so, i went out to buy tea and i came home with new shoes. really, how can one resist soft leather uppers with chunky soles for only $39.92? the only correct answer is “one cannot”. if you answered anything else, you are sadly delusional and your medication must be increased in order for you to cease posing a danger to yourself and others.
my Big Plan™ for the weekend is to spend saturday out looking for an apartment. i’m going to put on my new shoes, charge up the cell phone and wander around the area i want to live in and phone every apartment building i like the look of which has a for rent sign in front. i’m freakishly motivated to get this show on the road and i’m not going to let myself succumb to my normal procrastination. i may have fluked out in finding my current place in the paper, but i don’t think that’s the best way to find a place to live anymore.
i’m excited, but a little daunted by the process. last time (the first time, really), i was living with my dad, so there was no having to give notice and once i got the apartment i could move at any time once it was vacant. now it’s this stressful race to find a place before the end of the month so that i can give notice and then there’s the stress of trying to move out and clean all on one day when there’s someone chomping at the bit to move in on your heels.
if i find a place this weekend (cross your fingers) that’s available the first of february, i’m just going to go ahead and take it. that way i can give a full month’s notice and have four whole weeks to move things as i feel like it. it may cost me double the rent, but i figure it’s a small price to pay for less stress.
To the first question… you can resist by saying “I don’t wear leather.” That might be the only way.
Good luck with the apartment. We were lucky that in both cases, the landlords were fine with that extra month of emptiness (we made the agreement to move in March, then moved in on May 1 [they let me come in and prepare stuff and move in slowly, too, which was super nice], and in the other, we agreed to rent in July then actually moved Sept. 1st).
What I really hated about the whole thing was having to keep the apartment viewable while trying to pack up, not a neat process! (as if anything in our house is a “neat process!”)
Our last move was a slow monthly process and it was wonderful. Of course there’s the weekend of moving everything BIG since we could wrangle some (8!) friends to help in exchange for pizza, beer and voyeuristically (?) seeing all the shit we have. Then there was a month to get the rest of the Little Things Left Behind to the Value Village donation bin, the 6 (at least) blue bags, the 3 garbage bags and the pile of Things That May Be Useful Yet Need To Be Sorted in our current basement. Then there’s the cleaning. Having a month is nice. Real nice. Of course the details like cleaning were left till the last two days before the new owner had claim, but we had the time to procrastinate, which is lovely. Good luck with the apartment hunt!!
Matt and I did it that way, too. We’ve actually got to go over to the old apartment tomorrow and clean it, since our lease over there ends at the end of the month. It’s nice, though – we took our sweet time moving everything over. A lot less stressful! I want to see pictures, btw. Oh! I meant to tell you – I love the photography clip from the CBC you posted previously – it gives me so much inspiration! I’m going to take pics this weekend, dammit! :D
I did the double rent thing too, and highly recommend it if you can afford it. It took a lot of the stress out of moving for me.
it’ll be a bit of a stretch, but i figure it’s the best way for me to go. now if i could only find a fucking apartment! *grumble* there must be some magic voo-doo one has to do to find a decently priced place to live in this city.