I moved! After two wonderful years in Brooklyn living right on the park I found a place tempting enough to leave my first NYC apartment. As you can imagine, with the pandemic hitting the city pretty hard and work from home being common and widely accepted at the moment, a lot of apartments have been posted on Facebook for sublet. Once such opening caught my eye and seemed to tick all of my boxes (natural light, closet, elevator, proximity to a park).
So a return to NYC was prompted not to move my belongings to storage as I had originally planned, but to pack up and move boroughs. All I’ve heard my two years here is how notoriously heinous moving in the city is. I’ve always maintained that although the Soave way is to pack a van tight with belongings and spend hours running up and down the stairs, I was going to hire helpers, and that’s exactly what I did.
Granted, after being told by a mover that it was the busiest moving time of the year and being quoted $900 for my tiny one room move, I was slightly deterred. A friend recommended Task Rabbit, which I had noticed at holidays seasons advertised all over the Subways. I ended up hiring movings through Task Rabbit and getting on with it.
The process did not go on without a hitch, and there were several elearning experiences for next time:
- Pack earlier than you think you have to in case your hired mover asks if he can come 5 hours early.
- Don’t leave anything in the apartment when you leave with the movers if possible (I ended up with two additional Uber trips.)
- Remember to grab gatorades or water bottles for your movers before they get there (in my defense they showed up hours early).
I will say it was incredibly easy to pay people to move my things, even if it was expensive. My movers even disassembled my bed frame and put it back together in the new place which saved me hours of time. I can’t recommend Task Rabbit enough for getting the job done at a decent discount from traditional moving companies.
At the end of the day the move from my tiny first space here was completed. I no longer live across the street from a park but I live a few avenues away from Central Park, a trade-off I was willing to make. I have about the same commute but from the opposite direction. I still have roommates (two now instead of three) and it still isn’t what I would consider spacious in any other city. But it’s cute, well situated, sunny, and I like it here. It’s the change of scenery that 2020 needed.
I’ve been here a month and a half now and continue to explore new adjacent avenues and pathways to old haunts. It’s exciting to relearn old patterns and to have a refreshed view of the city, even if Trader Joe’s is still not within walking distance (yet… please restart construction on the UES TJ’s, universe). I’m happy to be here even as the city tries to slowly reopen safely, and I can’t wait to keep exploring new favorites in the area and revisiting old favorites.
~KS
Katydid in NYC 