Moving house/looking for jobs?

One thing you might want to consider, if the character isn't moving with any family, is that it's hard to get a mortgage or rent a place without a job - so that might've been settled before moving (unless the character has a spouse or parents who are paying the bills).

Looking for a job takes up a lot of that slow time-killing time... like spending hours on the internet looking at job websites (monster, company websites, university career services sites for recent alumni, other job boards, professional associations, etc). You spend a lot of time networking with friends, former colleagues, bosses,classmates - asking if they know anyone working in the field, asking for leads, etc. Writing a resume and cover letter takes a lot of time and generally you should try to tailor your cover letter for each job you apply for - though if the jobs tend to be quite similar (eg they're all waitressing jobs or staff accountant jobs) you don't have to change much. Then you spend time interviewing - you might do a bit of research about the company before you go, then you have to get dressed up, get to the workplace, sit around waiting, and might spend an hour or several hours there at the interview. Then you might wait a week or more before hearing back from them - and some jobs (especially higher-level jobs) might have a second interview or more. After that, time negotiating the salary and start date. Lots of stuff but a lot of spinning your wheels without getting anywhere.

Moving to a new place is more physical - a lot of unpacking, organizing things, cleaning, shopping for new furniture and decor and organizational tools, buying food, etc. And you'll spend way too much time trying to find things in your new place - especially in places where things aren't organized inside your own furniture - so kitchen and bathroom cupboards will be pretty bad, plus anything that's stll unpacked in boxes. You might also spend time exploring the neighborhood (or just trying to find things) - where is the bank, the library, the bus or subway stop, the grocery store, the post office, etc. You might have to find a new hairdresser, new gym, new babysitter, new friends, etc.

awesome. that's just the kind of stuff i was looking for, thanks.

i just went through this process in the last 2.5 months, so I thought I'd give you my feedback. The prior response you got is fabulous. I'd add (from my own experience) that you may spend a lot of time setting up internet access. This may seem like a small detail, at first, but...if you utilize the net for most of your other research on your new area, applying for jobs, e-mailing resumes, setting up utilities accounts, etc. this can put a real crimp into everything. Personally, I had to find the local public library by using a yellow pages; I had to find one of those, first. ;0) Once I got to the library, I could only get 30 minutes of time at a kiosk, then i had to move to a different computer kiosk, sign on again & start up, again. And if your 30 minutes runs out, your work n an application, resume, e-mail, etc is not saved, so you might lose the last 10 or 15 minutes of work. (Happened to me twice.) You alos need to use the interent at the library to research other local resources, such as things as important as perhaps setting up your banking inof to finding the location of the best movie theatre, or discovering there really are no cuban restaurants in a 50 mile radius of your new home. (Sadly, that is true for me, too....)
There is also dealing with mail. Even if you were smart enough to make sure you file your mail forwarding directions before moving, often the new local post office does not immediately deliver mail and/or packages to your home. Instead, you get a card asking you to come into the post office to confirm you're the new resident & to pick up your mail/packages.
As for the services you might want at home, like internet, there might also be cable, or a specific type of phone hook up; or you may need some basic house maintenance work done that requires technicians, like wiring updates, new appliance installations. All of these things require someone to be home at the time the technician comes over, so that can eat a lot of time. Most of these vendors do not give you a specific time; they give you a time range, so you are padlocked to your home for usually a 4 hour windown of time, waiting for the tech to arrive. Once there, they still have to do the work. You could get lcuky & it's all done in the 4 hour window, but if they get there at the end of their alotted time, you may be looking at half your work day donw the drain (especially if you're waiting for the plumber...sorry, i could not resist the bad joke.)
I hope this is a bit helpful.
Cheers!
justine

Justine

"If the Apocalypse comes, beep me."
Buffy

“You are one seriously testy creature of the night.”
Kyrian, Dark Hunter (Sherrilyn Kenyon)

I've just moved house. First thing is unpacking stuff, remembering where you packed the kettle and your underwear and all the rest. I'm still not fully unpacked and I've been here a month. I also spent the first few days putting flat pack furniture together. I couldn't get my huge Victorian chest of drawers up the stairs and had to buy two new ones and a wardrobe and two bookcases. I had the screwdrivers and hammer out for a few days.

As someone earlier said, sorting out internet is a priority and a bit of a pain. I had to go and book slots at the local library too. Also setting your phone line is a bit of a pain. If you don't have a line already set up you have to pay loads for it. A month in I've been dealing with home insurance, getting a water meter fitted and working out how the heck I'm going to pay my ridiculous amounts of council tax.

You also have to deal with stuff about where you live. Where you buy light bulbs and so forth. Where is the doctor and the dentist. Where I live you put recyclable stuff in one bin, non-recyclable stuff in another and kitchen waste in another. You can't put glass in any of them. I had to get my neighbour to explain what went in which. My neighbours are all either a) crazy, b) fighting with each other or c) both.

Hope this helps.

I'm a Navy brat, so I've had a lot of experiance moving, mostly as a kid, but just moved 600 miles last November as an adult (though thankfully still living with family since I'm looking for a job).

Well, jobwise: I'm not really much help since I'm still trying to figure out how to do it, and get myself a job that lets me use my brain (and degree) and not be around too many people.

Just random things I've picked up moving-wise:

~most people own a lot more stuff than they think they do. It helps to sort through and get rid of things before moving so you don't take all that junk that you never use.
~Books are heavy and movers make special book boxes that are smaller so they're easier to carry.
~ You can pack your belongings yourself and save money because you aren't paying the movers to do it.
~ Shop around at different moving companies. There can be large price differences. Depending on how much stuff you have, and how far you're going, a U-Haul may be a valid option. You also pay more to live in a upper floor of an apartment complex because the movers have to carry heavy furniture up stairs (I'm guessing the same for a multi-story house).
~ There are two different types of wardrobe boxes: standing and laying flat. The standing ones have a hanger bar that fits in two cut-outs at the top of the box. They aren't big enough to have anything longer than four feet hanging flat- the bottom of the dresses, coats, etc. will be on the floor of the box.
~ Label everything with your last name and terms (something like: books, A-K, library) so you know where everything is. It makes it much easier to unpack when you get to where you're going.
~ Movers don't have to pack everything. Make sure you have enough supplies to get through moving, and don't pack the valuable you can carry with you.
~ Movers have been known to steal furniture or say something is yours when it isn't. (One end table in the first case, a mattress and box spring in the second.) Best thing to do is go with a reputable company.
~ It takes more time to pack than one thinks. Same with the unpacking, especially if not all the storage is put back together, or in the wrong place. And don't, don't, don't wait until the last minute to pack.
~ Securely wrap and pack your valuables. Use copious amounts of the packing paper so nothing can shift and therefore possibly break.
~ Weather is different. It's May and in the high 60s/low 70s. In Florida, where I used to live, it's usually in the high 80s- if not low 90s- by this point. I'm quite enjoying it. Reading about the weather conditions and actually experiancing them are two different things.
~ You can fit more in one box than you think you can, but make sure not to overstuff them. Boxes are designed to fit together in the moving van with a minimum of wasted space.
~ Depending on the size of the load, you may end up sharing a moving van with another customer. You have no control over this. Hence why boxes need to be labeled, especially with the numbered stickers placed on them by the company and with your name.

One random moving story: a friend of the family was stationed overseas. A couple weeks before the family moved, their pet goldfish jumped out of the bowl, and they couldn't find it. When they moved and started unpacking, the wife couldn't figure out why a box was so light. She opened it, pulled out the packing paper, and found the goldfish's body.

"Footsteps in the snow suggest where you have been, point where you were going: but where they suddenly vanish, never dismiss the possibility of flight..." - Diane Duane, A Wizard Alone

Moderator: Nano Soundtracks

Going for 75k- FINISHED!

I have moved a lot, so here are some plot points you might be able to use:

The employer paid for and arranged the details of our move. They came and packed everything. Including, as we discovered at the other end, a wastebasket with trash in it.

Professional packers and movers can pack a lot faster than amateurs can, which could certainly be a plot point if the amateur is still packing when the movers arrive. Desperation time.

Another issue at both ends of a move is lights. If the one house doesn't have overheads, and the day grows long, your MC might be using a flashlight or literally carrying a lamp from room to room to finish up. And that's after the movers have taken everything. At the new place, finding a lamp and a bulb becomes the problem. If the movers are not paid to unpack you (and they seldom are, though in our corporate move they were), then your MC may be going through boxes in the daytime looking for kitchen ware, and suddenly at night realizing s/he doesn't have a lamp out or know where the bulbs are. Oops.

Turning on utilities can be a time-consuming hassle. We arrived in New England in winter and discovered that the house had no oil in the tank and a heating method, slab, that takes a whole day to heat the house after the oil is finally delivered. We had to bundle under our sleeping bags and a zillion layers of blankets the first nights when it was 50 degrees inside.

Mail delivery: In our rural area, we had to petition the post office to extend delivery to our house. It took six weeks.

In a rented city apartment: The standard is to take whatever shades you put up with you when you leave. So your MC may arrive to find zero personal privacy until s/he runs out and gets something to cover the windows.

Some people take their toilet seats (fancy ones) with them, so you end up with a toilet, no seat, and of course no toilet paper either. And no shower curtain. Is your MC prepared?

Furniture that doesn't fit up stairs or around corners can be hoisted through upper windows if they are large enough and you know how to remove the sash. But movers charge twice as much per hour to do the hoisting, which could be a shock to your MC.

Changing the locks is part of the ritual of changing homes. Maybe your MC will meet an interesting locksmith. Or forget to change them and find a stranger has an old key and has used it.

Strangers showing up at the door looking for a prior tenant/owner. The cops came to serve a warrant on a previous tenant once. We saw an ad once selling a house that had been seized in a drug raid. Maybe a dealer connection would show up at that house later, not having gotten the word.

New land line phone had been the number for a sex fantasy agency. Started to get very weird phone calls from strange men, while the phone company denied all.

I just love moving. Used to have nightmares in which I was endlessly packing.

There can be problems with anyone else packing your stuff for you if you don't live alone. My ex-boyfriend packed my stuff for me when I moved out. As he was a non-cook he had no idea which kitchen stuff was mine so I had to come up to do that. When I unpacked I found a mug with his name on it and various toiletries of his in with my stuff. I sent the mug back and kept the shower gel etc. He had also kidnapped all my DVDs and had to post them on at great expense.