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The hardest part of moving is getting used to where everything is in the kitchen. The packing, taking down pictures, loading, coordinating movers, driving, unloading, unpacking, cleaning, lining shelves, organizing, positioning furniture, the daily fast food takeout, that’s the easy part.
The place I do the most work at home is the kitchen. In our old place I knew the ins and outs. Where all the pots lived, where the right spatulas were, the quirks of our gas stove, where exactly I could find the right ingredients and right spices within .04 seconds flat.
In the new kitchen I feel like a child. I’m constantly opening every single drawer imaginable until I finally stumble on what I need. By that time the new electric stove has thoroughly burnt whatever I was monitoring at the time I have to start over. When I finally get used to the kitchen I think I’ll finally feel at home.
My partner and I recently moved to a rental townhome in Dublin. We packed up our lives in small, medium, and large boxes over the course of a week. In one whirlwind Saturday everything was moved to the new place.
We are expecting a child later this year and figured now was as good a time as any to grab a little more space.
While we were slowly unpacking boxes and positioning furniture, both our moms were hard at work measuring, cutting, and installing shelf liners like we had just moved into a college dorm room. My father in law immediately identified several upgrades that needed to happen and started installing a new shower head. My dad started vacuuming everything in sight.
Extended family time in stressful situations can sometimes be overwhelming but we were immensely grateful for the help. Over the next week both sets of parents helped us out by bringing food and helping shore up things around the new home. We even had a (somewhat) traditional housewarming ceremony with all the parents. One of the main reasons we will forever live here in the Bay is the opportunity to share in moments like this.
After everybody left we finally took a breath and were able to take everything in. This three bedroom townhome was the largest space we had ever lived in together and it felt overwhelming. In our old one bedroom we had optimized our space down to the square inch.
We were ruthless in making sure that anything we brought into our home had a specific purpose and logical place we could keep it. We even lived for 2 years without a microwave because it wouldn’t have made sense in our previous smaller space.
The new space still feels cavernous and empty, even though we have filled it with everything we own. Folks keep telling us that once the baby is here space will magically disappear. Even still, we started thinking through how we could keep the same principles for acquiring things while making the space feel like home.
We both aren’t new to moving. We have done so many times in the past ten years, both by ourselves and together. This last move felt different. It feels like we are entering a brand new chapter in our lives and have to leave some of the old parts behind.
This type of change can be hard. While we will miss our old neighborhood and routine we will surely settle into our new space and figure out our new routine sometime soon. Whatever happens there is no one I would rather have by my side than my partner.
Editor's Note: The "Notes on the Valley" blog is written by Monith Ilavarasan, who grew up in Pleasanton. After a career in tech, he took a sabbatical to be a community organizer. He has continued to work in tech and shares his thoughts on the people, places and events that make up and shape the Tri-Valley.
