A little over 2 years ago when we found out I was expecting our first baby one of the first decisions we made was to move out of our apartment. We lived in a 1 bedroom apartment in Dupont Circle, a neighborhood in DC.
We had amazing views of the Washington Monument from our living room and a breathtaking view of DC from the roof deck but the apartment just had just enough space for us and since our building didn’t have bigger apartments we set out to look for a bigger place.
In our search, we discovered a neighborhood called Takoma in DC. Half of this neighborhood is in DC and the other half is in Maryland. The part that’s in Maryland is called Takoma Park. We didn’t know much about the area but we fell in love with it and rented a 3 bedroom house. Looking back we rented a place bigger than what we needed and we would have preferred to be in another part of this neighborhood but we didn’t know back then.
Takoma/Takoma Park is sort of a crunchy neighborhood, where people care about what’s going on with the environment, the food we eat, what our kids are doing… We have a pretty active list serv that really gives this place a neighborhood feel and I have met some amazing moms thanks to it. There are also plenty of activities going on and since it’s a family friendly neighborhood there’s always something to do with your kids. Plus, they have an attachment parenting group with amazing people! I love living here!
Almost 2 years ago we moved in here and in a month our lease will be up and we will be moving out. Part of me is happy to move out. I really want to live in a smaller place (less cleaning) and with a better layout (3 floors is not good when you have a toddler to look after). We are also thinking of leaving this neighborhood (but that’s a post for another day).
Part of me is sad about moving out because this is the house where we brought our baby home from the hospital, were we saw her grow. She crawled for the first time here, took her first steps here, ate her first meal here, spoke her first words here…most of her firsts were here and we will be gone and never come back to this house. Letting go can sometimes be hard!
We have decided that instead of moving into a new place right away we will go visit my family in Costa Rica for 7 weeks! I’m pretty excited about this and not paying rent in very expensive DC will basically pay for our 7 week vacation. So not only are we moving out of this house but we’re flying out the day our lease is up. Which means all of our stuff has to be sold or in storage before the end of July.
The clock is ticking and now it’s time to pack up everything we own, get rid of everything we don’t need and keep just that we really use and need. This is the exciting part since we have accumulated too many things we don’t need or use. But I am overwhelmed with all the packing I have to do now that I have a toddler that wants to take everything out of the boxes and thinks packing is a fun game.
Tips on packing up your home before a big move:
Since I like to plan things this is my game plan to pack up my home without feeling overwhelmed.
Week 5-4 before moving out:
- Take pictures of all the big items, like furniture, we are going to sell. Post it on craigslist and share it with on our neighborhood list serv. We are selling pretty much all the big stuff we own.
- Start sorting things in 3 piles: taking with us, selling and giving away. Since my daughter doesn’t sleep in her room it has been converted into the packing zone.
Week 4 before moving out:
- Have a garage sale. This takes a few days of prepping: clean items, figure out pricing, arrange them where you’ll have the sale…
Week 3 before moving out:
- Figure out what we will do with the stuff we didn’t sell.
- Give away everything we have left and won’t be taking
Week 2 before moving out:
- Partially pack suitcases.
- Go over everything in the house to make sure everything we are not keeping is gone.
Week 1 before moving out:
- Pack suitcases minus what we’re wearing that week.
- Give away our dishes and pots and pans and other items we needed to use in our last days here.
I was able to stick to this schedule and it made moving so much easier. I wasn’t overwhelmed and was able to still go on play dates and keep my toddler occupied.
Have you moved? Do you have any moving tips?
V says
Worked and went to school in takoma park for a long time 🙂 most people do not know where that is. You have to say “it’s near University of Maryland.” Lol