We moved last month to a new apartment. Our lease was up at our previous apartment, and we knew we had about 2 years before we were going to leave for our trip. Neither of us loved our old apartment or location, so Jon brought up moving. Since we have been together, we’ve lived somewhere on average for 2 years, which means that we’ve moved every other year for the past 10 years. I have to admit, I’m sick of it! When Jon mentioned moving, I told him that I would only move if we found somewhere with 3 criteria: it had to be smaller than our current 1-bedroom (so we could downsize our stuff), it had to be cheaper than our current apartment (so we could save more money), and had to be slightly ghetto (actually, this was a criteria in order to have the first 2). Living in the metro-Detroit area, it wasn’t hard to find somewhere that fit all 3! So last month, we packed up our apartment, donating about half of our belongings to the local shelter, and bribed my brother-in-law and our friends to help us move.

Our new apartment is very small – actually more like a studio. There are 4 rooms, all open except for the bathroom. They are all really small, so we donated a large majority of our furniture, keeping only our bed and dressers, couch, computer desk, and 1 bookshelf. We’ve got everything unpacked and organized by this point, and now that we are settled, I am really liking the small space. It’s a bit difficult when we work opposite shifts (I work mornings and Jon works evenings), but I suppose that we’ll get used to it. The new place is also much cheaper – all utilities included as well, so our only bills (other than rent) are for cell phones and health insurance. And yes, we are living in a slightly ghetto neighborhood, but nothing to be too concerned about 🙂

As we were moving, I couldn’t help but think of the next move we will make – donating the remainder of our things, and going to my parent’s house to stay for a couple of weeks before we officially leave on our trip. That move will be the easiest and most difficult of them all – easy since we will have hardly anything to move, but most difficult because we’ll be saying goodbye to Detroit and all of our friends. As sad as it is to think of that day, I also cannot wait until it arrives! Until then, I will enjoy the time that we do have here, eating at diverse restaurants, cheering at Tiger’s games, rocking out on the hill at Pine Knob (yes, I realize it’s called DTE Energy but we’ll always refer to it as Pine Knob!), and getting together with friends for BBQs and happy hours.