Moving – Discovering a Two Year Time Capsule

To state the obvious, there are two parts to any move…moving out and moving in. For most people, moving out is the hard part: packing up all of your belongings, deciding what to keep and what to throw away and fretting over broken and lost items. I beg to differ…When I moved out of my apartment in SF two and a half years ago, I took pride in my packing efforts and was meticulous in every aspect: labeling every box, keeping only what was necessary and what I would want in two years and perfectly organizing my storage unit for maximum use (okay, so I technically left that last one up to my movers, but I did supervise). And when I moved out of my apartment in Zurich recently, I had it much easier…especially since Martin was staying put. I packed up my clothes, shoes and purses (at least those that fit into my 6 bags) and hopped on the next plane to San Francisco…(again, in reality, I have been taking two bags back to CA since Christmas 2008 and will be picking up 2 more this upcoming trip, but you get the picture.)

Moving back into SF has been a whole different story…With the move back from Zurich completed in June, I had been prolonging the dreaded move-in for three and a half months. The idea of tying myself down to an apartment, let alone a city for a one-year lease scared the poop out of me. Add to that the idea of investing in furniture to fill the new place., and I officially had the shakes I finally made the plunge this past week; I signed the lease on my new apartment, called the movers and re-discovered all of my belongings I had so preciously tucked away a couple of years ago. First thing I noticed missing…my bed. I am not sure what happened to it, or more importantly what relative’s bedroom it ended up in, but I no longer owned a bed. Good thing I had an Aerobed (yes, my first night in my glamorous new apartment in SF was spent on a blow-up mattress)…I quickly added “buying a new mattress” to the top of my list of things to do the next day. Second thing missing: the TV. Unlike the bed, I vaguely remember deciding to give the TV away, since I reckoned I would want to upgrade once I returned…I guessed right and immediately went out and bought a modest sized flat screen Samsung: the baby version to my TV in Zurich.

Among the other items missing and/or given away in the move…the microwave, towels, a shoe rack, bookshelf, all my hangers and probably countless other items that I have long forgotten about. However, in all my insight so many years ago, I did manage to save, pack and not break: 6 martini glasses, 6 wine glasses, 3 margarita glasses, 2 Tiki Tom glasses, and of course my favorite two beer cozies “I may not be perfect, but I am so close it’s scary” and “Have you ever noticed that Cupid rhymes with stupid”. Clearly my definition of “necessity” was slightly different a few years ago…along with my idea of “clean”… half of the items pulled out of storage were filthy.

So while I spent the past few days running around the city to buy the missing items (including 4 trips to Target) and washing everything I own, I have to sit back and smile about my belongings saved from years before…I guess my packing job was more of a time capsule to my crazy life in SF than furnishings to a proper apartment.