Is there anyone who isn't just kind of numb and burned out after moving?

Yikes - a long distance move, a mortgage, and kids and dog? I had a dooxzy of a time with just a short distance one +mortgage. Hopefully your place is move in ready? Over a year later, I still have boxes packed in my living room - that's what I get for getting a fixer upper that was barely habitable. I just focused on a room at a time. First the bathroom reno. Then the living room (hopefully by fall) Just take your time. One box at a time - and then one room at a time.

I think you'll find that basically everyone is right there with you on this one. When I move (and I will be again in 9 days), I have the most frustrating combination of being tapped out and also desperately wanting to get my life in order, so I tend to just unpack fiercely with accidental naps in the middle. The last time my sister walked in to the room I was unpacking and found me using books as a pillow, totally zonked out.

I take my time and let it happen (lots of deep breaths and cups of tea :) I never had "new homeowner's blues" but saw it as a major positive adventure. First order of business in a new home -- let someone watch the kids & take a luxurious bubble bath. 3 day car trip with dog, and never once wanted to stick her up on the roof. kids+ car trip= exhausting.

We have been in our new home since June. It's the first time we ever bought a house, first time we ever negotiated a mortgage...And we immediately had painters, electricians and masons all over us. I am a teacher on summer vacation, so I have no other major preoccupations at the moment. Since school ended in May, there has not been ONE SECOND when I haven't been thinking about the house.

This weekend, when the masons have finished rebuilding an exterior wall, my plan is to do nothing. No more cleaning, no more unpacking, no worrying about the art that's still on the floor or my office that is completely unfit for working in when school starts next week. Maybe I'll take a trip to my old neighbourhood and hang out in a cafe that is so familiar and unstimulating that I can think about something larger - or smaller - than where I live. I am EXHAUSTED.

If you can take the time to just sit and be tired, please do. Your house isn't going anywhere.

I've moved dozens of times in my life, but the last two moves have completely zonked me. One was an interstate move and the other local, though the interstate move was far more exhausting since Every. Thing. Is. Different. And. More. Work. (I need to go to Target. Where's Target? Oh, Internet's not connected yet. And so on.) Some of it is age and some recent health issues, I'm sure, but I think more is mental fatigue of yet another move. Clearly, I need to stop moving so much!

This will be my family's third move this year! Let's just say I'm lease than thrilled. So I feel your pain : (

Well....we are gearing up for a pretty big move. Come February, we will be facing the exciting task of getting a 5 week old, a 19 month old, 2 great danes (220 lbs and 165lbs) and my husband and I to Novia Scotia----over 2000 miles away from where we live now! The plan is for me to fly the humans and my husband to drive the dogs.

I am excited get there.....not excited to unpack! However, the amount of purging that happens when getting ready to move makes it worth it! Good luck everyone! : )

The night I took control of my first house I laid on the floor with the dog and cried, I felt so overwhelmed. Once I moved in, I was exhausted from the constant projects. I think it worked in my favor though--I had no bathroom sink and my kitchen was stripped to a crumbly subfloor. I think that would've driven me crazy if I wasn't so tired. Luckily it seems like there's that one thing (getting your kitchen set up or the cable installed or whatever) that, once you get it done, you feel like everything else will fall into place.

I know exactly the feeling. In the last year I've moved twice, one of which was across state lines, three times if you include the two weeks my boyfriend and all of his stuff hung out at my apartment. My boyfriend is the energizer bunny who needs to get things set up and moved in, but I was just so exhausted every time.

I agree moving takes a great tole on a person, and sometimes relationships. It can be a stressful time. After a weekend of cleaning and painting, the movers came, when they were done, I was so exhausted, I took a nap on our mattress still covered in plastic. After that it does take time, and it seems the only places you go are work, the grocery store and the local home improvement place.... Hang in there, I know you can do it.

We bought our first condo last fall, and the excitement leading up to it was overshadowed by the stress of the mortgage process and packing for the move. It was all of 5 miles from where I lived, and a few friends helped us pack everything into all of our cars and have the move done in two trips. (We owned nearly no furniture.) I don't think I felt properly excited until we had all the boxes inside and everyone left. We made up the bed, unpacked the bathroom and kitchen the first night, and the rest came together slowly as we had the cable set up, and furniture delivered. The worst part was waiting for all of the pieces to come together (and nearly a year later, there's plenty we need and need to do.) But it's the first time I've felt like a place was MINE. It's truly our home. And that helped keep me from feeling the post-move blues.

Hi - I just registered so I could comment on this post!

I just closed on my house on the 10th, moved in the 12th, and am feeling downright stressed by everything.

The real story began back in may with the offer on the house, the negotiating, the mortgage, the sea of paperwork, and then the house not being finished on time. This was was what really threw me off. My lease was up on the 31st, so the weekend before I had to move back to my parents' house and two weeks later move back into the city. Oh, my new house was 5 blocks away from my apartment and my parents were 50mi away from both (and I am terribly lucky it was only that much and I had parents to take me in). Then there was the whole almost not closing because the builder was a prick, but that's another story.

Everyday I have come home from work and felt overwhelmed by the boxes, but the fact that I can't find anything, by the fact that I only have the floor or my bed to sit on, and that my money is just flying out the window. I'm leaving tonight for an out of town wedding, which should be exciting (and a much needed getaway), but I can't help feeling like I'm losing my precious weekend time for unpacking.

Any suggestions would be welcome, but I'm thinking it's mostly just how I react to life's stresses.

OMG, who hasn't been to the breaking point during at least one move? My most recent move at the beginning of this month was the worst. Maybe its a function of age but even though I get more organized each time, I reach the point of overwhelm and then still keep pushing myself because I always do almost everything except move the big furniture myself. Monday the 30th was the day the scheduled and confirmed movers didn't show so I had to scramble to find someone else and then Tuesday the 31st was cleaning the old place. I actually felt like I was coming down with the flu at the end of that day. Dog wasn't eating, nothing was unpacked, etc. Wednesday new landlord said no bathing for a week while he fixed leak in bathroom during sticky 90 degree days. What?! Are you KIDDING??? Inflated the air matress and realized that I needed to not push myself so hard & that it would all get done in good time and that the process was not worth getting sick over!

It will be a long time before I move again. I have fantasies of having someone come in and organize everything, pack everything, move it and unpack while I stand by "supervising" with a cup of gourmet coffee!!!

You CAN get through it, you WILL get through it and it is not to make yourself sick over. Little steps, be kind to yourself....

I get the total opposite!

Few times we've moved now (married/as an adult) and a few as a kid with my family, I got MORE amped up once we got in the house or were done the driving and getting there part. The setting up utilities part can be stressful initially, but normally I get jazzed with the moving process. Helps my hubby who gets like a hermit crab and just wants to curl up in a corner!

Oh, yes, I hear you.
The night we moved in to our first home, I took a dust sheet, laid it down on the floorboards, plonked my head on a roll of carpet and promptly fell asleep for half an hour.
I think we underestimate the emotional stress of moving never mind the actual physical effort.
Give it a day or two until you suss out your new home then the energy and excitement will kick in.
Karen (Scotland)

I have moved 4 times in the last 14 months. And almost 30 in the last 7 years over 4 states(short leases and college roommates really were to blame). This last move was one of the shortest and one of the most stressful. For the first time I had it figured out to move with only one day over lap. Made me happy to only pay for two places for a day instead of living out of two houses for 2 weeks. Oh how wrong I was. I rented a Uhaul for 3 hours (even though the daily rate allows for more, my work schedule did not). I had one friend over and we loaded the thing up with EVERYTHING I had. 90% of it was packed, but we rushed around like crazy getting every last spec of it all in the truck for one trip. Then to the new space, it was literally dumped into the house and I turned around to get the truck back and on to my 2nd job in time. It was insane. Though the literal moving was done in record time, I will give myself at least 5 days over lap between leases from now on. Ugh! Good luck with the new space :)

When I was 7 years old, we moved from Virginia to Texas. My mom gave birth to my youngest sister the day before we left - and we had a deadline because school was starting, so we couldn't wait. Mom and baby flew a few days later. My poor dad loaded up the station wagon with me (age 7) and my 4-year-old sister AND A CAT, and drove. 1400 miles. In August. With a cassette tape deck for entertainment. I really don't know how he made it - but I'm especially impressed at the resilience of the cat.

I'm moving in about a month, and we're planning on staying in a house owned by a friend for no more than four months. So, while moving once is stressful enough, I'm thinking about how I'll be moving twice within the next six months.

Many years ago, we were about to move and I was going nuts trying to make everything work perfectly. A lovely neighbor, who was an army wife, put her arm around me and said, 'I've moved 20 times in 15 years and I've learned 1 thing - it's going to be two weeks of hell and then it gets better.'

Such great advice for so many things in life. I don't even remember her name, but I've carried that wisdom around for many years.

Do what you are able to do, then take a break until you are able to do more. Little by little, it will all get done.

It takes awhile to get comfortable and feel at at home in a new home. Give it some time. For me just trying to fall asleep without it feeling like a hotel took awhile.

oh yes...just know this..rest as much as possible, if you didn't feel this way, then there'd be something to worry about! we'd worry you were on speed or the like! take care of yourself as well, it WILL EVOLVE...you've done a superhuman feat!! sounds like a LOT of you above have as well : O

Energizer bunny here. I love moving. I feel no stress and don't get exhausted. I can get pretty tired, but in a good way.

Admittedly I have rarely (five times) moved with a child in tow and never with dogs (but often with cats) but I did once move when I was nine month pregnant. That was the best - I didn't have to carry a single box! If it wasn't for the fact that I love where I live now so much, I'd be happy to move often because I so much enjoy the whole process. OK, I'm weird.

I know that this is pop psychology but isn't it possible that if you expect something to be stressful, it will be? Whereas if you see it as an adventure, that's exactly what it will be?

We moved to a new country, started putting in hardwood flooring the next day (to get it done before the movers arrived 7 days later) and then my husband left for another country for a month and I followed one week later. We came back home and realized the next day that his foreign visa had not come through so he had to move back to our home country for A YEAR while we waited for his visa. It was a disaster. But we made it. And you will too. Change is stress.

My partner and I closed on our first house on January 31, 2012. I'm still having the "is this ever going to end" fatigue. In fact, I think 6 months of that was my breaking point. A few nights ago, after a frustrating wood stripping endeavor, I had a break down. Full on, blubbering break down. I just kept saying "what have we done?" and "I just want to feel like this is my home" and a bunch of other weepy hormonal crap that she was kind enough to deal with. Nothing has thrown me like this house. I'm glad I'm not the only one, because no one talks about the emotional break down or lapse that one goes through. I just always hear about all the work owning a house is, but never the mental drain suck it is.

I've never had this experience myself - I LOVE moving! I adore the discovery of things I find when I'm packing, the great feeling of clearing out a house and donating things I don't need, the joy of making a bare, lonely space feel like a home. I move quite often (although not for the past few years since I wanted my kids to have a stable childhood while at school)... but moving to me is very therapeutic. Last time I moved was to a new city, with two small kids, started a new job while my youngest started school... I unpacked the entire house in two days.

I think, though, had I needed to fly several time from one city to the another just to find a home, I'd be a little burned out... a three day journey to finally get to the new home would be exhausting. Instead of worrying about it - sleep as much as you can, do a little every morning and spend the afternoons exploring your new neighbourhood! You'll feel invigorated.

Moving is one of the only things that is just as bad as you think it is going to be. Knowing that, I just try to make the best of it and get through it. The sooner it is over, the sooner we can start making a new home, and that is the best part for me. You deserve to nap though!

@KANBERRA I'm so glad that someone's like me! I certainly don't understand why people don't enjoy moving especially when they are upgrading - from rented to owned, for example. Last year, we moved from a lovely 3/3 house into a tiny apartment because of finances. It was a backward step in many ways but still a lot of fun.

It'll pass. Take some naps and some walks with the kids. Be happy.

I moved into a new apartment a few months ago. It wasn't a big move geographically, but it was a super stressful one -- I didn't have much notice that I was moving out of my old place, it was hard to find a new place and time really got down to the wire, it was pricier than I'd budgeted, my roommate wasn't happy I'd found a place of my own, the new apartment needed some work, packing was particularly awful, it was hard finding movers, the movers weren't careful with my things. SO STRESSFUL. And I couldn't miss a day of work (~50-hour weeks + ~90 min/day of commuting).

I think I slept on the mattress pad -- no sheets -- for about a week. It was just crazy.

Three months later and I still have a long to-do list and a heap of boxes to unpack. (I need to unpack baking things, but I can't store anything in the cabinet above the fridge because a microwave is on top of the fridge for now, because I need to install a microwave over the range, and I'm having a really hard time finding an extra-narrow microwave because it's a small studio kitchen. I need to unpack books but first I need to figure out where I'm putting the bookcases and whether I need new ones. I need to unpack yarn but first I need to finish the makeover of the cheap attorney's bookcase I found on craigslist. You get the idea.) I have no idea how people are supposed to work full-time and accomplish stuff. I love my new place but I'll be lucky to get to the apartment-warming party before my first anniversary here.

I moved from Omaha to Seattle and did fine through packing, organizing, planning, 3 days of driving a moving truck with my sister in the passenger side, husband driving the car with two cats, driving through mountains for the first time, realizing AS you are doing it that you are driving through mountains for the first time in the dark, in the rain, in moving truck after 10 hours, making it to the apartment complex 10 minutes before the manager's office closed . . . fine through all that. With no cell phones!

A couple hours after we landed, sick of fast food, we wanted to go to the grocery store and grab a sandwich and a few provisions, and didn't know where one was. We piled in the car and figured if we drove down a main street we would reach one, and we did. It was a crappy Safeway and kinda ghetto and there were just some crappy sandwiches and I felt like I was going to break down and cry right there in the grocery store. Seriously I couldn't move, just standing there staring at the crappy sandwiches. Sister and husband are walking around grabbing stuff to buy and I am just like uuuuhhhhhhhh . . . I can't eat that sandwich. I wanna go to my store.

You'll make it. Just do something for an hour every day. Unpack boxes, move stuff around, learn where the grocery store is with the good sandwiches, and spend the other 23 hours chilling, enjoying time with your family and your new town. Soon an hour will turn to two to an afternoon and you will feel at home, and even know where the good sandwiches are.

p.s. I didn't go to that Safeway again for a year, even though I drove by it every day, and when I did, they had remodeled it. It's awesome now. :)

You have to take breaks. I was thrilled at our move, yet the sheer amount of work overwhelmed. Maybe it is different if you only have one person's belongings and/or a small apartment's worth of stuff? We were a family of four + dog and had lived in our previous house for 17 years.

Anyhow, I found that if I worked at the packing/unpacking for a long time I inevitably felt I'd made little progress. But after a break I could see the results more clearly and no longer felt discouraged. It helped if the break involved actually leaving the house, although it can be hard to find the energy for that!

I just moved! I have moved five times in 7 years! it sucks! I have gotten better at moving- trying to be organized and label everything, however it is just hard. This last move my husband finally asked people to help with the big things but we used our car to shuffle everything back and forth, and were able to use a family member's truck for the big furniture. The only part that is exciting is the unpacking process. I moved this past Saturday, and now on Tuesday I am almost 100% unpacked. I work a full-time job and have a 18 month old so it's not ALL done...however if I were home I would be completely done, with pictures hanging up. I don't waste time unpacking...I want to feel like I'm living in a home a soon as possible.

i'm just about 6 mo pregnant with my first & we moved in one weekend....EXHAUSTED! i slept 14 hours a night for a week straight before i felt ok enough to start unpacking & we still have boxes around the house because we need to do some painting!

We moved cross country a few months ago. Everything went very quickly with the sell of our home and the finding of a new one. Unpacking went quickly to because I needed to get my cat and 4year old settled. We unpacked early morning and after our son went to bed. During the middle of the day, we made a point to get out for a drive and find something new. I did unpack my kitchen in one day because I could not handle eating out anymore.

We just bought our first house, ever. I have grown up in New York, Chicago, LA, and moved many times to different departments, ending up in a condo in Los Angeles six years ago. Finally decided to try a house. Sold the condo in LA which went really smoothly, bought a house down to Northern San Diego Which was much more difficult both with the markets and with an unpleasant seller. The movers efficient and cheerful, the house in decent condition, then there's me in nervous breakdown mode. I can't find anything, the house is two stories, the husband is still working up in LA, I have to get screens on every window of this house because we have two indoor cats and apparently there are lots of creatures out there that would view them as an appetizer, and I have no experience doing things like propane tanks, solar people, pool people, et cetera. Plus I have fibromyalgia and am always tired to start with; three weeks of packing and stress has me about ready for the loony bin.
You are NOT alone. I am, down here in a small town, being a Manhattan girl by birth;)