I feel kinda left out in this conversation.
I’ve never moved house or helped someone move house. I’ve rearranged my room though! But I don’t think that counts. Dang!

Moving. OMG. I used to be a Pro at this. I never really stayed in a place long enough to feel comfy.
I was sent from one relative to another when I was growing up (my parents went their own way, gotten married and had kids).
Then a week after I graduated from college, I was sent packing to live on my own. Where I’m from this isn’t normal, families are so tight knit; they live at home until they get married or even after (in some cases).
So anyway, after my Aunt found out that I got a job (I was immediately hired to teach at a Prep School in the area)a week after graduation, I was sent packing.
All I had was my clothes, my shoes and bags.
I rented a flat near work and literally, I had nothing.
I decided to get a can opener, an electric fan, a plate, a bowl, a mug and a pillow.
That was all I had until my next move. My second move included a small television, a cd player and a microwave. I accumulated a lot of other household things.
Third move a bad idea. My mom went to spend the night at my place and found out that I stopped school (I was working on my Master’s) because work was murderous and BILLS, BILLS, BILLS.
She offered to let me stay at her house. Again, a bad idea considering we NEVER had a peaceful relationship— EVER!
Wanting to finish my Master’s, I (stupidly) decided to move in with my mother where 3 of her other kids live (1 was in college, 2 were in High School). I sold the appliances I had and moved to my mother’s. Less than a month after that, I left. My mother and I couldn’t get along even when our lives depended on it.
I lived with a friend for a while until I got myself another place. I ditched the idea that I’ll ever finish Grad School (— I eventually did 4 years later).
After a couple of years, I got engaged then got married. My husband got a job overseas and (we decided that I should) move in with my in-laws. The best decision EVER. I have a great relationship with my in-laws. After a year, I packed my stuff and joined my husband.
That was the last move. Unlike me, my husband had stayed at the same place all his life– up until he was offered the job overseas.
The funny thing is friends STILL call me when they move. They think I’m a whiz at this.
I probably am. =)

Before I bought a condo last year I moved every two years (5 times since moving to Halifax in 1997). I jumped from one part of the city to another because I was tired of the view out of my window, or the laundry room was not on my floor, or the rent was increased (again) or the room layout was awful (and why I didn’t see that before I moved in, I’ll never know). You’d think I just liked moving or something, but I really don’t. And it’s not like moving is inexpensive, because it always ends up costing you more than you ever thought it would. But now I’m happily settled in to my condo and hope to not move again for a long, long time…or until global warming melts the ice caps and Nova Scotia is sunk beneath the Atlantic. Can I come live with you then?

I think that by the time I was 18, I had moved about 30 times. My family is part nomad, I guess. The moving didn’t stop when we settled in the Northwest, but about two years into it, I asked my parents when we were leaving. Because, surely, you can’t stay in one place for longer than two years, right?

I stopped counting once I went to college but we can probably add another 10 to that last count. And I’m three weeks away from moving again (and I don’t even know where yet!).

One of the more memorable stories? We were moving to Indiana and coming into town late in the night. It was a warm evening and we had the windows of the car open. Driving slowly down one of the small town roads in the dark, a grasshopper lept in through the passenger window and down by my mother’s feet.

The resultant screams and panic forced us to the side of the road to find the poor grasshopper who was probably more frightened than my mother was at that point.

So, yeah. Hi new neighbors! That screaming woman there? That’s my mom. Nice to meet ya.

Packing is a talent, one I was blessed with since a young age. If there was an empty box, I would fill it with something because I just felt like it. My mom sews often, thus I tended to pack boxes of fabric my mother collected. I would also pack new groceries into our refrigerator. If you met my brother and saw how much he eats, you would understand “packing” a fridge.

It probably began when I first went camping on a Girl Scout trip when I was still in elementary school. One learned how to pack a backpack to the brim with all the essentials and how to put together a bed roll in your sleeping bag! Since then I have camped nearly 15 times, I am now 21 years of age.

Moving wise, I’ve lived in the same house since birth. However, I moved to live in the residence halls on campus when I started college. I have lived in 4 different dorms over the course of 3 years including summers. This summer is my first one back home and it is definitely different. I have my own space!! But living and moving in dorms taught me how to pack up my life into as few boxes possible. Moving in the heat of a Florida summer is no fun! I’ve got it down to a science though: it takes just 1 trip of packing my car to the brim!

In the fall, I will be living in my first apartment as a senior. I will be living in the largest space I have ever lived in. Then one I graduate, a friend and I are moving to Seattle. But I’m one of these people who loves to travel and I plan to move around the country for a few year. Then permanently move to Ireland.

I have a lot of moving to look forward to!

Ive moved 13 times in 18yrs!

That’s actually probably a good thing, Bec. Many of us call it stability. Wistfully.

You took the words right outta my mouth, Mel. Very adventurous of you!

Wowsa, Summer. Eloquence escapes me. Consider yourself hugged.

You sound kinda like my son, Andie, who only remembers moving once (though he did as an infant) when he was six, from a rental house to an owner house. Boy was he pissed. Off. Nothing could convince him the new place could improve on the old. Then we got through a winter without freezing our butts off. Sold!

You’re certainly welcome, Zita. Just be warned, most of the Americans now living on the east and west coasts will probably get here before you!

Well, Emzie-pooh, when you get your own place, all you have to do is make your sister sleep on the sofa-bed. Revenge is sweet sayeth the Jennifer!

Wow, Shannon, that’s definitely an interesting welcome to a new town!

There’s gotta be something special about Oil City, Marissa, it pops up so often on your list. Lemme guess…
they have a Drive-In movie theater?

How exciting is that move to Ireland gonna be, DeDe? You go!!

Good to know, Penny. Americans seem to move a bunch too. (Not always for the best reasons. But maybe I won’t get into that here!)

That’s a lot o’moving Samantha!

I would definitely call that seat-of-the-pants living Andais! Hope it was fun!

I’m currently 18 and I have only moved once 8 years ago, and I loved it. I think we have a family trait of traveling, or wanderlust as my mother calls it. This is as my Great-grandfather,granfather, and mother have done some insane travels and not just around one country. My mother over a period of ten years moved around to different countries getting a job, staying for a while and working, then moving on. Infact I was a hair-breaths away from having a dual-nationality from being born in Australia, unfortunatley I’m just standard British.
My first solo move should be coming up soon as, hopefully, I should be going to Canterbury for uni.

LOL, Jade. I think my grandma only moved three times in the ninety years she was alive. Once from the house her father built into a rental (same city). Once back into that same house. And once into a very nice assisted living complex a few years after my grandpa died (different city). I’ve moved nine times with another one planned in the next few years, and I’m only half her age. So I guess you never know where life will lead you! (My fave moving story was the last one, when we came to our present house. I have an upright grand piano that was made in 1908. It weighs probably 600 pounds. My hubby was coaching football back then, so he had about ten of his players show up, and it took every one of them packed around that piano to shuffle it out the doorway of the old house and into the new one. Lots of grunting, ordering each other around–but no swearing with Coach right there to overhear them!)

Have fun in uni, Caitlin! It can be such a wonderful experience if you let it!

Hang in there, Emma. Your time will come!

I’ve moved 10 times. All of them in the first 18 years of my life! I also went to 5 Infant schools (ages 5-11, not sure what that equates to in American)
I hate moving, it’s stressful, time consuming and generally a pain in the a**e!
Hopeing to only move one more time so that we have enough space to accommodate my daughter and her ever growing collection of toddler crap – dame those kids need so much stuff!!!

It’s where I ended up growing up, LOL. Went to high school there, and my family is still there.

LOL!!

I’ve only moved once. My grandparents lived in the same house since they got married in the 1950s. Before them it had been a pub and then a corner sweet shop since the 1800s. In 2007 the city council decided that the area was too old now and they were going to demolish it all and rebuild new houses. We were forced to move into a much smaller house at christmas that year. I’m happy that we actually have a garden now, because all we had was a 2m x 4m brick yard before, but I miss having space to walk through my own bedroom.

But, anyway, because the economic situation got worse they didn’t demolish the houses after all. They’re just sitting there, blocked off, and looking a complete mess. The houses further down the street were demolished and only half rebuilt and now they’re just sitting there.