After months of preparation and anticipation, on November 26, 2018, we finally got underway with our move from the Stuttgart area to Wiesbaden. The packers arrived at about 9:00am that cloudy Monday morning. Weichert, the moving company hired by Bill’s company, sent us three strong guys from the eastern part of Europe. I think they were from Croatia, but I’m not absolutely sure. What I am sure of is that they were first class movers. Having been an “Army wife” the first twelve years of my sixteen year marriage, I have experienced my share of moves. This one was one of the easiest, not just because we were moving within Germany, but because we had truly excellent movers.
I wrote a couple more blog posts, anticipating time without precious WiFi access. Bill had contacted Deutsche Telekom to set up our new Internet connection, hoping it would be done on November 28th, which was our move in day. He still hadn’t canceled Internet in our old house because he was hoping we could just use Unitymedia in our new home. For whatever reason, he wasn’t able to move our Internet service to the new house. At this writing, we still have an active Unitymedia account at our old house.
Packing up…
I booked us a hotel room at Hotel Adler in Nagold, which is an adorable little town I’ve written about many times in this blog. We lived very close to Nagold and had eaten at Hotel Adler a few times. I was curious about their rooms, so I took our last night as an opportunity to experience a night there. We booked the dogs at Dog Holiday for the whole week, so they’d be out of the way while we packed and cleaned. I will miss having such close proximity to Max and his wife; they have taken great care of Zane and Arran for the past few years. In fact, we’ll probably still use them when we visit Stuttgart to see our awesome dentist and/or as we pass through on the way to southern countries.
I wasn’t feeling particularly well on our packing day. I felt like I was coming down with a virus. With every packed box, our former house grew less and less comfortable. I felt compelled to clean as the movers worked, knowing that our former landlady would be a stickler when it came time for the move out inspection.
So empty now!
Despite my moniker, “The Overeducated Housewife”, I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a pretty crappy housewife. I don’t enjoy cleaning, and am not particularly good at it. However, when I do get in the mood to clean, I will clean thoroughly… almost obsessively. This is especially true when it comes time to move out of a house. My Dyson got a great workout on packing day, especially in the bedroom, where four years of dust had accumulated under the bed. Maybe Santa will bring me a super slim robot vacuum this year, strictly for vacuuming under the bed.
Freshly mopped.
The house in Unterjettingen has the distinction of being the home Bill and I have lived in for the longest as a married couple. When you stay in one house for four years and don’t vacuum under the bed, things get pretty gross. Fortunately, I didn’t think to take pictures. I filled the Dyson’s canister at least twice cleaning up the dust bunnies. It was weirdly satisfying. I knew it was really dusty under there, but unless I have an extra set of muscles to help with the mattress and box springs, vacuuming under the bed isn’t a job I can easily do.
I also cleaned the dust out of the radiators, as much as I could, anyway. As I ran the microfiber duster through the narrow slats of the old fashioned radiators, I promised myself our next house would have easier to clean heating elements. Despite the duster and vacuum cleaner’s efforts, I wasn’t able to make the radiators pristine. Oh well.
At one point, I went outside to put some stuff in my car and ran into the neighbor across the street. He was curious about what we were up to. When I told him we were moving to Wiesbaden, he smiled really big. He doesn’t speak much English and I know he covets the parking space in front of the house, so maybe he was happy to see us go. Actually, although he seemed to worry about our dogs when we first moved in, he later became somewhat friendly. He even brought us some fruit from one of his trees. But I do know he likes to park in front of our former house, so maybe that was why he was smiling.
The packers were finished by 4:00pm. I suppose I can thank Bill’s first company for that, since we were only allotted enough money to bring 5000 pounds of stuff with us when we moved back to Germany in 2014. I have to admit, less stuff makes for a shorter packing day. Truth be told, I don’t even miss a lot of the stuff we left in storage. Moving right before Christmas has also put a damper on my Christmas shopping this year. I have no desire to wrap or unwrap more stuff… or find places to put it.
As we emptied the top floor of our former house, I cleaned the rooms, vanquishing dust bunnies and cobwebs and steam mopping vinyl floors until they shone. In the back of my head, I knew my efforts would probably be in vain, but I wanted to try anyway. Originally, we were going to hire professional cleaners, but Bill was never able to arrange it. So, just like for every other move, it was the two of us trying to make really old carpet, laminate flooring, and linoleum look presentable. As I removed the portable cabinet from under the bathroom sink, I discovered the pipe had sprung a leak at some point. I have no idea how long that went on, since it was covered by the cabinet, which was there when we moved in (we bought it from the previous tenants). It wasn’t a serious leak, but it was definitely noticeable.
After we were finished on Monday, I was ready to go to straight to bed. My visions of one last meal in one of our favorite Stuttgart area food towns were dashed. We didn’t even eat at the hotel, which offers good traditional German food. I wanted something less heavy. Instead, Bill got takeout from La Meo, a nearby Italian eatery.
The room at Hotel Nagold was typically German, but spotlessly clean and comfortable. We had the misfortune of having booked a room next to where they were setting up the Christmas market. Workers were erecting an ice skating rink, which came with the sounds of power tools and super loud dance music. I will admit that the noise made me decidedly crotchety, but at least they were finished by 9:30pm.
If you stay at the Hotel Adler in Nagold, you have to use your new fangled key for electricity. It’s not even one of those rooms where any card will keep the lights on. You have to use their key. They only gave us one key, so I sat in the dark while Bill got takeout.
Typical German room. Comfortable for one night.
Our room had a balcony with shutters, which appeared to be broken. Had they been fully functional, the shutters would have been good for shutting out noise and light.
The bathroom was sparkling clean, but check out the placement of the makeup mirror. It was too high for little 5’2″ me.
We spent 120 euros for our night at the Hotel Adler. Breakfast and parking were included. The breakfast was typical German continental, but it was served in a very quaint little breakfast room by a pleasant lady. She got our long Tuesday off to a good start.
One thing I learned during this move is that Dawn dish detergent and hydrogen peroxide are excellent cleaning tools. Mix the Dawn with hydrogen peroxide and you get a great carpet cleaner and soap scum remover. Dawn is also great mixed with white vinegar. How I lived 46 years and didn’t know this, I don’t know… but remember, I admit to being a sucky housewife… in all the wrong ways.
The packers packed the American hydrogen peroxide before I had the chance to use it for one last batch of homemade oxycleaner. Bill had to go to an Apoteke to get 3% German hydrogen peroxide, which was surprisingly expensive and came in a glass bottle. I think he paid about six euros for this. On post, you can get it for less than a dollar. When you pour hydrogen peroxide out of the dark bottle, you have to use it right away. It loses its potency when exposed to light.
Seriously, though… Dawn and hydrogen peroxide is great for getting old stains out of carpet. While the carpets were still old, worn, and basically dirty looking from many years of use, they looked much better after I cleaned them with this concoction. I’m usually skeptical about homemade detergents, but I will admit to being a believer in the magic of Dawn dish detergent.
