Many times that I’m writing here, I’m writing to remember a particular time in my life — to make sense of it in the moment and to create a place to reference in the future, should I or anyone else need it. While I imagine the experience we went through last year — moving a young family from one home to another in middle childhood — might be somewhat singular for me, I still want to record it for posterity. (I say “singular” because while we never know for sure what’s ahead, I can easily imagine a life in which our next big move is as empty nesters. And since our first big move was from an apartment, sans children, that would make the move we undertook last year a singular experience in our life. Which is a crazy thought!) Still, even if I never need to use my own advice again, we did learn a few things along the way, and I’d love to share them with you. I also know that many of you are seasoned movers with a deeper well of experience to offer than me, and I’d love to hear from you in the comments. If not for my benefit (staying put as I intend to!), then for our fellow readers :)  The first bag of trash (OF MANY) and the first collection of boxes to go to storage How does it work to sell and buy a house? First, my biggest question when we approached this move was how to order its cadence — when do we put the house we’re selling on the market? When do we schedule the moving truck? — and it was frustrating to feel like I never got a clear, satisfactory answer from any party. Not their fault: now on

Hello, friends. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on Monday’s post. I was sad to hear how many of you have dealt with homesickness, but also not surprised — it seems like very few people our age live in the same place they grew up, wouldn’t you say? A few of you asked me to write about making friends in a new place. While I would love to tackle that topic, I have to think some more on whether I actually have anything useful to share. I feel like we lucked into our friends down here, which is not a very replicable strategy! But I will think on it. In the meantime, I wanted to touch on a different related subject, and one that is a little cheerier: how to find “your people” after a move. Nope, not your friend people — your service provider people! Moving to North Carolina was the first time I really had to search for a whole new roster of talented professionals — I went to college only two hours from home, so I kept the same hair gal, doctor, etc. throughout undergrad. To be honest, I kept many of them for our first few years after the move, and just scheduled a full slate of appointments for my trips home!! But eventually it got old to be filling my time up North with appointments instead of fun, and I realized that if I were to get sick, it would be better to already have a doctor than to try and find one while feverish. Over the last five years, I’ve found a guy or gal in almost every category, but some were easier than others! And each seemed to come via a different route. A sampling: — Hair stylist: Friend recommendation. Tried two other