Commentary
Moving —
hot or not
For many students, it’s time to move again. And for many students, it’s a task they hate
and put off until the last second. For others, though, moving offers some fun.
Which camp do you fall in? Read on for two sides of the same coin...
Heavy boxes and
empty walls make
moving a nightmare
Moving is exciting,
and it opens many
fun possibilities
Voice off
I hate to move. Which is
odd, given that I grew up in a
Volkswagen van, and ironic,
given how much I love to
pack. Dealing with the accu
mulated detritus of one’s life
is an unappreciated iov, and it
offers some Martha Stewart-like moments
(on your knees before her goddess-ship).
But still, moving is a nightmare. Carrying
heavy boxes, stacking and un-stacking, nego
tiating stairs — all count on my “most night
marish things to do” list, along with trips to
the mall. Any mall. They all are different lay
ers of the same hell-onion.
Once moved into a new place, there’s the
problem of why the boxes won’t all fit in
their respective rooms, and the puzzle of try
ing to figure out how to put things away
while stacks of boxes
stand in the way. I think
the laws of geometry
cease to exist while one
unpacks.
My most hated part of
moving, however, is the
empty, glaring walls.
Once I’m in a home for a
while, the walls get cov
ered with my favorite
pieces of art (and soft
core porn, I’ll admit it),
various cloth hangings
and the random bits of
cultural hodgepodge I refuse to throw away.
Everything is perfectly placed, my feng shui
is flowing, and my brain is habituated to the
colors and patterns.
Then I have a new place, and it all has to
be done over again. My teeth start to grind,
and I get sweaty (and no, it’s not drugs), and
I’m soon reduced to chain-smoking on the
couch. But the walls still leer at me, singing
their songs of decorating inadequacy.
Despite all this, I look forward to moving be
cause. .. I get to pack again! I know many people
hate this task, but with a little rearranging of
one’s brain, it’s sheer joy. Here’s a few tips:
• Take a nostalgia trip. There’s nothing
like being pie-eyed on the floor in front of
empty boxes, giggling and feeling wistful
while going through the stuff that embodies
your life. It’s also a nice way to condition
yourself not to be too nostalgic. I mean, you
don’t have all night, so keep the remem
brances short and sweet.
• Unload the baggage. Once you’ve felt
those pangs of happy times, let some of the
stuff go. It’s OK to sift and sort — and throw
things away.
• Organize and label. While you’re packing, it
is the perfect time to make sure things are sort
ed into the right boxes, organized by type of stuff
(and size and color, if you’re really geeked out).
It will make unpacking all the easier.
I always have a great time packing; you
can, too. Unfortunately, even the best organi
zation won’t shorten the two flights of stairs
to your new apartment.
Contact the editor in chief
ateditor@dailyemerald.com. His opinions
do not necessarily represent those of the Emerald.
I absolutely love moving. Just
setting foot inside an empty
room gives me a thrill. Be it a
classroom, a school bus, an of
fice space or a house, the sight
of open, untouched space fills
my mind with all sorts of possi
bili ties.
Ridiculous, maybe. But I thrive on change
for that very reason. Small changes, mind
you. I’d be perfectly content moving around
the same town the rest of my life — that is,
until I sell everything and roam in my Win
nebago.
As a child, rearranging furniture was always
one of my favorite activities (I foresee a prob
lem with this Winnebago plan). But the bonus
of moving to a new room is... it’s already clean!
I can put my bed anywhere I want, with any
view I want to see every morning (or afternoon,
as the case may be). I can
arrange shelves, crates
and tapestries to create a
den for lounging or, well,
never mind — and all in a
15-by-15 space.
This means, of course,
that being a college stu
dent has been perfect for
me — this will be the
ninth time I’ve moved in
five years. So you’d think
this would help keep the
level of crap I’ve collected
to a minimum. Oh, no. And it’s for this very
reason that I absolutely hate moving.
I just can’t throw anything away. Some
day I know I’ll be dying to see every maga
zine clipping I ever hung on my wall, every
toy I ever got in a kid’s meal, every near
spent candle that still has one final burn
left. That’s my other issue: I refuse to use
the last of anything. I just know that some
day I’ll just have to have that last droplet of
raspberry-kiwi elbow exfoliant.
So here I find myself, reveling in the ex
citement of creating a new space for myself,
yet already wanting to beat my head against
the wall. I curse myself for saving every
thing, but I still can’t throw any of it away,
so I curse myself for accumulating so much
crap to begin with. Of course I know I don’t
have room to take everything with me from
place to place, so most of it goes in boxes
and gets dropped in a dirty, musty ware
house on Dad’s property.
Therein lies the problem: I am never able
to take the time to stop and sort through
my belongings. Often I’m so overwhelmed
with the enormity of my packing and clean
ing crisis that throwing everything into the
closest box is the most I can do. Conse
quently, I lose half of my stuff with every
move. So what do I do to solve this prob
lem? You guessed it — get more stuff.
If only I could wrinkle my nose and trans
port my neatly organized boxes directly to my
new place, moving would be a juicy peach.
Contact the managing editor
atjessicarichelderfer@dailyemerald.com.
Her opinions do not necessarily represent those
of the Emerald.
Michael J.
Kleckner
Tlie editor's office
Jessica
Richelderfer
The Merry
Pessimist
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