PAtoSF Chapter 4: The Purge

The living room the Thursday before we left

The thought of packing up your life is an intimidating one. The thought of trying to squeeze it into a studio apartment on the other side of the country with someone else's life is a whole other ballgame.

For those of you who don't know, my boyfriend and I lived in a four bedroom house in the suburbs. It had a full basement and two-car garage, a yard and a deck. 

Leaving early Sunday morning

We recently moved into a studio apartment with no garage (but we don't have a car), no deck (unless you count the stairs to the trashcans), and no living room (sort of). But we seriously scored in the apartment game.

If you'd like the tour of our apartment, here it is.

The entryway: closet, front door, heater, bathroom door

The bedroom/office/living room/ dining room (and Leela)

The kitchen (and Stella)

We also have an apartment-sized bathroom (not shown).

So how did we do it?

First of all, we seriously underestimated the amount of time it would take to clear out the house and pack up what we needed. But who doesn't? No one realizes exactly how much stuff they have. We are definitely thankful to have friends and family who helped us along the way - from buying things from us to selling things for us to moving furniture, transporting pets, clearing out the garbage, landscaping, painting, etc.

That being said, we made it out with what we needed - our pets, some clothes, most of my kitchen items, his technology stuff, and a Festivus pole (also his). 

Stella's living quarters for her trip to CA

Leela in the backseat and Stella in her crate ready for the cross-country ride
(I'm sorry you can see cat poop)

I ended up donating about 20 trash bags worth of items (mostly clothes) to the local collection bin, and the bf ended up donating many things to the local veteran's organization. Everything else got left behind to meet its fate.

Luckily both our families agreed to store some things for us for the time when we will most likely upgrade to a bigger place or discover we actually have space for a few more things. For example, my dish set is for eight settings, but I only brought enough for four. We also only brought 2 mugs, 2 tumblers, 1 wine glass and 4 rocks glasses.

You see, we had never actually seen our apartment before we moved in. We hadn't even officially signed the lease until we arrived. So you can see how there could be questions as to how much we could bring with us.

Today I'm writing from the bed, which is just a mattress (our bed frame and table won't arrive until next week) in the main living room of the apartment. Looking around, I think we did a good job estimating how much we would need and what would fit in this very downsized space. Though it is a little disorganized right now (we are still organizing), I think there will easily be a place for everything without cluttering up the space.

It was a good exercise to unload so many things and start small again. It makes you think about your lifestyle and your possessions and what you really need (and why you have everything else). It's sort of like the spring cleaning everyone says they'll do but few actually execute.

We got lucky.

We're fortunate to have good friends and caring families. We found a prime apartment in our first choice neighborhood. None of our luggage or packages got lost in transit. All my luggage got lost on my moves both to and from South Dakota. That's not fun. Our pets are loving life and getting along, and I can safely say we are both happy to be here, too!