7 Things I Learned From Moving Apartments

Dear blog,

I’m sorry I’ve been away these past two weeks. It’s not that I didn’t want to pay attention to you, it’s just that I was a bit pre-occupied with re-locating all my worldly possessions 6km away from their original positions.

But things are better now, and, like Joseph Campbell’s Hero With a Thousand Faces, I return bearing the wisdom I gained on the quest.

Or, you know, with a bunch of nonsense until I have more time to write.

1. FreeCycle exists and is awesome.

FreeCycle is a portmanteau of “free” and “recycle,” which makes it exactly what it sounds like: an organization to help people give new life to stuff they don’t want by giving it to others who will re-use it.

This is pretty handy when you’re moving two sets of furniture into one apartment and your old building charges $80 to use the large-garbage area once you’ve given your notice. FreeCycle Toronto helped me give away shelves, a bed, a sofa, a TV stand, a coffee table, and a bunch of other usable household items that would have gone in the trash. Even better, they went to people who were happy to use them for no cost other than them dropping by to pick up what they wanted.

Sure, the Internet is a weird place, and it can be a little awkward or scary meeting up with online strangers IRL. But so far, everyone I met through FreeCycle was friendly with a strong sense of community. It’s a good feeling to get rid of something that was taking up space and an even better feeling to know that someone else will get something they wanted.

2. Measure all the sides of an object before you buy it/make it.

So, I bought this kitchen island from IKEA. If you have the observation skills of a small child, you will be able to notice that it is not only about four feet long but also about two and half feet wide.You are doing better than I did whilst deciding whether it would actually fit in the intended corner of our kitchen.

    2a. Measure all doorways an object will have to go through.

Fun fact: a 31.5-inch-wide kitchen island will not fit through a 30-inch-wide door or a 30-inch-wide apartment door.

    2b. Sometimes, motorized saws set things on fire.

OK, my mom’s jigsaw didn’t set the tabletop on fire exactly. It just made it start to smoke and blacken.

    2c. The muscles exercised in boxing are actually pretty applicable to manual sawing.

It’s like punching, but with metal teeth.

It still took me about two hours to make Stenstorp look like this:

It makes us call it “Stan” now.

3. The previous tenants were probably cool.

I spent a long time worrying about how to install curtain rods in our plaster ceiling until I finally spotted that a previous tenant had helpfully drilled holes in the windows’ metal frames. Thank you, previous tenants! Now if only I could figure out how to install the stupid roller blinds in our living/dining room…

4. Wall decals look great.

Our new apartment has a short hallway/walk-in closet off the master bedroom. At the other end of this hallway/closet is a bathroom. When Boyfriend asked why one might have such a thing, I explained that it was a Narnia bathroom, since one had to walk through the wardrobe to get to it.

One thing led to another, and my friends (thanks, Liz and Amanda!) and I decided that the “Narnia bathroom” deserved proper decoration. So we (read: mostly they) painted it with silver snowflakes, and, as the crowning touch, we added a lamppost silhouette:

Rather than take it upon ourselves to attempt to draw such a thing freehand, we used our Google-fu to discover Magic Wall, a company that prints and ships a wide selection of re-usable wall decals. They are pretty awesome, although for some strange reason*, Boyfriend draws the line at a giant Habs logo above our bed.

5. Walls are the best storage spaces.

Command hooks are my new best friends. They help me hang up masks, shopping bags, sports equipment, kitchen utensils, keys… you name it. This is particularly important because Boyfriend and I have a lot of stuff kicking around. We need to maximize our storage space. And for some reasons, spreading stuff across a wall looks way better than spreading the same stuff across the floor.

I also may have installed more IKEA wall shelves and kitchen bars than are necessary…

6. The TTC is busy at almost all hours of the day.

Because we decided to sign our lease starting April 1 but give our notice for May 1, we had about a month to negotiate our move. I don’t have a car, so I decided that bringing over suitcases full of stuff via public transportation was a Fantastic Idea.

It was not.

I figured that because I don’t work a 9-5 job I’d be able to at least bring the bulky stuff during non-peak times. However, I learned that the subway is really packed during rush hour and marginally less packed at other times of the day. 11am is the least busy time. Before that or after noon, even on a weekday, you’re out of luck.

Also, peak hours or not, any moving plan that involves someone with joint problems physically carrying stuff across the city is a bad plan. In case you were wondering.

7. I am way too ambitious in my planning.

Like, figuring I’ll hang all the curtains and blinds and build all the IKEA furniture in the same day.

Or thinking I can write 7 things off the top of my head.

* The strange reason is, he is a Bruins fan.