, and then all five of us wandered around for a while trying to figure out where things were. Not so different, humans and felines. Just like us, they did a sort of instant settle-in once they realized that all the familiar couches and beds and family members were there for them.
Saturday went largely to doing cleanup stuff at the old place; Sunday went to an IKEA trip that satisfied all the stereotypes and then some; and Monday was spent assembling IKEA bits and hanging the larger wall decorations on the walls. Installed another new light fixture too -- and oh, the wiring at this place! Beautiful, I tell you, so neat and tidy with little light-boxes tucked into the ceiling just the way they should be. I am also in love with the wordless IKEA instructions. It reminds me of the storytelling in The Arrival, and is also adorable.
So my long-standing daydream has come true: I have a giant Expedit shelf, with many little inserts. This hunk of beauty is apparently in the process of being discontinued -- maybe the smaller ones sell better? -- so I'm glad I got the chance to experience one while I could. It fits well in the space and should do a lot to tame the large number of Small Rather Unorganized Things in our newly shared office.
One ofheisenbug's long-standing plans has come to fruition as well: he really did make a piece of art out of his years-old collection of toilet paper tubes. I like it a lot; it's a mosaic made of tubes dyed in various muted colors. (I also like that he recycled the rest of them, several large boxes' worth.) A picture will have to wait until all four pieces are installed; it's only halfway there right now.
(And is it gorgeous? Yes, it is all gorgeous, and our stuff looks GREAT in its new habitat, and I want nothing more than to keep working on it until it's lovely and functional and really feels like home.)
There's some weirdness around here; the washing machine is tiny enough that my usual strategy of doing laundry just on the weekends, in two loads, isn't going to work -- in fact, our large blanket just became a laundromat item. And there is the odd factor of the building manager who tells everyone that he owns the building even though he doesn't. Trouble is, he's a business partner with the real owner of the other 2 units on more buildings than just this one... so, despite us being owners and him theoretically working for us, we probably couldn't fire him if we became unhappy with him.
But whatever. The space! The light! The neighborhood! I've had a couple of people ask me whether the new, big condo makes me feel less minimalist. Well, no... it's much easier to have an uncluttered, spacious feel when you have more space, and moving has led both of us to get rid of some things.
As you might expect from all the IKEA gushing, our stack of cardboard to recycle is something to see.
heisenbug's desk... collapsed into the bed, woke up and went about taking the kitties over to the new place in a Zipcar, where we installed the little yowlers in the back bathroom with their necessities plus and blankets and we left them.The movers showed up -- four of them, with an ENORMOUS truck. They ran a ramp straight across from the bed of the enormous truck to a point about midway up our front steps, which was kind of amazing to see, and they made all our stuff disappear while we packed the last of the bits from
heisenbug's office. When I ran out of useful things to do, I walked over to the new place and hung out with the kitties in the bathroom, reading bits of The Joy of Less and ordering pizzas.The very best thing we did is pay the movers to unpack. Sure, they put some of our stuff in strange places, but they took all those boxes AWAY. We worked along with them on the unboxing -- I had a giant utility knife that I kept with me all day -- and when they left we actually had all the packing paper in garbage bags plus the spare energy to get going on the organizing. Amazing. Of course, we let the kitties out of the bathroom, and then all five of us wandered around for a while trying to figure out where things were. Not so different, humans and felines. Just like us, they did a sort of instant settle-in once they realized that all the familiar couches and beds and family members were there for them.
Saturday went largely to doing cleanup stuff at the old place; Sunday went to an IKEA trip that satisfied all the stereotypes and then some; and Monday was spent assembling IKEA bits and hanging the larger wall decorations on the walls. Installed another new light fixture too -- and oh, the wiring at this place! Beautiful, I tell you, so neat and tidy with little light-boxes tucked into the ceiling just the way they should be. I am also in love with the wordless IKEA instructions. It reminds me of the storytelling in The Arrival, and is also adorable.
So my long-standing daydream has come true: I have a giant Expedit shelf, with many little inserts. This hunk of beauty is apparently in the process of being discontinued -- maybe the smaller ones sell better? -- so I'm glad I got the chance to experience one while I could. It fits well in the space and should do a lot to tame the large number of Small Rather Unorganized Things in our newly shared office.
One of
heisenbug's long-standing plans has come to fruition as well: he really did make a piece of art out of his years-old collection of toilet paper tubes. I like it a lot; it's a mosaic made of tubes dyed in various muted colors. (I also like that he recycled the rest of them, several large boxes' worth.) A picture will have to wait until all four pieces are installed; it's only halfway there right now.(And is it gorgeous? Yes, it is all gorgeous, and our stuff looks GREAT in its new habitat, and I want nothing more than to keep working on it until it's lovely and functional and really feels like home.)
There's some weirdness around here; the washing machine is tiny enough that my usual strategy of doing laundry just on the weekends, in two loads, isn't going to work -- in fact, our large blanket just became a laundromat item. And there is the odd factor of the building manager who tells everyone that he owns the building even though he doesn't. Trouble is, he's a business partner with the real owner of the other 2 units on more buildings than just this one... so, despite us being owners and him theoretically working for us, we probably couldn't fire him if we became unhappy with him.
But whatever. The space! The light! The neighborhood! I've had a couple of people ask me whether the new, big condo makes me feel less minimalist. Well, no... it's much easier to have an uncluttered, spacious feel when you have more space, and moving has led both of us to get rid of some things.
As you might expect from all the IKEA gushing, our stack of cardboard to recycle is something to see.
