Moving Desires
Apr. 8th, 2003 03:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
robotech_masterLunchbreak.
I just called my landlord and confirmed that I want to move into that $300 2-BR apartment I mentioned a few days ago. Since it's the same landlord, I can transfer my security deposit over; he'll even let me keep my one cat (Gumdrop) as long as I don't parade her around too much because if the neighbors know, they'll all want one. Which is fine with me; from what I've read, indoor-only cats are happier and live longer anyway; the only thing that's keeping Gumdrop from being a full-time indoors cat right now is that I don't think there's any good place in my apartment to put a litterbox without it being potentially tippable.
My parents were a bit hesitant about the idea of me moving into the place at first, particularly given how the landlord pointed to the slightly-decrepit-looking dishwasher and said that if it broke down, he'd remove it but he wouldn't replace it. They seemed to think this was indicative of a certain cheap nature, given that a dishwasher can be had for less than the total price of a month's rent. Still, given what he's charging me for the place, I suppose I can't complain. Heck, I could set aside $25 extra a month that I would be paying someplace else and after eight months, buy my own dishwasher. And besides, Wes has always been very good about getting problems in the buildings taken care of (well, except the roaches, but I suppose I can't blame him too much for that; the location of the apartments is a bad one, roach-wise), and more importantly, he was really cool about things the couple of times in the past that I fell a few months behind on the rent, or needed to pay half on time and half a couple of weeks later. Not all landlords would have been.
All things considered, as long as I don't take too many roaches with me, I think I'll be able to do fine in this move.
However, there is also the question of the move itself. It's been so long since I've moved, I'm not entirely sure how to go about it. My parents have some good advice, such as packing everything up in boxes over the course of several days, and stacking the boxes. But beyond that, I'm going to have to give a lot of thought about what to take and what to pack up or get rid of.
It's funny...that two-bedroom apartment, empty, doesn't seem much larger than my current studio full. I look at all the clutter in my room and just find myself wondering whether the new place will look any different once I get moved into it. I have so many boxes full of just random junk lying around in my room. I have a big box full of instruction manuals and warranty documentation for, well, every appliance I've ever bought. What do I keep? What do I move home? What do I throw away?
For instance, much of my bookshelf space in my current apartment is devoted to various Transformers Beast Wars and Beast Machines toys. They're neat little toys, and I like them a lot...but I don't ever actually play with them much, and they just take up space I could be using for more books. I only really got into collecting them anyway because I was deeply into the Transformers newsgroup and fandom at the time. (I still am involved in it, but not quite as intensely, and I haven't been able to make it to a BotCon in a couple of years.) It would probably be for the best to box them up and send them home, at least until I know how much space I need.
I'd like to get more bookshelves for my room, and move up some of the boxes of paperbacks and other books that are currently taking up space and serving as hiding places for brown recluse spiders down in the old house. (Maybe I'll even bring up the boxes of Piers Anthony books, though that might be going too far.) I'd like to have a lot of books in my apartment.
What I really want is for my new apartment to look like the magazine photos of a nice, uncluttered place to live. I want it to be clean, I want it to be easy to keep clean. I don't want to let myself fall into the old habits of letting clutter pile up where it will. I need to buy storage space for things. I need to buy a laundry hamper. I need to buy a kitty litterbox and some litter, and maybe some books on how to care for an indoor cat. I want to turn over a new leaf here, and be much happier in my new surroundings.
I just hope I can.
I just called my landlord and confirmed that I want to move into that $300 2-BR apartment I mentioned a few days ago. Since it's the same landlord, I can transfer my security deposit over; he'll even let me keep my one cat (Gumdrop) as long as I don't parade her around too much because if the neighbors know, they'll all want one. Which is fine with me; from what I've read, indoor-only cats are happier and live longer anyway; the only thing that's keeping Gumdrop from being a full-time indoors cat right now is that I don't think there's any good place in my apartment to put a litterbox without it being potentially tippable.
My parents were a bit hesitant about the idea of me moving into the place at first, particularly given how the landlord pointed to the slightly-decrepit-looking dishwasher and said that if it broke down, he'd remove it but he wouldn't replace it. They seemed to think this was indicative of a certain cheap nature, given that a dishwasher can be had for less than the total price of a month's rent. Still, given what he's charging me for the place, I suppose I can't complain. Heck, I could set aside $25 extra a month that I would be paying someplace else and after eight months, buy my own dishwasher. And besides, Wes has always been very good about getting problems in the buildings taken care of (well, except the roaches, but I suppose I can't blame him too much for that; the location of the apartments is a bad one, roach-wise), and more importantly, he was really cool about things the couple of times in the past that I fell a few months behind on the rent, or needed to pay half on time and half a couple of weeks later. Not all landlords would have been.
All things considered, as long as I don't take too many roaches with me, I think I'll be able to do fine in this move.
However, there is also the question of the move itself. It's been so long since I've moved, I'm not entirely sure how to go about it. My parents have some good advice, such as packing everything up in boxes over the course of several days, and stacking the boxes. But beyond that, I'm going to have to give a lot of thought about what to take and what to pack up or get rid of.
It's funny...that two-bedroom apartment, empty, doesn't seem much larger than my current studio full. I look at all the clutter in my room and just find myself wondering whether the new place will look any different once I get moved into it. I have so many boxes full of just random junk lying around in my room. I have a big box full of instruction manuals and warranty documentation for, well, every appliance I've ever bought. What do I keep? What do I move home? What do I throw away?
For instance, much of my bookshelf space in my current apartment is devoted to various Transformers Beast Wars and Beast Machines toys. They're neat little toys, and I like them a lot...but I don't ever actually play with them much, and they just take up space I could be using for more books. I only really got into collecting them anyway because I was deeply into the Transformers newsgroup and fandom at the time. (I still am involved in it, but not quite as intensely, and I haven't been able to make it to a BotCon in a couple of years.) It would probably be for the best to box them up and send them home, at least until I know how much space I need.
I'd like to get more bookshelves for my room, and move up some of the boxes of paperbacks and other books that are currently taking up space and serving as hiding places for brown recluse spiders down in the old house. (Maybe I'll even bring up the boxes of Piers Anthony books, though that might be going too far.) I'd like to have a lot of books in my apartment.
What I really want is for my new apartment to look like the magazine photos of a nice, uncluttered place to live. I want it to be clean, I want it to be easy to keep clean. I don't want to let myself fall into the old habits of letting clutter pile up where it will. I need to buy storage space for things. I need to buy a laundry hamper. I need to buy a kitty litterbox and some litter, and maybe some books on how to care for an indoor cat. I want to turn over a new leaf here, and be much happier in my new surroundings.
I just hope I can.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2003-04-09 09:14 am (UTC)Two things you might want to invest in, over time.
Storage boxes - We kept the Vectrex unit in a storage trunk, along with all the games. I sold the components in 2001 (when I got laid off) and found that they were in mint condition.
"Litter Maid" catbox - unless you teach Gumdrop to use the toilet, also an option, the Litter Maid does most of the work of keeping the catbox clean with less mess than would otherwise be present. We have two for a four-cat household.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-04-09 01:18 pm (UTC)