When I share with people how often we have moved and why, I usually get a lot of encouragement that its a great idea. I find that very few people want themselves to live in a half constructed, sometimes torn apart home, though. As we have continued to have this opportunity in spite of our attempt to have a new home last, I've learned a few things about what makes it work.
Before I really realized this was going to be a common theme for us I looked at each "project" as a hurdle to get past so life could really start going. Just like I thought life would start when I could date, or when I got married, or when I graduated college, etc., it was easy to fall into that trap with the places we lived.
Examples are:
When we just have a garage running errands in the winter will be so much better.
When I have a bigger kitchen I'll be able to cook better meals.
When we have nicer carpet it will make more sense to clean on a regular basis.
It took lots of life experiences to learn this is and would never be the case. Life is RIGHT NOW. But I think the living situation that finally brought it home is when we moved into a very small townhouse with one bathroom, all of our stuff in boxes, and still many remodeling projects to do to be able to sell it when the temporary time we needed it was up. There was 6 of us and we knew from the moment we squeezed our stuff in that it was only to be temporary.
I spent more than a few days in denial after we moved in. I couldn't get to the washing machine through the piled up boxes and bins. I couldn't walk through the kitchen. Would we eat out for a few months? That sounded nice, but after only a few days with six people wearing clothes every day no laundry was NOT going to work. Eventually I walked away from the computer I was hiding behind and started unpacking and clearing my path. A load of laundry got started.
A few months later Thanksgiving approached. It just so happened that we were removing the current kitchen cafeteria tile to replace it with an updated vinyl flooring. But I bought my turkey and everything else and I tip toed along that sticky subfloor to cook and assemble a lovely turkey meal for my family. That moment that we enjoyed a festive holiday tradition surrounded by boxes I realized I couldn't keep waiting for life to begin to live it. And I was proud that I hadn't.
I love this. I used to think I'd feel different after I went to college, got married, had kids, etc. But after I did the get married and have a baby part, I realized that I was still just me. I never had any problems with who I was, it was just an interesting change of mindset.
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