
What I learned in 7 years, 5 apartments, and 9 roommates - uladzislau
http://www.brickunderground.com/blog/2013/06/lessons_learned_after_5_apartments_9_roommates_and_7_years_in_new_york_city
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jacques_chester
Here's what I've learned after moving 20 times (that I can remember, including
one hellish year when I had to move 9 times) in my life:

1\. Books are heavy. Some people say that a Kindle isn't as good as real
books. Some people are pretty women who don't have trouble rounding up help on
moving day.

2\. Getting rid of books you can't give away and have no justification for
keeping is traumatic.

3\. You have more small, difficult to pack, useless crap than you realise. It
unfolds like a kind of malevolent, multidimensional quantum origami when you
move.

4\. For local moves, rent a 3-ton truck for moving day. Accept that this
probably means moving on a work day because said trucks are booked on weekends
for months in advance. Loading and unloading for a single trip is really
unpleasant -- but there's something much, much more soul-sucking about doing
lots of trips back and forth.

5\. Long distance moving changes the work from a single day into multiple
days. On paper it should be easier. Paper lies.

6\. If you're moving long distance, don't bother with furniture or whitegoods.
Ditch them and rent or buy at the other end.

7\. Help your friends move.

~~~
contingencies
Absolutely agree on the 1&2 (books). Description of 3 is great wordsmithing!
On 5 I rarely need a truck, just multiple taxi rides (no furniture/whitegoods,
see 6). Actually once or twice I had some, but used a load-bearing Chinese
peasant tricycle (oil begone!). On 7, I help people move when asked or it
seems useful to offer, but personally do not deal well with other people
'assisting' due to the wont to dispose of useless things and be fully aware of
what's packed in what going where. Moving should be a spiritual process, like
a sort of postmodern ritual cleansing of objects. The reproductive stage of
the malevolent, multidimensional quantum origami of things that leads to still
more beautiful future generations or the long suspected as looming, but never
acknowledged, sudden and outright genocide of its entire genotype.

~~~
jacques_chester
People do sometimes like to display their pop spirituality by throwing stuff
away when they move. There was a blog post on the front page a few days ago
about it.

I don't really have a deep California buddhist-slash- _Fight Club_ reason for
it. I just bloody _hate_ moving.

Anyhow, as the saying goes. Before Enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.
After Enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.

~~~
contingencies
With you on the pop spirituality... the posted article was semi-neurotic in
tone. My own decade-long international itinerance leaves no option for
'stuff'. I used to cycle tour a lot, which is a great way to get stuff-
conscious (eg. slogging it up a hill at 2000m... it really "weighs" on you!).
These days I nearly always travel with a 20 liter backpack out of minimalist
habit.

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imissmyjuno
Some things I've learned while renting a room in a house:

* Don't store expensive alcohol or munchie relieving foods in common spaces.

* Some people don't close the washroom door when taking a leak, even with strangers around the house.

* Establish a dish washing and house cleaning protocol. Split the costs of all supplies, or have a piggy bank for this stuff. Can be used to order pizza too.

* Some people believe Febreeze helps clean your fart repository sofa. Or mask the odour coming out of the organic waste bin on a hot day.

* A low rent is more likely to attract a problematic tenant. I've seen tenants ranging from complete slobs to the two students who could not pay the rent and eventually set the basement on fire (by accident). Fix up the place at least cosmetically, buy low-maintenance plants, take pictures on a sunny day with plenty of natural light, and up the rent. Good tenants are worth the extra work.

* A short-term tenant is more likely to treat the place like shit.

* A laundry machine in the house is great. If not available, check that the laundromat is within walking distance of someone carrying massive laundry bags, and that it closes at 12am and opens at 6am, or is open 24/7.

* A walking-distance grocery store and/or fruit market is a massive plus.

~~~
tunesmith
Store your compost bin in the freezer. :) We do that, on its own shelf - no
more bugs!

~~~
emiljbs
Aren't you acting against the whole compost part then?

The point is to have bugs and so on decompose what's in the compost bin, as
far as I know.

~~~
imissmyjuno
I think we're talking about different things. I meant my own organic waste
bin, which gets emptied into the Green Bin:
[http://www.toronto.ca/greenbin/index.htm](http://www.toronto.ca/greenbin/index.htm)

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patdennis
For the past four years, I've moved 1-3 times per year (I work in politics,
and move to wherever the interesting elections are happening).

The only universally applicable piece of advice I can give is this: Your
commute matters. A lot.

Seriously. Annoying roommates, beautiful balconies, new appliances - none of
these things has had nearly the effect on my day to day happiness as living
within a 3-4 mile bike ride from work.

~~~
uptown
I'm curious what age bracket you fall into? Most of my work is in a city, but
I'm at an age where I want things the city can't provide (more space, a back
yard, etc.) so some amount of commuting is unavoidable unless I change jobs
along with a move.

Appliances and balconies are one thing - but a house and a yard are
unobtainable in many urban environments.

~~~
_delirium
I'm early 30s and still like the city, though that's still fairly young I
suppose. I agree there are some lifestyle choices involved, though. I like
outdoor space myself, but I don't personally feel a need for it to be my own
private yard. It's more important to me to be near large parks, waterfront
spaces, nice plazas, etc.

I'd say it's a fairly common preference here (Copenhagen) even for families,
although some do prefer single-family homes with private yards. One difference
in the urban architecture vs. NYC is that in the nicer neighborhoods,
apartment buildings often have sizable private courtyards: the buildings are
built on the edges of a large block, with a park left in the middle. That park
may have playground equipment, BBQ equipment and picnic tables, etc., for the
use of residents (also, off-street bike parking). I don't use it a lot, but
families seem to.

Some of the buildings have quite active local communities as well, which some
people like: dinner clubs where people will take turns hosting a dinner party
(in the courtyard when it's nice, otherwise in an apartment), your kids can
play with other kids in the building, you can leave them playing in the
courtyard and someone else will watch them if you need to go somewhere
briefly, etc.

I grew up in a suburb myself (about an hour outside of Chicago), and it was
okay all around. But I think I might've preferred something a bit denser. One
downside I recall is that everything was so _far_ that someone below driving
age ends up being very hampered in movement. I would have to bike 15-20
minutes just to get the houses of some friends who lived in what was
considered my neighborhood. And many of my friends weren't reachable at all
without adult assistance.

~~~
uptown
Your comments about green space definitely resonates. I live right next to an
amazing park and am there almost daily. I'd have moved years ago if it wasn't
accessible.

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waster
Also, don't look at a prospective flat in the dark, when the landlord claims
the electricity is off because the prior renters didn't pay their bills.

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billpaetzke
I just moved to NYC last weekend (from L.A.) and found an apartment in two
days:

* a Friday/Saturday in L.A., slamming craigslist and building up a spreadsheet of leads

* a full Sunday of looking at apartments

* moved in Monday morning

I settled on a month-to-month 3bd/1ba in the East Village--no brokers
involved. Buh-zam!

Now I've shifted focus to meeting people and looking for work (as a software
developer)...

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dimitar
I've moved 4 times in the last year and here are my tips (I'm trying not to
duplicate anything in the TA or the other comments):

1\. Bills. Make sure you are in agreement with your roomates about them - I
had an issue with a roomate that maintained that he shouldn't pay more than 10
percent of the huge electricity bill because he didn't heat his room (not
directly, I might add).

2\. Choose an apartment with good insulation - this might not affect others as
much as me (look the previous tip). But climate change and changing energy
prices will soon this for everyone.

3\. Start looking early and use your friends to find roomates.

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tprynn
Website won't load for me. Here's Google's cache:
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:8A_6A_v...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:8A_6A_v8mRIJ:www.brickunderground.com/blog/2013/06/lessons_learned_after_5_apartments_9_roommates_and_7_years_in_new_york_city&hl=en&gl=us&strip=1)

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wiradikusuma
I learn that first impression doesn't last. I have a housemate that seemed
clicked ("you're an IT student? great, i graduated from IT!") but end up
annoying:

\- never flushes after urinating

\- spends 24x7 inside the house (he skips classes almost 100%) with
aircond+PC+lights on, but demanding we share the bills equally

\- frequently forgets to turn off bathroom lights, tap water (when filling up
his drinking bottle) and exhaust fan (after cooking)

\- leaves dirty dishes for, literally, a week or two

\- sometimes borrows pennies (smaller than $50) from me and return it after
weeks even though he always says, "tomorrow bro" (i don't demand it, he simply
says it), but it doesn't stop him from buying stuff like perfume

\- controlled our internet so he "owned" the majority of bandwidth

\- at his 30s

now, what do you call a guy like that?

