The Apartment Shuffle

We have been looking forward to moving into a 2-bedroom apartment for quite a while. We were hoping to stay in the same complex and move into the next available apartment. Unfortunately, the only place that opened up was a 3-bedroom. It would be nice, but we can't afford it. So, we told our manager and she told us that #7 wants to move into a 1-bedroom. She said, "Why don't you switch?" Sounds easy enough right? They move out of their 2-bedroom and switch with us. Well, it turned out to be more complicated that that.

First we had to move out of our #3 apartment so the cleaners and painters could go over the place and get it ready for new renters.

Then #7 would have to move in to #3.

Then the painters and cleaners would have to fix up #7.

Finally we would have to move into #7.

This seems simple enough on paper, but it took a lot of organization and planning and prayer to make it work in the real world.

My solution was to rent a U-haul truck and park it at my parents for however long it took to clean both apartments. This seemed like a good idea until I went to order the U-haul and discovered they only rent them in 6 hour incraments for "In-town" use. Great. To rent for 4 days I would be paying 16 6-hour increments. It would be better to rent a storage facility for that amount of time. We actually got to the point where we were ready to organize four moving crews who would help us move into the U-haul, unload it at my parents, load it back into the U-haul, and unload it into the apartment.

I'm glad that some of my friends encouraged me to call them and see if they would cut a deal with me for renting for 4 days. Praise God when I called they said they would. So, I was able to get a 24-hour rate instead of a 6-hour rate.

We ended up parking the 14' U-haul at my parents' place for four days and then moving in on Saturday. It worked very well and now I am looking at a relatively empty living room. All I need to do is store the boxes (for our next move) and hang pictures!