A moving van sits in front of my house today.
It’s for our next-door neighbors headed across the country.
Yesterday we visited for the last time, and I told them how I envied their move.
“I love starting over,” I explained. “We’ve only moved fourteen times, but I wouldn’t mind doing it again except my family lives here.”
They nodded politely and hugged me goodbye.
Here’s my list of 10 things I love about moving
You get to start over.
Every move involves a new place with opportunities to begin again.
I don’t usually know anyone and this is a chance to be a different person than my current style.
It never works to become different, but the possibility is there!
You can better bond as a family
Moving always has its challenges, but it can be a good opportunity to focus on what’s important within your family.
We asked the children what type of house they’d like to live in, for example.
(And laughed over some of their responses).
Talking about the new place, imagining a new life, helping them learn about letting go of old toys, friends, and school can help deal with the challenges to come.
We usually took a trip in conjunction with our move (okay, four moves across the US and one overseas means a big trip), and that was a marker of fun and adventure.
It reminded us we were a cohesive unit as we explored a new life in a new place.
In promoting family unity, we were able to help each other through the challenges all moves entail.
We had to talk, talk, talk, and within a family that’s always a positive.
You can purge your possessions
It’s a great opportunity to go through what you own and discard what you no longer need.
If you haven’t used it in a while, get rid of it. There’s no point in paying to move something you won’t use at the next location.
That includes culling the books! (I gave away 400 before one move).
(Just don’t donate your children’s castoff toys to a friend’s yard sale and then stop by to visit.)
(If you are moving to Hawai’i, you do not need winter clothes. We cached those in LA at my parents’ house since LA would always be the first stop on the Mainland).
You get to find a house that may fit your family better
Ours were military moves and each one enabled us to find a house that fit our growing family better than the last house.
(Other than Hawai’i; but that’s always a different story).
Pregnant with a third child when we moved to Monterey, I was happy the Navy granted us a four-bedroom house.
Moving to Washington with three rambunctious boys meant we found a simple house with a big yard, running stream and plenty of room for a garden.
Perfect.
Moving to a new residence can increase your creativity
Each new house had its own peculiarities and the furniture placement can be a challenge.
This is where you get to use your creativity to figure out how to use what furniture where.
We have a dresser that has been a dresser, a bookcase, a sewing stash, and a business center.
It all depended on the house and where the furniture fit best.
The piano served as a room divider in one townhouse.
You get to learn a new place
I love to travel and each move is an opportunity to learn about a new part of the country.
We’ve lived in Florida, New England, up and down California, Washington State, and Hawai’i.
Each place has its own culture and I’ve enjoyed learning about them.
I’ve also picked up local twangs–New England’s flattened “a,” Washington’s “eh?” and the lyricism of Hawai’i’s words when correctly pronounced.
(Yes, get all those “i”s in there properly!)
You get to try out a new library and thus a new library collection
I’ve benefitted in all my moves because I get to explore a new library collection.
I’ve picked up books in one part of the country I’ve never seen in another.
I learned all about the Pacific Northwest when I lived in Washington, and that included Alaska.
I’ve not seen many of those books since!
You discover new recreation opportunities
The kids learned to sail in Hawai’i, hunt for gemstones in northern California, camp in the rain in Washington, and the joy of apple picking in New England.
I learned how to grow different varieties of flowers and vegetables in each location.
We savored the trade winds, shook our heads over the distant seal barking, ate strawberries from the bushes and learned how to cut down trees.
Get a guidebook for the new area and plan outings.
We’ve got a hiking book for our current location and mark them off as we go.
Local foods increase your palate
My sons may love spam musubi, but not me.
New England enlarged my food choices to lobster and blueberries–I’d never tasted them before.
Oh, and Dungeness crab out of Washington!
Corn eaten twenty minutes after picking in upstate New York!
Moving all over the country introduced us to so many terrific foods we’d never encountered before.
And then, of course, there are all the new restaurants to explore!
New Friends
Sure, we love our old friends and moving away means saying goodbye.
But in the age of social media, we’re a lot closer than we used to be.
Each new location enables us to make new friends– though it’s easier if you move with children.
We’ve attended all sorts of different churches around the country.
There are wonderful people everywhere.
Moving fourteen times has shown me that.
And, of course, it means when you travel you always have someone to visit!
Saying Goodbye
The hardest part of all is saying goodbye, and I’ll be waving as the neighbors, and other dearly loved friends, head to their new homes.
Moving is a growing experience. It can be a positive one.
Our attitude is at the heart.
Besides, you can always move back, right?
Tweetables
10 things I love about moving. Click to Tweet
Finding positives in a move, for kids, families, and adults. Click to Tweet
The 10 best things about moving. Click to Tweet
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