“When there is a piano to move, don’t carry the bench.”

Kevin shared this wisdom with me the other day, and I could not get it out of my head.

I have no idea its origination or who said it first–but I just love it.

I thought about the quote in a very serious way at first. A metaphor for life. Do the hard stuff….carry the piano.

But then I just started laughing. And laughing and laughing.

It is so healthy to laugh sometimes.

I think moving stories are funny. So much goes wrong. And then it’s really funny later.

We have had 8 different dwellings in the last 9 years, so we have moved a lot.

So with this post, I decided to lighten things up and share two of my favorite moving memories/mishaps.

2012

We were moving 3 hours away from our hometown. We had a home at the time and were moving to an apartment with our 3 month old son.

We were assigned relocation movers with my husband’s company. They were going to pack and move everything…so it was going to be perfect.

Kevin forgot to mention which day they were coming, so I thought I had one more day.

The doorbell rang while he was in the shower. I had just finished breastfeeding our 3 month old. I casually walked to the door to find the movers ready to pack all our belongings.

I stood frozen for a second. Then I heard the shower abruptly shut off and Kevin sprint to get dressed. He realized exactly what was happening.

The movers immediately got to work while I tried to frantically move all my junk out of the way and figure out what was going on.

Very funny now. Not funny then.

2018

Our last move had so many mishaps it didn’t even feel real.

We sold our washer and dryer the weekend before we moved. The day after I sold them, both of my kids were throwing up.

So I got to hand wash all their sheets and clothes and hang them out to dry like a mid 1900’s housewife. Super fun.

But wait! There is more :).

The morning we were supposed to get the apartment keys I woke up sick. I was so nauseous and barely remember meeting the office staff. I laid on the floor of our new apartment moaning instead of cleaning as I had planned.

Finally we decided to return to our rental house to finish packing. I got sick in the car on the way home…and my kids STILL talk about it.

Then (oh yes, there is more), Kevin threw out his back that evening. The moving truck was half loaded and we were supposed to move the next morning. It was not looking promising.

Somehow, we mustered the energy to load the truck, drive across town, and unload it. I was weak from being sick and Kevin could hardly lift anything. It is a small miracle we got it done.

I remember going to Jimmy Johns after we returned the truck. I ordered the largest sandwich I could and then dreamed of putting the kids to bed at 5pm so I could go to sleep too.

It was an awful experience in the moment, but now we chuckle about it.

---

What is the point of sharing this?

Honestly, to laugh.

But also, I look back on these two moves and think about how much stronger the experiences made us.

We had to lean on each other and communicate. We had to give and take.

We made mistakes and apologized.

We had to get creative.

And at the end of the day, the work had to get done and we had to move the metaphorical “piano” together.

So if you are in the middle of something that seems to be going all wrong, maybe someday it will make you smile and laugh.

-Brittany