Eight Non-Toxic Moving Tips

Nobody ever told me that selling and buying a house would be this difficult! A year ago, my husband and I decided we were going to put our house up for sale. It was the house we had lived in since we were married, but we were tired of the upkeep of both the house and the yard. We loved our neighborhood and the city we lived in, but it was time to make a change. We were going to be condo bound! So we put our house up for sale in May. We had an offer at the end of June which ultimately fell through. We put the house up for sale again in August and finally got another offer in October.

I Didn’t Realize that Selling a House Could be so Stressful!

I can’t imagine those of you with kids having to go through this. Every time I turned around, we were having a house showing. We would have to drop everything, get the house ready and leave for over an hour. This began to take its toll a few months in. Unfortunately, most of the people who saw our house didn’t like the size of our kitchen, or master bathroom, so we knew we were catering to a small audience, but it didn’t mean that only that small audience came through. Almost 100 showings later and we finally had another offer.

During this time, we started looking for condos. If you’re going to make a move, you better get what you dream about, right? My husband wanted a condo overlooking a pond/lake. I’m all for that too. Unfortunately, there weren’t a ton of options in our price range in the area where we lived, so we decided to venture outside of the metro Detroit area. We found some nice condos that would come available, but without our house being sold, we couldn’t make an offer. Condo after condo came and went, but we couldn’t do anything about it. Over the summer, we made numerous trips to the different places we wanted to live. Fortunately, with my husband’s business, we can live wherever and work remotely.

Back to the sale of our house – Honestly, I have blocked many of the memories out because it was an awful and stressful experience. I’m not getting into details, but it took a while for the house to finally close. Our Realtor was great, but I don’t recommend having the buyers realtor be their mother. The buyer pulled her offer a couple of times, plus she was 9 months pregnant. In fact, she went into labor on the day we finally were scheduled to close, so we never met her. There is a ton more that went on, but you get the gist.

Temporary Accommodations

We moved out of our house in December and into my parents home temporarily while they were out of town for the winter. We hoped and prayed that a condo would come open in the area we liked. We were in a sellers market and condos coming on the market were few and far between. Once my parents came home, we moved out of their house and into a temporary apartment. I don’t recommend a triple move. I unpacked the basics and tried to leave as much as possible in boxes.

Take These Non-Toxic Moving Tips and Suggestions to Heart When Looking for an Apartment

Finding an apartment who offers a 3 month lease is difficult, then when you have Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, that makes it that much more so. Whether you have MCS or not, finding an apartment which is non-toxic is important! Here are some things to consider when looking for an apartment:

• Many apartments replace the carpet after someone moves out. New carpet is highly toxic, so try to find an apartment which has carpet that is a few years old
• Most all apartments paint before you move in. If you can catch them before they do it, you should ask them to use low-VOC paint. The apartment we chose had been painted a few weeks before we moved in, so I didn’t have a choice. Before we moved in, I asked the management office to open the windows for a few days. They even put a fan in the apartment to try to air it out
• Until just recently, I didn’t realize that fragrances could be added to paint. Those synthetic fragrances are toxic and just cover up toxic paint fumes. If you’re able to, ask for that not to be used. Unfortunately, it was used in our apartment, so I had to try to get rid of it
• Here are some suggestions for airing out a freshly painted apartment: Of course, open all windows! Put fans in the windows to bring in fresh air. Lay charcoal around on plates to try to absorb the smell. Wash the walls down with vinegar
• Before signing a lease, check out the neighbors in the building you will be leasing. Make sure nobody smokes in the apartment below or next to you
• Choose an apartment which doesn’t have air fresheners in the apartment or outside hallway
• Look for an end unit apartment
• Don’t choose an apartment which has all of it’s electrical boxes or Smart meters outside of your wall
• Try not to choose an apartment which has a laundry room in the hallway outside your door. People still unknowingly use toxic detergents, fabric softener and dryer sheets

By taking these moving tips into consideration, you can reduce your exposure to unnecessary toxins.

Read Next: 14 Unexpected Things to Look for When Buying a House

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