I recently moved out of my first apartment. As excited as I was to be moving onto another chapter in my life, it was extremely difficult to look around and realize that my years of college and my cute little apartment were over with. I felt so many emotions that I had to write an article. I'm sure anyone who has ever had to move has felt some of these pains along the way. And honestly, some of my thoughts were too comical to not to share with everyone. Here are the five phases of moving.
1. Denial
This is the phase when you tell yourself that you have plenty of time to pack. Those decorations on the wall? Those will be easy to take down. All of the lamps and candle holders and tiny waterfall and trinkets? No problem. Those clothes that are piled to the ceiling? You'll be able to go through them. Hakuna Matata.
2. Sadness
You start looking around your current home and can't help but get teary-eyed. All of those memories you've made, long talks with guests at the kitchen table, that time you passed out with pizza still in your hand in the corner of the living room -- how are you ever going to leave those memories behind? You start being sentimental about the silly things, and even convince yourself that you'll be sad that you can't look at that giant hole in the wall for the rest of your life. (Come on, it's a hole in the wall...)
3. Anxiety / Shock
This is when reality kicks in. How will you get settled into a new place? How are you going to pack and move all of this stuff somewhere else? You realize you have been crossing the days off on your calendar and have not done diddly-squat on packing. Then you start to look around at all of those decorations, candle holders and furniture and think to yourself, "Well, crap!"
4. Anger
It is in this phase where you seriously contemplate throwing all of your stuff out. You start yelling about having things like toothbrushes and hand towels. And when did you decide to buy all of this furniture? Who needs a book shelf? And who's great idea was it to bring in the giant couches? They were ugly anyway! Don't even get me started about the amount of clothes you have bought -- no wonder why you're always broke.
5. Acceptance
You have done it. You have packed. You have buried. You have thrown out. You have hauled. Boxes on top of boxes and the car is full. That final walk through your old place is one of mixed emotion. A little bit of every phase goes through you on your walk to the door. On the final look back, you feel accomplished. Now give yourself a pat on the back!
