Last summer, my boyfriend and I moved to a bigger apartment. As it turns out, the place was absolutely infested with fleas, which I didn't realize until we had spent our first night there. As we unpacked, we started discovering more serious problems with the home, problems that were dismissed by our property manager when we brought them up. After a week, we broke the lease and moved back to our old apartment, which was luckily still available. It was an absolutely frantic move, with us packing stuff up haphazardly and throwing it into the van and in our cars. I was spraying down anything we owned that could conceal a flea, stuffing our clothes and bedding in our old landlord's garage until we could get to the laundromat, and praying that the property manager, who had become belligerent, wouldn't decide to pay us a surprise visit while we were leaving.
Since that experience, I've been fixated on making our next move as simple and brief as humanly possible. I got rid of bags and bags of clothes, boxes of books, downsized furniture, etc. I started organizing and storing things in containers that could easily be moved or packed away. It has taken a while to really feel like I've made progress, but lately I've been able to focus on the positives, like having more space, more organization, and how much easier it is to keep our apartment clean. I still sometimes wish that I could pack everything I owned in a backpack and run out the back door if I needed to, but what was a horrible experience has turned into something positive.
No real tips here, I guess, but I just wanted to share the experience.
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Posted 1 year ago #
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Boy, you really kind of had the disaster-evacuation experience without the disaster, didn't you? I mean, fleas are awful, but not perhaps in the same class as a hurricane. It's great that you got a chance to really evaluate your stuff and your lifestyle while you still had the opportunity to deal with things consciously.
Easy moving is my focus right now, too, even though we have no intention of moving. I'm just getting in that mindset, what don't I want to take with us when we go? Because eventually, we will.
Good job finding the silver lining!
Posted 1 year ago # -
Oh wow, I can't even imagine. I have a huge bug phobia so I would have been FLIPPING OUT.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Oh my gosh, that's just awful!
Well, I'm glad to see you were able to turn it into something positive! Welcome to the forums and best of luck to you in the next move you have to make.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I can totally see why this inspired you to get rid of things. I got rid of some stuffed animals that had been on my floor in which a spider crawled out from under. That was enough to make me cut back - I can't even imagine a house full of fleas! How horrible!
Posted 1 year ago # -
jlp001
sorry you had to endure that. Thank you for sharing the good that has come out of it. Have a less cluttered and organized space makes life a bit easier.Mid America Mom
Posted 1 year ago # -
Ugh. I had a bad experience with pantry moths when I moved into my boyfriend's (now husband's) house a few years ago. The larvae were crawling everywhere...we had to throw out all the food, scrub down all the shelves, buy all new flour, sugar, etc, and put everything in plastic containers so it wouldn't get re-infested by any stray eggs we missed. (The source of the moths turned out to be an old bag of dog food in the back of a cabinet. His dog had died two years before...)
Posted 1 year ago # -
i live in the wet tropics of australia.
it's like the bug capital of the galaxy.
i live in a very open house, a converted shed really, with no climate control and no screens on doors or windows.
outside enjoys a free and open exchange with inside, if you know what i mean.
the bugs have been great motivation to declutter.
otherwise they just get everywhere, in varieties to great to number, and sizes and quantities beyond my wildest imaginings.sarahj, i am shuddering all over.
Posted 1 year ago #
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