Life – Page 43

Categories: Life

New Apartment Tour

Happy Monday! Now that my new apartment is mostly put together, I thought today would be a great day to give a tour of the place. I’ll preface this tour by saying my roommate and I are not decorators. At all. Most of our walls are still bare because we’re still trying to figure out how to decorate them. Oh, and if you notice any peculiar decor choices like squirrel mounts, well, that’s just part of the charm!

When decorating, I opt for comfort, minimalism, and function. I want clean, open spaces, but I also want something homey. Roomie is very similar to me, and we’ve really been able to bring this to our new home. I’m so happy with our apartment and it really does feel like home to me now.

So, shall we tour?

All my life, I’ve lived in apartments that have outside entrances, so it’s a special treat for me to actually have a hallway and an inside entrance to my apartment. It definitely feels more secure, which is my biggest must-have when apartment searching.

When you open the door to my apartment, this is the view you will be greeted with. To your left is the kitchen (and my roommate’s room beyond that). In front of you is the living room. And to your right is my room, our washer/dryer, and my bathroom. Let’s start with the living room!

LIVING ROOM

Our living room is small, but we don’t need much room, quite frankly. The couch is wonderfully luxurious and the TV stand makes me weirdly happy every time I see it (adulting much?) Roomie and I have already enjoyed many nights snuggled on the couch watching TV, and it’s every bit as wonderful as one might imagine.

And, of course, Dutch has his own corner for his blankets and pillows. He’s not one bit spoiled. Not at all. Uh-uh.

DINING ROOM

Right off the living room is the dining room, which perfectly fits our dining table. We probably need some sort of print on that wall because the room looks a little bare. In due time, yes?

BALCONY

Right off the dining room, a door leads to the balcony, which is completely empty. Roomie and I are hoping to invest in a table and chairs. The view isn’t great (it’s laughably terrible, in fact), but what can you do?

KITCHEN

Oh, the kitchen. I love the kitchen. It’s big enough for Roomie and me to move around in together, and we have a ton of cabinet and drawer space. We also have a pantry! It’s so nice to have a pantry, though I’d really like to organize ours better. One of my favorite features of the kitchen is the deep sink. It’s so, so wonderful.

BATHROOM

I love my bathroom. It’s at least twice the size of my bathroom at my previous apartment and I have way more counter and cabinet space. It’s really, really wonderful. Also, the tub makes my eyes turn into hearts. Bubble baths are my #1 form of self-care, and a deep, luxurious tub is something I haven’t ever had. This tub is my everything.

WASHER/DRYER

Between my bathroom and my bedroom is the washer/dryer. Having an in-unit washer/dryer was one of Roomie and my must-haves when we were apartment hunting. It just makes life so much easier to not have to deal with communal laundry. And our washer/dryer is hidden behind a set of doors when not in use, which is also nice.

BEDROOM

Lastly, we have my bedroom! My bedroom is a nice size, especially for a guest bedroom, and I’m sure I could easily fit a queen-sized bed (mine is a full) and a bigger dresser in my room without it feeling too cramped. (I have plans to do so, so it’s nice I will be able to!) I’m happy to have a walk-in closet, though I find the shelves to be a little awkwardly placed. I do wish I had more shelving options, but I could always add some if I wanted to.

And there you have it! A tour of my new apartment, a place I am so happy to call my home. There’s still some more decorating to do, but I think we have a solid base and I’m so proud of this little home I’ve created with Roomie.

How would you describe your decorating style in three words?

Categories: Life

Lessen Your Moving Stress with Hybrid Moving

I am thrilled to bring this blog post to you guys today! As part of a decision I made when I started this blog, I do not do many sponsored posts. There are many reasons why, and one of the main reasons is that I rarely come across an opportunity that piques my interest enough to accept. But a few weeks before my move, I was contacted by HireAHelper.com to use their services in exchange for a review on my blog. I really wanted to accept, but I didn’t feel as if I could give an accurate review as I only needed a few big furniture items moved (my bed and my dresser). Instead, I asked if my roommate could use the service (since she was bringing the big furniture items into the new apartment) and write a guest post for my blog. And they accepted! So, for today, I am handing my blog over to my wonderful Roomie to talk about HireAHelper.com and her experience with the company.

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Hey stephanywrites readers! I’m Briana (or Bri, as many like Steph call me) and you may have already learned who I am – the work bestie, the real-life bestie, and the new roomie. But honestly, we’ve connected pretty deeply in terms of our friendship. I feel comfortable telling Stephany anything and everything, and for that reason (and many others) I knew that if I was going to return to a roommate situation, she was the girl to do it with. And so, here we are. Roommates at last!

However, I can’t lie to you or to myself: I was excited to move in with Stephany…but moving sucks. It’s a lot of purging, organizing, packing, labeling, manual labor, planning, and, of course, it’s generally expensive. Full-service moving companies charge a lot of money for their services! The end result of a move rocks, but the process and expense? I could do without.

While you can’t avoid most of the above moving tasks, it is possible to mitigate some of the expense.

Option one is 100% DIY. You pack, you do all the heavy lifting, and you rent and drive your own truck. But that’s exhausting, and you have to have some help from friends and/or family if you need to carry heavy furniture (like I have) up and down stairs (which I also had at both the new and old place).

Option two is what I did: a hybrid move. With a hybrid move, most of the work and equipment is still DIY except for the lifting, loading, and/or unloading labor. It is a much most cost-effective option than full-service moving packages. It sounded like a good option for me.

Enter: HireAHelper.com. HireAHelper is a unique online service that connects users to moving companies in their area that might be willing to provide labor on the specified moving day. They offered me a solution I couldn’t refuse: strong arms.

Before the Move

HireAHelper’s website is incredibly straightforward, aesthetically pleasing, and very user friendly. It’s really a no-fuss start. You type in your moving date and zip code, and you’re instantly connected to a list of moving companies that provide moving labor. You can customize the specs of your move, including the number of movers you want, the number of hours you want them for, and the number of flights of stairs to get accurate quotes instantly. You can compare prices from different moving companies on the spot, as well as view ratings and reviews from past customers – something that I value greatly. On this page, you can select your company of choice.

I selected a company and immediately got confirmation via e-mail. Good, quick communication. You earned brownie points, HireAHelper!

However, about a day later, I got another e-mail telling me that the moving company I picked declined my move, and that I would have to select a new company. As you might imagine, I was not particularly happy about it. But not even 15 minutes later, HireAHelper actually called me to help me pick a new company. That phone call from HireAHelper was arguably some of the best customer service I’ve ever had.

Two days before my moving date, the moving company I selected gave me a call to confirm the appointment, and HireAHelper sent me another e-mail to remind me to complete my inventory list. With everything packed and ready to go, I just had to wait for the day to arrive.

Moving Day

Moving day! I picked up my U-Haul at 9 a.m., because I scheduled the movers to arrive between 10 and 11. I got a text message from HireAHelper, instructing me to send them a text when the job was completed – the movers would not get paid until I did so. I kind of appreciated that, because it’s almost like insurance that your movers will show up.

At 10 a.m. my movers called to let me know they were on their way, as the moving company is located about 40 minutes from my old apartment. But by 11 they still hadn’t shown. And then 12 came. Still no word. At 12:30 they called and told me they were 5 minutes out. At 12:45 they parked and met me at my U-Haul.

Obviously, I was REALLY not happy at how late my movers were. The reviews they had were all really positive, so I was disappointed. But, I understand life happens – turns out that one of their trucks had been broken into and equipment was stolen, so they had to file a police report. A phone call would have been nice though.

The actual move went off without a hitch. I thought I needed them for four hours, between all of my flights of stairs and all the furniture I had. However, these guys worked really efficiently. About two and a half hour later, I had every bit of furniture in my new apartment, with not a single dent or scratch to speak of. Which, apparently, is hard to come by.

I sent my text off to HireAHelper, at which time I was prompted through three text message questions to ensure that the movers were paid and that the job was done within the scheduled time limit and didn’t run over. I got a follow-up e-mail to review how my move went.

Overall Feelings

I started off on the wrong foot with the moving company I selected because of the delay. But the actual service I got from them was awesome, so I can see why they were so well rated on HireAHelper and why they were the company that the HireAHelper representative set me up with. Overall, I would grade the experience on my moving day a “B” for the unnecessary stress from my movers.

For my experience with HireAHelper.com, I would give a grade of an “A.” Between all the e-mails I got, the phone call when things seemed to go south, and the ease of use, it gets my vote. I would say to do your homework though – just because they have reviews on their site doesn’t mean you don’t have to research movers on your own. Also, there’s still some responsibility on your end. I’m not sure what HireAHelper communicates to the movers you choose in terms of job specs, but you need to clarify everything with your movers on the phone, well in advance. Nobody (you or your movers) likes surprises on moving day.

Would I use HireAHelper.com again? Yes. Yes I would. But after I do more of my own research and homework.

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This post is sponsored by HireAHelper.com. They provided a credit toward the cost of their moving service in exchange for an honest review. All words, thoughts, and opinions – unless otherwise stated – belong to me or my guest poster, Briana.

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Have you ever attempted a hybrid move? If not, would you ever?

Categories: Life

I’m 27 and Scared to Move Out

Like most young adults, I moved out for the first time at the age of 18. At the time, I had been living with my mom and my dog, Minnie.

What followed was the hardest nine months of my life. The first four months, I cried multiple times a day, sometimes while on the phone with my mom. I had a terrible roommate that I didn’t get along with, and I was in an entirely new environment and not coping well at all. I should have spoken to my RA or a school therapist about my extreme homesickness, but I think I felt really embarrassed about it and the fact that everyone around me was doing fine and enjoying college, while I felt like I was drowning. Since I had spent the last two years of high school taking college courses, I wasn’t even in classes with people my age. Everyone was nearing the end of their college journey, not beginning it. Plus, my classes were hard, and I was failing two of them.

Things never got better (though I did pull myself together and make passing grades in the classes I was previously failing – hooray!) and I was homesick for nine straight months. I went home every single weekend and ended up moving back home after a year and becoming a commuter student.

Since then, every time I picture moving out to my own place, I envision being in a similar situation and it fills my entire being with dread.

So I’ve put off moving out. And put it off. And put it off.

It’s only been recently that I’ve felt strong enough to finally take this giant step into adulthood. This step that seems to come so easily for those around me – people who thrive at college and can’t imagine living with their parents past the age of 18 – and yet, has been the biggest struggle of my life so far.

This weekend, I will finally – finally! – move into my own place.

Albeit with a roommate, but I still consider it moving out and being on my own and independent. And I’m excited! I’m so excited to make this huge life change and shake up my comfort zone. But I’m also nervous.

I’m nervous because I don’t know the area well and I don’t know if the area is the right fit for me. I like to think of South Tampa as where all the pretty people live. If you’re a twenty-something living in Tampa, you want to live in South Tampa. It’s where the cool restaurants and bars are, it’s where young professionals hang out. I worry about feeling out of place, of not fitting in.

I’m nervous because change and big life transitions are so difficult for me. My coping skills are better now that I understand myself on a deeper level than I did back when I was 18… but I still struggle with change. I worry about falling into that same level of fear and anxiety as I did in college.

I’m nervous because I’ll have more responsibilities. Though I pay my mom for rent and utilities, she’s the one who takes care of things. It’ll be on my shoulders now to make sure the bills are paid. I’ll have to be super strict with my budget because I’ll be paying more in rent, along with having other responsibilities to pay for, like the water bill and Dutch’s vet fees. I worry about drowning in everything that is required of me to be a functioning member of society.

I’m nervous about Dutch, about his transition to a new living situation. I worry that he’ll spend all day crying in the apartment and disturb our neighbors. I worry about him peeing in defiance on brand-new carpeting (he’s done this before). I worry about how I’ll handle being his sole caretaker.

In many ways, I feel incredibly silly for being 27 years old and having so many fears about moving to my own apartment. I am well past the stage of life where it’s deemed acceptable to be living with your parents (though, I do have a unique situation in that my mom and I function more like roommates than parent/child). I don’t know anybody that I work with that still lives with their parents. And I work with a lot of people my age and younger! So it’s very hard to write this post, to admit that I’m scared of this change, to come clean about my anxieties.

But I am. I have many qualms. But I also know I am 100% ready for this. I know it will be hard and I will need to give myself buckets of grace during this time, to allow myself the time and space to settle into this new life of mine. I know this is exactly what I need and exactly the path I need to be on. I know myself so much better than I did when I was 18. Back then, I did not know about introversion, about high sensitivity, about social anxiety.

(If I had, I probably would have opted for a different living situation – an apartment rather than a traditional dorm – or have decided commuting was the best option for my needs.)

What I know is this: I am moving in with one of my best friends, someone who understands me on a deep level, someone who is one of the brightest forces in my life right now. I am moving with a better appreciation of myself and a heightened understanding of my needs and my personality and my brand of anxiety. I am moving with the understanding that if things feel overwhelmingly difficult, I will seek therapy and find better ways to cope.

So, emotions? I have them. By the truckload. I waver between excitement and trepidation and joy and nervousness. This is a huge life change for me and all I can do is be present in the moment, revel in the triumphs, and learn from the setbacks. Move-in day is in three days. I am ready.

Categories: Life

The Month of August

August was a wonderful month. It was a slow month, but also a month of big decisions, new experiences, and tons and tons of time spent lounging lazily reading.

Disconnecting from my blog and the Internet as a whole was exactly what I needed. I needed to get away from blogging and social media, to let it all go for just a little while. I will admit, at a certain point, I began to feel weird, so cut off from what was going on in people’s lives. As I added my social media apps back onto my phone yesterday, I felt as if I was entering this unknown world. I felt awkward as I scrolled through Twitter and Instagram once again. In due time, it’ll become second nature for me. It always does.

We’re two days into September already. We’re a mere eight days away from the kick-off to the NFL season and I’m sure Halloween costumes and candy will be littering the aisles of Target soon enough. Before we know it, we’ll be eating Thanksgiving dinner, decorating for Christmas, and singing holiday songs. This year is passing by in a blink of an eye, but that’s just how it goes. I’m just trying to be present and open to what each day has for me.

Early into August, my roommate and I signed a lease! After losing out on some privately owned condos in South Tampa, we decided to rent from an apartment community. We move next weekend, so August has been a flurry of decluttering, packing, shopping for the new place, and saving up for move-in costs. I have many emotions surrounding this move, which I’ll be talking more about next week.

I celebrated two years at my job last month. I can’t believe it’s been two whole years, and that I still love what I do just as much as I did when I started. Like any job, it has its low points, but generally, I love it. It helps that the work environment is healthy and motivating and that I work with wonderful people who are fun to be around. I had an informal annual review, which was more of a discussion where I could ask questions and give feedback on their processes. It’s truly a joy working at this company and I cannot wait to see what lies ahead in year three!

After more than two months of having a UTI, Dutch is back to his normal self. It was really in August when he seemed to be back to his usual perkiness. He’s not having accidents in the house anymore, though we have been careful to take him out more often. (And, sometimes, that entails waking up at 4 a.m. on a Saturday, which is totes fun.) Last week, he went to the vet for a dental cleaning and his biannual comprehensive exam. He passed his comprehensive with flying colors, and it makes me so happy to know that he is healthy again and not dealing with the pain of a bad UTI. That was such a low point of my year!

Other happenings in August: Dutch and I walked in a race, which was fun even if the race was a little unorganized. I met up with my friend Amber to participate in a Home Depot workshop, where we got to make a decorative shelf (and it was completely free! Score!). And my writing partner and I started meeting weekly to work on our novels. We hadn’t made the time for it in a very long time, so it’s been fun to get together for a few hours on the weekend and have dedicated time to work on my novel.

All in all, August was good to me. I loved my time away from the Internet, but I was also counting down the days when I could return to it. I missed it so much more than I thought I would, especially blogging. While I needed the time away to reconnect with myself and make some big plans for my life and this blog, letting it go for a little while made me realize how much I love it and what a big part of my everyday life it is. I’m so very happy to be back.

Tell me something good that happened for you in August!

Categories: Life

Rest

In 2012 and 2013, I took a month-long social media and blogging break. I did it in 2012 because my heart had been broken and I needed the time away to just sit in the sadness for a little while without the distraction of social media. Social media is noisy and filled with people giving their opinions on what to think, say, do, feel. I needed to get away from the noise so I could just be.

I enjoyed my break so much that I decided to take another one the following year. I didn’t take a break in 2014, but I decided early this year that I wanted to take one in 2015. August has always seemed like the right month because stuff happens this month. 2012 was the heartbreak, 2013 was starting a new job, and hopefully, 2015 is moving to a new city.

I’m really looking forward to the time away. I’m not necessarily addicted to social media. I scroll through my feeds a few times a day, but I don’t update them as much as I used to. I use Instagram the most, and sometimes I feel pressure with it to make sure I don’t get too behind on my feed. So this break isn’t needed because I’m too addicted to social media. I’m not at all. I just like the idea of forcing myself to completely get away. Of taking off the apps on my phone and not using social media as a distraction when I’m sitting at a red light or waiting in line or watching TV. Plus, social media is so noisy and so opinionated and sometimes makes me feel bad about myself or my life… so these month-long breaks are so good for my soul.

What I’m really excited about, though, is taking a break from blogging. I love my blog and I love writing posts, but it takes a lot of work. I probably spend around 5-10 hours a week on this blog, which isn’t a lot, but it kinda is to spend on a passion project that actually costs me money rather than gives me any. I do it because I love it, but it’s also something that burns me out easily. And I just need the time away from the writing and the planning and the documenting. To do things for the sake of doing them, and not worry about how to spin them into a blog post.

So, here we go. One month away from social media and blogging. I’m so ready for this.