As my finals days in my apartment come to a close, I reflect on the slew of apartments I've resided in over the past four years. As a Kettering University student, I've had to move my place of residence every three months or be faced with the consequence of an hour long drive to either my university or my work place. Moving four times a year for four years means that I've moved about sixteen times in what is roughly 1/5 of my entire life - I'm 22. Moving so many times has taught me some very strange lessons that I think might be fun to share.

Own Nothing

Okay, not literally, but a minimalist lifestyle does tend to be the only thing that fits with moving so frequently. That said, it depends on how ambitious you are. You might find it worth it to move that couch up and down three flights of stairs 16 times, or you might just call 3 bean bag chairs good enough and ditch the couch. At one point I just owned an air mattress. It worked well, but deflated often. I got a real bed the 7th time I woke up laying on the floor.

Be a 3D Tetris Master

I have never, in the last four years and sixteen moves, used a moving service or rented a U-Haul (I was only moving an hour away, so that might be a factor). Instead, my roommate has always borrowed mini-vans from his parents. It's a cheap solution, but at the expense of space. Even with only two mini-vans, we never had to make more than 3 trips back and forth and usually we only need 2 trips. We move in a day or two and pack for about 3 days - after work of course. This is a factor of both owning very little and developing the skills of a 3D Tetris Master. Packing the mini-van usually takes a while, but unpacking is fast. I can confidently fit a third of my apartment into the back of a van and still have space between my legs for the trash can while the desktop computer goes between the front seats.

Here are some tricks:

1. Big things go in first and heavy things go on bottom. The exception is a bed (not box springs). Beds can easily fit in the top of the van after everything else is piled in there. It's soft, flexible, and squishy - all things that make it easy to fit in that basically unusable space above everything. Plus it's too big to slide forward and knock you out should you come to a sudden stop on the Freeway.

2. Use all the spaces in racks and shelves. You will probably have small boxes or electronics, stuffed animals, clothes, shelf decorations, and other small things. These little things fit very well in in the spaces that your upside down or sideways shelves and racks create. They also go well under furniture with long legs like night stands and tables.

3. Chill it with the boxes. We end up using a lot of boxes for loose things or things we want to keep together, but not everything needs a box. Boxes are good to a point, but they tend to impede being able to use all of the space. I always opt for more trips on foot in and out of the apartment instead of trips in a vehicle that use gas and wear on my (or my roommate's parent's) vehicle.

4. Find a groove and stick to it. Unless you have a radical transformation or acquire a lot of money suddenly, you will most likely have a lot of the same stuff every time you move. Use this to your advantage and play with different ways to pack things until you've found something that works really well. Once you found what works, stick to it.

Know What You Want in a House

After four years of different kitchens, bedrooms, laundry rooms (or the lack thereof), living rooms, closet spaces, and bathrooms I have formed an extensive checklist of things I want in a house when I decide to settle down. My biggest complaint by far is the shades that every apartment seems obsessed with. You know, those plastic like vertical panels that never properly close enough to block out the light and always sound like gunfire as they clack together from the slightest breeze. I can't stand 'em.

I know that the bedroom will need to have a walk-in closet (especially now that I have a girlfriend*), the bathroom has to have a large counter and the shower should have a outwardly curved shower curtain rod, the dining room should have a light that my chest can't bump into by accident (the perils of being tall), the bedroom should have an overhead light, there should be a laundry room with the washer and dryer in the apartment—not coin laundry—and the kitchen... well, that will take too long for this article. Oh, and I would love to have walls that aren't Tom Sawyer white-washed.

If you haven't thought about what you want in a house, you could probably just talk with me and at this point I might be able to do some interior designing for you.

Find a Layout and Stick to It

All apartments, by and large, look pretty much the same. There are key differences, but the blueprint is something that is easy to set up shop in the same way over and over again. Something I learned quickly was that with everything else in flux, keeping an apartment looking the same with every move helped keep my sanity. If everything looks the same, no matter where I live, then it is almost as if I never moved.

Make a House a Home

The most important lesson I learned is how to make a house a home. I learned when I moved away from my parents' house that it is the little things that hang on your walls or sit on table-tops reminding you of you and where you came from that make that space you have taken over yours. It's the smells you fill the apartment with (which hopefully aren't burnt dinner food), it's the arrangement of the furniture (what little you may have), and it's the company that you keep with you and have visit you.

It has been an interesting, frustrating, and amazing experience to move so many times. I can definitely say that if I had the chance, I'd do it over again. That said, I'm just about to graduate and so I will be looking for a more permanent residence. I'm signing on to a six month lease now, and probably a year or two-year lease after that, but who knows what comes beyond that. Maybe I'll settle down in one place for the rest of my life, or maybe I'll just stay restless and spend my months wandering the US one city at a time.

Stay adventurous my friends.

Note:

*My girlfriend made me add that in.