My boyfriend and I are moving into a new apartment for June 1st. I've been thinking about moving for a while now, what with our ridiculously loud neighbors, from the floor below us and next door, but the idea of moving can be so overwhelming. We found an apartment about two weeks ago that we liked (well, if I could get past the hideous speckled paint job, that was), and we were all set to move in, but the landlord was wishy-washy about the rent and about our cats, so we changed our minds. We did end up finding an apartment that was both affordable and pretty as well as right across the street from my best friend in Providence.
The only problems? The move in date had to be June 1st, and it's a one bedroom. June 1st is a problem because the Providence Arts Festival in on June 4th. I already feel like there's no way I can be ready for it, because I just don't have enough energy to get everything accomplished that I want to do. Moving a few days beforehand? Yikes! Instead of driving myself crazy trying to match the inventory and sales from last year, which honestly feels downright impossible right about now, I'm telling myself that I just want to make back what I put into the festival.
Last year, I had to buy a tent and all my displays. Last year's sale more than paid for all of those things, so this year it's all about inventory. Luckily, I know what sold well for me last year, so I'm focusing on those items. I don't have very much in the way of new items, but I'm telling myself that I'll debut new items in time for the September festival. For now, I just want to cover my costs and have fun!
Last year's festival was exhausting, yes, but mostly, it was loads of fun! I love getting to talk to lots of people about my work, and I love being outside, out of the full blast of the sun, drinking iced coffee and listening to music. Plus, once the arts festival is over, I'll be on vacation until June 20th. I can relax and settle in to our new apartment then.
The one bedroom thing is going to take some getting used to, but I'm actually looking forward to it. Nick and I both spend most of our day in our separate studio spaces, so sharing space will be really nice. The room we'll be sharing is actually huge: it's going to be our combined studio / living room space. The bedroom is tiny, and so is the kitchen, but I'm fine with that. The kitchen has tons of storage space, unlike the other apartment we almost rented which has no cabinets whatsoever. I figure I can store some of my craft stuff in the kitchen as well as in the basement storage cage.
The biggest thing about moving into a smaller place is getting rid of stuff in order to fit! That's actually not so hard either. The only piece of furniture I'm really attached to is my awesome desk, the galant system from Ikea. I scored the desk top and some of the legs for free on craigslist and got the rest of it from the as-is department at the Stoughton Ikea. All in all, it cost me about $35 plus gas to Ikea. Replacing it new would cost $200+. So, yeah, I'm keeping that.
In order to figure out what we'd keep and what we'd donate, Nick and I drew a map of the new apartment to scale. We made little graph paper representations of all of our furniture and played around with the arrangement until we liked it. I'm sure it will change a bit once we're in the new place, but I bet not that much.
So moving day is two weeks away and hardly anything's packed, but am I stressing? Nah. We'll get it down and it will all be fine. Even if my inventory is sparse at the arts festival this year, it will still be fun just to be there. And I'll probably do just fine. I tend to stress myself out too much about everything, but this year, I'm taking it easy. I'm dealing with some health stuff, too, and instead of stressing about that, I'm just trying to remind myself to relax and just let it go. It will work itself out in the end. Deep breath. Relax.
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