For people who moved from one state to another or moved from one region to another region. How was the moving process like?

28 comments

1. I’ve moved states for: public education, higher education, romance, higher higher education, and more romance. I put my shit in a truck and moved.

   It looked like this: NY – NJ – CT – (UK) – CA – VA – NY – VA.

   It’s easy to move for education. There’s not a lot of establishing oneself to do. There are lots of new people and they make friends easily. Moving for a job is tough, particularly where your job relies on a creating a network, like mine. And when you are older, it’s harder to make friends.

   I’ve now established my family and career in Virginia, so suspect I’ll live out the rest of my days here. Unless something weird happens.

2. I have moved a lot. It was for college, my first job, my wife’s (girlfriend at the time) grad school, wife’s post doc, wife’s current job.

   Establishing myself was easier when young and single or just a couple. It is much harder with a kid and a law degree where you have to take the bar exam in four freakin’ states.

3. I’ve moved multiple times for work. It starts off as an exciting adventure and then becomes more and more frustrating each other time.

   what I have found is that it’s not too difficult to establish residency. Each state I’ve moved to provides some sort of checklist on what needs to happen and when, so it’s just a matter of making sure your paperwork is in order. What’s difficult is the *other* part of establishing yourself: meeting the neighbors, finding out where the good and bad parts of town are, etc. That can take years and can feel like a very lonely process.

4. I moved for college, so it was pretty simple. I applied for a school in Philadelphia, got accepted, then before the next semester started I put whatever clothes and essentials I could fit in an Eagle Talon and drove from MI to PA.

5. Job related, looking for a fresh start, it was easy. I moved everything I own in a 2016 Impreza.

6. As a kid, my family moved states but stayed in roughly the same region. At that time I didn’t notice much of a change other than people.

   In summer of 2022, I moved as an adult for a job and spent what felt like six weeks working through all the annoying paperwork to establish myself and update the relevant credentials. I loved to an area that offers more social opportunities centered around what I like so it hasn’t been too hard to meet people.

   Honestly the hardest part was going from a state that didn’t require a front license plate to one that did and having to find someone to mount it for me.

7. I’ve moved as a kid to multiple states. As an adult I’ve done FL to MN, MN to TN. Honestly, we just packed a uHaul and went. If you have a job and a place to live lined up, that’s all takes. Minnesota had a steeper learning curve because of the severity of the winters. Figuring out the plowing schedule took me a bit to sort out at first. We went to MN for school and TN for work. Moving to TN was easy enough. Jobs were lined up and we signed a lease. Once we got here it was just a matter of switching over licenses and such.

8. The less things you own or are attached to the easier it is. It’s as simple as that. You will miss your family, but can you be away from them?

9. I’ve never moved out of state but I have moved all over Tennessee. I always rent a uhaul and move myself

10. I’ve lived in RI, NYC, Maryland, Alaska, and California, for school, family, and work.

    It’s always a little painful, and a lot expensive, and it gets worse as you accumulate more stuff and people (had a kid a year ago; nothing like driving from east coast to west coast with a little baby in the back seat). A few of these moves have been with the military, so that smooths the way a bit.

    The best part for me is the opportunity to get a new library card, since I’m that kind of nerd.

11. It’s not terribly hard but i haven’t had as much luck making long term friends in Florida like I did other places (see flair). But that’s for very specific reasons that I won’t get into

12. Raised in Florida and moved up to Kentucky a few years ago; my dad grew up in Dayton Ohio (an hour or so away from where we moved) and found better prices in north Kentucky. It was a bitch; there was primarily a lot of issues with our car/licenses… something to do with needing car insurance in Florida, even though we moved, and having a hard time getting stuff switched to Kentucky. Nothing I fully understood. Then there were the 2 days of traveling, had to have everything in one truck, trying to get around places with the moving truck and a car trailer… didn’t know anyone in KY to help us move in (paying movers was obviously an option, but didn’t just have friends or family to come help.)

    I still haven’t really established myself here, with friends and such, but we did have the pandemic shortly after I moved here, so…

13. Super easy if you have money and resources. You buy or rent a new place. You call movers. They pack for you, move it for you, and unpack it for you. You go to the dmv and change your license. Now you look for new service providers and get on with your life.

14. Expensive. My sister moved from NY to NC because her husband wanted to transfer location. It wasn’t an offer given to him he just asked if he could work at that location. It was expensive. My parents moved from NY to FL. The moving truck was thousands to rent. Short distances… I move less than an hour upstate. Still cost a few hundred for the moving truck. We moved to take our kids out of gang areas so they wouldn’t be sucked into that life.best choice. Kids graduated high school and college while they read about their cousins jail sentences in the papers.

15. It becomes more challenging as you add children into the mix. The actual process of moving is stressful but is a temporary burden. IMO impact moving has had on my child’s development has made me feel guilty as a parent. Kids need that sense of structure and stability.

16. It can be tricky, like anywhere. So, you have to move to a new place, which, pre-work-from-home often meant changing jobs. So, you’ve got to get all of your shit from one place to another, you’ve got to find a place AND find a job. Most places don’t want to rent to you if you don’t have a job, but if you aren’t there to do interviews, how can you get a job? In the past, this often meant taking multiple trips to the new city to do interviews and stuff; now it’s all done online for the most part. Meanwhile, if you are BUYING a home, the bank wants to see consistency, which is not what you have if you have hauled your shit 8 states away and changed jobs. Finally, you have to pick an area to move – You might not want the shittiest house in a nice neighborhood or the nicest house in meth-lab land. But how can you really get to know a place visiting maybe once?

    It’s a challenge, moving, in general. One the internet and video conferencing has made a little less painful. In general, it seems like renting a place for a year before buying is easier, that way you don’t buy a house in a place you don’t know or don’t like.

17. My family moved from Alabama to Washington State in 2002 for my dad’s job. It’s always difficult moving from somewhere where you have deep roots. It’s even more difficult to literally move across the country with a very different culture. We left all of our friends and family behind. My sister had just had her first kids, so my parents didn’t really get to be grandparents.

    Like others have said, the act of moving itself can be difficult, especially if you have a lot of stuff. We had a *lot* of stuff.

    We eventually started to establish ourselves, but it took time and was never quite “home”. My brother took to it the best and still lives there.

18. I’ve moved for work, for school, for better housing affordability.

    It went fine each time, no regrets. It costs a bit more money than you’d want it to. Immersing yourself in the new place is helpful, don’t just sit around the house moping, go do stuff.

19. It has always been very easy for me. When I was younger, I thought it was enormously fun. I worked for an expanding tech company, and there were opportunities to move on the company checkbook all the time.

    What I loved so much about it was that I got to be a tourist around the United States for a few years at a time in a region. For example, if you live in New York, Boston, Gulf Coast Florida, New Orleans, or San Francisco it’s not just that you get to live in those places but also you can do weekend trips from those places.

    In the tech industry, I always found it really easy to establish myself in a new place. As a profession it’s full of transplants from everywhere so you fit right in wherever you go and people have strong opinions about Linux.

20. Find a place to live get a new state driver’s license that is pretty much it. Move was always job related

21. Back in Jan 2020, before COVID hit the fan, I moved out from my parents place in California to live with buddies in Wisconsin. I still do, it’s been an interesting life so far, not really having family around and living with three others. The process was rather easy for me by pure luck as I saved up as much money as I could while selling off my entire physical game collection, I got lucky that the first person interested decided to buy everything from me. Shipped the bigger stuff like figures and manga I wanted to keep while my two systems and what little clothes I had went into my luggage that my parents gave me. Took a bit of a vacation before finding work. Have had my ups and downs but, hopefully things can actually start to get better now

22. I moved about 2 hours north to Philly from MD, not exactly cross country. I did it for a job, but also just because I wanted some new scenery. The move was not really much worse than any other move, moving always sucks ass. It was a little more work, I suppose, because of the longer distance, but it wasn’t really that much different than just moving to a new apartment in the same city. A little bit more paperwork related to my car and license of course, but I didn’t rush to get that stuff changed.

    It took like 2 years for Philly to feel like my new home, and about 2 more to get to the point where I felt like I was part of a neighborhood community. But I’ve also moved within the city several times since coming here, which probably hindered that process somewhat.

23. The last time I did it was 30+ years ago. With the rise of the internet most of my experiences would be vastly different today

24. I was too cheap to shell out money on a truck, pod, etc. so I loaded everything in my car and drove from CA to NC for an absolutely incredible road trip.

25. I moved after college for my first job. It was physically easy as I didn’t own too much and I wasn’t taking my old bed or furniture from home. Everything fit in the small truck I was using at the time.

    I looked at apartments while I was interviewing for my job. When the job was accepted I confirmed an apartment via phone.

    When I got there the second day I went out and bought a cheap bed set from a mattress store. From walmart I got bedding, cookware, microwave, dishes, and some food basics. From a dent and ding pit this local furniture company had I got desk, computer chair, dresser, and a night stand.

    The hard part was getting used to a new area before GPS was common. I was constantly printing out directions, getting lost and having to read a map book I bought or ask directions.

    The initial excitement kept homesickness away. So I didn’t miss it for about a year. But luckily I met some friends a few months after the homesickness began. That helped me get over the hump and now I own a condo in my new city and this place feels like home.

26. I put all of my shit I could fit in my Impala and drove 2300 miles to my new home. When I found a new opportunity to move, I packed all my shit I could fit in my Impala and drove another 2300 miles. It was only I got a bed and furniture that I had to rent a U-Haul and recruit help to drive another 200 miles. It sucked.

27. Every time I move its ALWAYS a one way ticket. Its always either for housing or jobs. Nothing more. I also love road trips so I am always excited to move.

28. I’ve bounced around a lot, it hasn’t been too difficult since I did my best to set up everything I could beforehand. My moves are NJ-ID-WY-ID-PA-TX. Doing you best to start applying for jobs like two weeks before you move. The most difficult one has been coming here to Texas since I was going from a HCOL/higher paying area to a low cost of living but low pay area. Finding a job that suited my needs has been difficult but I’ve managed to land a solid job. There’s been some cultural adjustments but it hasn’t been too bad.