Moving Day: A Preview

Posted August 10, 2016 by Tara Pealer

It’s almost halfway through August, which should mean that anyone moving into or out of Boston should be planning how to attack Move In Day.

Facebook just told me that this time last year, I was trying to convince family and friends to do the heavy lifting by offering them pizza and alcohol. That’s approximately as much planning as I did. I didn’t even order the pizza until we were done moving things in. I did figure out how not to move on ‘move in day’ by taking a train to last year’s orientation and crashing at my older sister’s house.

For those of you moving into Boston, Move In Day officially begins September 1st. Boston is a college city, and college students are always moving. According to a real estate article from 2014, Beacon Hill has an 80% turnover rate for apartments. In 2010, a little over 9000 people lived there.

So imagine 7,200 people trying to move in about one square mile from one apartment to another, and you get a pretty solid microcosm of the moving situation in Boston in a 48 hour time period.

I don’t have to move this year, which is a great feeling.

My friend, on the other hand, is moving, and she is moving in on moving day. To make matters worse, she’s moving from Boston to Brookline, and there is a crazy strict time schedule to maintain. She has to be out August 31st at noon, and she can’t move in until the next day.

Her parents are coming to help, but they’re coming out from Missouri. It’s a bit of a drive, so she and her new roommate ended up renting a storage unit for two months. She’s already started packing.

Here are some tips I can offer you for moving:

1. If you can, wait until after the 1st to move in. It will make everything so much easier on you. It’s not hard to make arrangements with your landlord to pick up your keys a day or two after the lease officially starts–just let them know when you’ll be in.
2. Make sure you know exactly where you’re going and that the right address is in the GPS. Do not, for example, assume that your family members won’t switch up the numbers and start trying to unpack your stuff six blocks away from your apartment.
3. Bring water! I live in a building with an elevator, but it got hot fast. And people helping you move won’t be as impressed by your 100 year old antique furniture if it’s about 50 pounds heavier than your Walmart futon.
4. Have a plan for your pets, even if it is just “dropping it off at my best friend’s apartment while she’s working”. It better not be “leaving it in the car” because I will find you and I will fight you.
5. Send thank you notes to family who helped out. Tell them how much it meant. Buy them pizza.

So, good luck to everyone moving!