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Literally this thread has saved my sanity!!! I thought I was absolutely a CRAZY person for moving all the time.
Although all have been within the same city, I have moved 9 times in the last 10 years. I am restless within 2-3 months of moving. This time, I bought a house, and haven't even unpacked all my boxes, and I'm ready to put it up for sale. In the past, I have mostly rented, so it hasn't been too costly. But this time, with a mortgage involved, I may lose a little money.
There's lots of reasons I like to move I suppose. I do like the thrill of moving to a new place...new paint, new carpet, new layout, new neighbors, new scenery, etc. And I do love the purging...getting rid of things I haven't used in 2 years. This time, I may get rid of anything I haven't used in 1 year, lol I enjoy looking at real estate online often, and that probably fuels my wanderlust.
I want to throw this in the mix, because I think there are all SORTS of reasons why people move often, some healthy and some not so healthy.
As my parents got older, for some weird reason they wanted to move ALL THE TIME. I mean, ALL THE TIME - like every year or so. It became ridiculous, because they couldn't really move themselves so they expected other people to always be pitching in. By "other people," I mean ME.
It was their common ground. As my mom's mild vascular dementia became more pronounced, she became less reasonable - this is easy to see in hindsight but at the time we didn't know what was going on. And my dad was so accustomed to catering to her every whim and fancy, that he just went along with it. They had always moved around a lot but it was because of my dad's career mostly. Well, at first it was. Then it became weirder and weirder to me because they settled into one area, started a business, built a beautiful home in a beautiful neighborhood - and almost immediately started looking at new house plans and more property. I thought at first it was because they were just USED TO moving every three years or so - but I thought it would stop. It just never stopped - in fact it became more pronounced.
The last few years of their lives, when they were in their mid to late seventies, they moved five times in five years. It was increasingly bizarre - but I began to realize that this is what they could DO together - it gave them a project, a common ground. When they didn't have real estate to consider, places to visit to consider buying, etc. they had nothing else in common and they started bickering and fighting.
Finally in the last neighborhood they lived in, they moved into some new construction and seemed happily settled in. Well, a few months later, my mom said as we passed a particular house THREE HOUSES DOWN FROM HER (and all the houses in this subdivision were one of about five plans, so it was also very similar to their current house), "That's the house your dad and I are considering moving to." WHAT? I stopped literally in my tracks and said, "Mom, if you and Dad decide to move again, you're going to have to do it on your own. I absolutely refuse to help you move again."
After my dad died, unexpectedly, my elderly mother moved into an independent living apartment. Rather - I moved her into it because she couldn't move anything herself, let along hang up any pictures or whatever. Still - she wanted to go shopping for new furniture - which we did. Honestly, it was very, very tiring and tiresome. She always found moving to be exciting and adventurous. It shed new light on why we moved so much when I was a kid. I thought she was being magnanimous about my dad's career demands, but I think the reality was that BOTH my parents really liked moving around a lot for some reason. I mean, to all sorts of other states and even countries. I went to nine schools in eight years but that didn't seem to make a bit of difference to them. They were having a grand adventure together!
I have a legacy of a lot of moves in my past and I am not adverse to moving - in fact, I move about every five years or so, though for the past 25 years I've stayed in the same metro area. But this last move, at age 57, was much more complex, expensive, and just plain difficult. I'm getting too old for this crap. The next move I make will be to assisted living, and hopefully that will be at least 20 years from now!
Moving around without any particular reason cost money people could spend on other pleasures.
And sometimes, the expenses you don’t anticipate can completely devour any “savings” or equity you were hoping to gain with the transaction.
Moving means ... moving costs, new utility set-up, perhaps some new furniture or decor, sometimes storage, deposits, cost of the Realtors if you're buying a new home.
Lots of people who move around complain about not having money for travel, emergency/medical expenses, retirement or a better car or whatever.
But I guess, they have their own priorities..
Jeez, people might move frequently for nonpsychological reasons such as job transfers or contract work in different places, or for educational goals.
You are so right. Reasons for why is as varied as why some people never leave their neighborhood, never travel out of their own backyard, city, state or country. I think a good question is why do some people have a constant need to place people into any type boxing do they feel some sort of inadequacy themselves, I imagine some do some don't, but that too varies as with most reasons behind the why.. There's no one mind set for these sort of things so I feel it best if people stop trying to pigeon hole each others unnecessarily. Wondering is one thing but giving some off the wall analysis without a legitimate scientific backing doesn't do much good, it just amounts to trash in trash out.
I personally am in contact with 100s of people who live in one place for short periods and not so short periods of time they travel constantly and they do so for varied reasons. Long term, short term most of these folks, I talk with are some of the most stable, rashional, interesting people I've ever encountered, MOST, some are as whacked out as SOME/many posters on CD.
Part of moving essentially is travel/vacation for me. Just instead of spending a week someplace, a few years to really explore a place with all the free time while living there.
Moving around without any particular reason cost money people could spend on other pleasures.
And sometimes, the expenses you don’t anticipate can completely devour any “savings” or equity you were hoping to gain with the transaction.
Moving means ... moving costs, new utility set-up, perhaps some new furniture or decor, sometimes storage, deposits, cost of the Realtors if you're buying a new home.
Lots of people who move around complain about not having money for travel, emergency/medical expenses, retirement or a better car or whatever.
But I guess, they have their own priorities..
But why is that necessarily a bad thing?
Life is short. I'm from a small, isolated metro area. I'm glad that I've moved around, seen other places, and did other things. Many of my peers haven't, and have the same stilted perspectives we grew up with in a very religious area with no real diversity.
Hi there,
It was so fascinating to read the entire thread here and everything you guys have posted.
Its so me!!
I actually went to therapy to find out this, why do I move that much?!
My therapist told me that I just needed to accept this nature that I have. That it means that I have more need to explore and that I am just curious! Like you guys!
I am now 40 yrs old, married to a settler for 3 yrs, and I have moved aprox 45 times in my life!
The longest I've stayed in one place was as a child from 8 to 15 yrs.
My shortest stay in an appartment var 1 month, so you can say Im more like a gipsy, thats for sure.
I moved to where I am atm in November 19, even though I did not especially wanted to go here, because om my husband. He had to stay closer to his 7 yrs old son that he has with his ex, so we live 30 minutes away from him. I wanted to go south in Norway, but I recognizes that it was to far for him.
Now I want to go south still! Im so bored that I think I have become depressed.
Its a nice condo and all, and we have nice new (used) furniture, but I dont want to be here.
So every year or so.. I want to move, try new cities, etc.
I still have my old friends from school, but we're never like.. together. We talk on the phone and text on facebook, instagram etc. I have no new friends where I am now.
Dont feel like having either, we're bound to move away soon. My husband cant see his kid ( the mother stops him from it) so he wants me to be happy and want to join me in moving to my dream-place.
So maybe within a year!
Very thankful of this Thread!
All the best to you in this Corona-time
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A norwegian nomad
