[This entry was mostly written at the end of March but not published until now. Sorry!]
In one of the entries around the new year, I mentioned that we were going to be renting our apartment when we leave for Switzerland later this summer. This is just a quick update of how that's all coming along and what we've learned from the process so far. The weirdest part is that everything is pretty much already done. Crazy!
We contacted an agency to manage the apartment while we were gone -- it's so hard to deal with tenants if we are abroad. We wanted to rent it furnished so we wouldn't have to deal with putting our furniture in storage. I took the time to clean up all the clutter around the apartment so potential tenants could get a sense of what it looked like without all of the extra stuff in the way. This mostly included getting rid of clothes and items for donation. I put together 11 bags worth of stuff (spoiler: this didn't actually get donated until June -- oops!):
In one of the entries around the new year, I mentioned that we were going to be renting our apartment when we leave for Switzerland later this summer. This is just a quick update of how that's all coming along and what we've learned from the process so far. The weirdest part is that everything is pretty much already done. Crazy!
We contacted an agency to manage the apartment while we were gone -- it's so hard to deal with tenants if we are abroad. We wanted to rent it furnished so we wouldn't have to deal with putting our furniture in storage. I took the time to clean up all the clutter around the apartment so potential tenants could get a sense of what it looked like without all of the extra stuff in the way. This mostly included getting rid of clothes and items for donation. I put together 11 bags worth of stuff (spoiler: this didn't actually get donated until June -- oops!):
For the time before donation, they sat in our closet, next to Chase's stuff:
I also tidied up everything else so that the previously messy bookshelves looked like this (the first one in our bedroom and the other in the living room):
The bedrooms looked like this:
The only pictures of our bedroom on this blog! The open door leads back to the entry and the closed door leads to the closet (shown above).
This is the other bedroom/office. The desk is finally back there, although it used to be in our closet for a long time.
The kitchen, living room, bathroom, and entry looked just like the pictures I posted earlier of the apartment tour with various updates - here, here, and here. So with everything nice and clean, we had the management company/realtors come by and take some pictures to list it! We listed it on Thursday afternoon, someone contacted the company the following week to look at it -- which they did on Wednesday. By Friday, they put in the application and by the following week, they signed the lease. So literally the first people to view it, went for it. I am so glad that we got it done in March, way before Chase showed up. And the best part is that they wanted all of the furniture except for a few items. Most of those items we have already arranged to give away to friends.
So now the list of things we have to do before we move:
- install ceiling fan in our bedroom
- send personal knick-knacks for long-term storage to my parents' house
- sell the twin bed/nightstand
- PACK PACK PACK!!
- donate everything else that we cannot pack/give to friends
See, that to-do list wouldn't be so bad, but it doesn't include the rest of everything you have to do...papers, fellowships, travel, phew. You'll get there, though!
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