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Monday, March 16, 2015

The Devil is in the Details

Today you get two posts from me!  ;-)

After some evaluation this weekend, I went ahead and emailed my contact at the leasing office for my apartment to notify him of my intent to vacate as of March 31st.    It's an early lease termination, so there's no real notice required, as I'll be paying the lease breakage fee.  I will compensate for this expense by not paying BF any rent until I've satisfied this financial obligation.  Yay.

Basically I decided that there is no real value in waiting another three weeks to give the notice, as I'd originally planned to do it after a month of cohabitation.  Everything involves a risk, and this is a risk I'm willing to take.  Beyond that, I don't want to be paying for an empty apartment longer than I need to.  The termination option I chose is to pay a fee plus up to two months rent, unless my apartment gets rented out quicker than that, in which case I'd only pay for the time it was empty plus the fee. It's not ideal, but my lease JUST RENEWED, and we were poor planners, so this is the hand we're dealing with here.  :-)  I guess I figure that when most people move, they don't keep their apt. on hand in case it doesn't work out.  Like I said:  Yes, this is a gamble, but it is a gamble I feel good about!

Anyway, I am waiting for a response back from my contact to see how to proceed.  This gives me two weekends to get my remaining belongings out of the apartment, and I also gave the Apt. guy the option of going in at any point to assess what work needs to be done beyond the standard painting and carpet replacement.  I don't think there should be much, as I intend to have a move-out clean done after I'm finished there and I didn't cause any damage that wasn't paint or carpet related, and those were just normal wear and tear.

The next step for me is to get out to the apartment this weekend to get as much of my remaining belongings as possible that will fit into my CR-V.  I'm planning to get all of my books boxed and packed as well as all of my art from my walls and hopefully the storage bins from my basement.

I will also be getting pictures of the items I plan to sell on Craiglist so I can get those listings up by Saturday night or Sunday morning.  I want to have the following week to get them sold, with pickups the following weekend.  Right now the definite sell items include my couch, a spare dresser and a small wooden end table.  I'm also probably going to list the set of four chairs that came with my dining table that I never even unboxed (I kept my old chairs instead).  I'm also probably going to sell the entertainment stand from my living room.

Right now I'm likely keeping my dining table/chairs.  I just got it this last year, though it already has a couple of scratches (Thanks, CAT).  I imagine I'll sell it eventually, but at this moment, I'm probably keeping it like a safety blanket.  :-o

The real issue here is this:  How do I find the line between how much to keep "JUST IN CASE" and how much to get rid of?

I don't want to plan for the worst case scenario, but I also don't want to be blind to the possibilities. When I left Angry Ex's house I had to rebuild a lot of my life, and I'm not just talking in terms of friendships and emotions.  Luckily I had some things in storage (ie my bed), but I had to get a couch, all new end tables, miscellaneous furniture.  It was expensive on top of all the usual expenses of a new place.

Where do I draw that line when it comes to my furniture and my dishes and my pans and my vacuum?? I know it sounds crazy silly, but it's something I'm really trying to figure out.  What do you think?

4 comments:

  1. Moving out is expensive; I never knew how much until I had to furnish my own place! I would say keep stuff that has value (financial or emotional) in terms of bed or big pieces of furniture. Otherwise I say crockery and cutlery means buying new dinner sets for a new place, but I have a dinnerware addiction! !!

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    1. Yeah, it definitely is! That's my only hesitation on this. Luckily my bed is definitely going with me and will be used as the guest bed, as will my dresser and nightstand. Those are definitely the most expensive things----pots and pans, dishes, cutlery....small potatoes comparatively.

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  2. If its worth keeping. Say you have old pots and pans that could use replacing, I would get rid of anything you have wanted to replace, or that is really old, and save money for a better cooking set or something like that. If its easily replaceable, like something from Ikea, sell it. If it was a limited edition or even something from Target that they don't have anymore, then I would be more hesitant to sell.

    I have furniture pieces that are very old and vintage that I restored. I would keep all those pieces and sell or give away my newer things. If you sell all those pieces, I would keep the money in a separate savings account "just in case" you have to furnish an apartment (god forbid). I doubt you will use it for that, but maybe once you guys get married you can use that money to chip in for extras on the honeymoon or something like that!

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    1. This is a really smart approach. I know I need to replace my pots and pans, so those can definitely go. The dishes are from my wedding, so...it's probably time. Cutlery is just not that expensive and mine isn't anything noteworthy. I don't have anything kitchen related that is limited edition or special in any way, so I guess that's a plus of not being a particularly noteworthy cook. :-D

      The separate account for that money is a really good idea. I love that it's only an "in case" account until it becomes an "Extra money for our future!" account. :-) Thanks so much for weighing in!

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