Moving Messes...

Oh moving, how I have not missed you.  All of you know by now, moving is nothing new to our family.  Being in retail always presents opportunities which offer relocation options.  With a growing family, we have always jumped at the opportunity to improve ourselves financially which almost always meant relocating.  The last couple years we have been blessed to not leave the state of Arizona, but we have moved 2 times in the last 4 years.  The first move was into a rental and out of our home we owned to stay above the falling AZ market (smartest real estate move we have ever made to date and that says a lot considering we have owned 4 homes over the last 10 years).  The second move was this last move into another rental.  While there are perks to renting we still struggle with whether we want to invest in the area we are in, now that the market has stabilized or whether we want to shift our options more north near Marc's work.  While we weed out our decisions, renting was the best option yet again.  The major negative is not knowing when another move will occur.  The previous rental gave us some scares as the owner explored the short sale process not once but twice!  Thankfully we got 4 years out of that rental.  However, hassles that have come with renting make us miss home ownership BUT with not knowing when another move/job switch will occur it makes the thought of being financially tied to a home hard to think about.  All that being said, toss in the chaos of moving a 4,000 sq ft house and 6 kids... it's a lot.  The biggest issue I have with moving, is the large mess it creates until things are put in their places.  With this new home only 4.2 miles away from the old house, I was able to bring a large amount of our items over and put them away before bringing more over.  That helped control my OCD issues!  Once we moved in, my OCD drove me nuts and I got minimal sleep for several nights until things felt more under control and put away.  Mid-Move In kitchen and pantry messes! Sigh