That’s what my physical therapist asked me the other day.
I think most of you know we have moved from Northeastern Illinois to Northeastern Tennessee.
It took a toll.
- I lost eleven pounds without trying.
- I have a black toenail. (I must have dropped something on it.)
- I am dealing with considerable ongoing pain in my hips and shoulders and have been under medical care including physical therapy for several weeks.
- Our son and grandson who also moved were covered with bruises.
- Even though we got rid of an immense amount of personal possessions, before the move, we were misled by our mover and had to leave things behind we intended to take.
- Between the time we had to be out of our old home and into our new one, we had to stay at three different places, moving every day.
- At times it was so stressful we took it out on each other each other.
- It cost several thousand dollars for realtors, movers, hotels, paying for a multitude of fees involved in the transaction, and all of things needed in the new home.I try to learn from experiences, and I know several people who read what I write are of a certain age and may be thinking about making one more move.
Here is my best advice:
Don’t. Don’t move unless you have really good reasons to do so. You cannot imagine everything that needs to be done. It will wear you down and overwhelm you, especially if you have lived in your home a long time and have a lot of stuff.
We had good reasons and had thought, talked, and prayed about it for a long time. Our main reason was to be near family in our latter years. We also were fond of the warmer climate and much lower taxes.
Choose your mover with care. We chose our mover carefully and they did a good job in many ways; except they vastly underestimated the amount of stuff we had and the size of the truck we needed. Be sure your mover uses the same people to load, drive, and unload. Working with a broker who jobs out different parts of the process can me a nightmare. Even with our challenges, our son and granddaughter had far worse experiences with their movers.
Count on everything taking longer than you think it will. That includes packing, unpacking, getting your new home set up, and all the behind-the-scenes paperwork for the mortgage company, changing your address, banking info, and licenses.
Be aggressive about getting rid of stuff. Excessive possessions wind up being a burden for us or our kids. We had to continually get rid of more
We have been Tennessee residents for two months now. We love our house. We love the land. We love the people. We love being close to a good chunk of our family. We love it here.
Most of the good things in life and the most important decisions are hard and drawn out. Yet, to go through it all with some sense of sustaining grace and conclude with a sense of gratitude reassures us it is worth it.
