On Moving from NYC to the Suburbs During a Global Pandemic + Logistics of Moving to Storage

After ten+ years living on the same Manhattan street, my family is moving to New Jersey. Our move was already in the works, but COVID-19 expedited the timing and definitely threw us for a loop.

I want to preface this entire post by sharing how grateful I am for my family’s health. I know that others are going through more stress than my current state of limbo and moving during this pandemic. I’ve gotten a lot of questions on how we came to our decision to move, and am sharing that info below, as well as info on the moving and storage companies that we used + discounts.

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If you’re just curious about actually moving during a pandemic, scroll down for info on my move with Roadway Moving (plus a sweet discount code). Also check out my general tips for a low or maybe even no stress moving day!

Our history in NYC

I grew up in Brooklyn and have lived on the same Greenwich Village, Manhattan street since before I even met my husband. We were living in adjacent buildings when we met — The New York Times even captioned our wedding announcement “Neighbors Finally Find Each Other.”

So much of my history with my husband and our family took place in our neighborhood, and more specifically in our home. I originally moved into his apartment. When we started planning for a child, we bought a larger apartment together in the same building. I found out that I was pregnant with our first child just a week after moving in — I took a pregnancy test in middle of the night and then hovered over my husband til he woke to share the news!

Our decision to move to NJ

My husband is a glaucoma surgeon and practices in NJ. A few years ago, he left his university practice and opened his own practice, which meant that on top of practicing medicine, he was now also running a business. He was growing tired of the commute, wanted to maximize his time with me and the kids.

Our apartment was also starting to feel crowded for our family of four, with all the stuff that comes with kids.

Summer 2020 seemed like the ideal time for us to move so that Sam could attend kindergarten in NJ, and we started seriously house hunting.

COVID-19 expedited our move

On March 11, though NYC schools were still open, we kept our kids home, out of what we thought was an abundance of caution. Things really escalated over the next days. There was viral rumor that the bridges and tunnels connecting Manhattan to NJ would be closed over the weekend. My gut said that it was fake news, but we were concerned that my husband might not be able to get to work. We decided late on Thursday, March 12th to temporarily move our family to NJ and we left the next day. We thought we would be back in a few weeks.

Staying with my in-laws

We’ve been staying with my husband’s parents for over two months. They are extremely generous and it’s nice to have the extra sets of hands, as well as easy access to outdoors space. I can’t pretend that it’s all roses — it’s hard to live in anyone else’s home, and not ideal for me to be sharing a single closet with my kids. If you had told me in January that I’d spend a big chunk of the year living with my in-laws, I wouldn’t have believed you. I’m incredibly grateful for our health and the roof over our heads, but it’s a pretty bizarre predicament.

Saying goodbye to our Manhattan home

Being that we were planning to move by August anyway, and a COVID-19 vaccine is not within grasp, we realized that we won’t be moving back to Manhattan. We went back to the city to straighten up our home for photos, I took the photos myself (iphone wide lens is awesome and my blogging photo and editing skills came in handy). I listed it for rent, held virtual tours and accepted an offer all within three days, which was definitely a blessing.

The kids’ room is by far my favorite room in the house. It’s filled with so many memories, from me painting the star wall in the final weeks of my pregnancy with Sam, to feeding my kids, playing and dancing with them, reading thousands of books to them and watching them sleep.

I took apart the crib and the screws holding the casters were bent and jammed. This made me super sentimental, because I knew it was from Sam joining Eliana for a dance party in her crib every morning.

Our renters don’t have kids and requested that we paint over the star wall in the kids’ room. This made me pretty sad, because it feels like a piece of me. I told Sam that we would be painting over it and he suggested that we bring the room with us by painting new stars.

Once we found a tenant I returned to the city for a a few overnights to organize and edit (i.e., get rid of things) for the move. Being in the city was pretty surreal. Lots of stores are boarded up and the streets are more crowded than I expected. Navigating the streets felt like a game of Frogger, and not in a good way. Many people weren’t wearing masks, especially bikers and runners. I usually love to walk around the city, but during this time just tried to get some movement and fresh air and quickly return home. I felt a sense of mourning for what Manhattan was and can’t wait for it to return.

Moving and storing our belongings as nomads

OK, maybe the term nomads is an exaggeration… But we are currently living in my in-laws without a lot of space for our belongings, and we don’t know how long we will be here.

We ended up packing and moving in two phases — using a concierge / accessible storage company for things that we may need in the short-ish term, and a proper moving company to move everything else into storage and eventually into our new home. Read on and also see my Instagram story “Moving” highlights for some behind the scenes.

Concierge storage with Make Space + a $100 discount

I’d reached out to Make Space in February, thinking we would want to put things in storage in late spring or early summer to help stage the apartment and make it look less cluttered for prospective renters. With our change of plans, I ended up using Make Space to store our seasonal clothing, toys, our jogging stroller and some other items that I thought I might need while living with my in-laws.

The process was really easy. They delivered bags that are something of a cross between Fresh Direct and Ikea heavy duty bags. I filled and labeled about 30 bags and scheduled a pickup. They place each bag into a storage bin, take a photo of the contents and add a barcode so that I can call upon bins for delivery on my schedule via the app. I shared on Instagram and the most common question that I got was whether they accepted items that don’t fit in the bags / bins — the answer is yes! I stored our jogging stroller and a couple of other oddly shaped items.

Make Space took appropriate COVID-19 era precautions, such as asking me to place all the bags at the apartment entrance and also wearing gloves and masks. I wore PPE too.

If you’re interested in accessible storage, get $100 off at Make Space when you click here or use code BEST100 (terms and conditions may apply). It’s available in NYC, NJ and other metro areas.

Moving + Storage with Roadway Movers

The last time that I moved was pre-kids and within the same building. Back then, I packed almost everything on my own and was beyond exhausted when it was all over (I was also pregnant but didn’t know yet).

This time, we are moving our belongings into storage until we find our own home. I wanted movers that I could trust to pack our things extra carefully to withstand a move into and then out of storage. Unlike in the past, I didn’t trust myself to pack properly and between staying in NJ, having a lot more stuff, and two kids to care for, there was no way that I would find the time to do it myself.

Another important consideration was that the movers would take proper COVID-19 precautions such as using proper PPE and allowing me to be in the apartment but keep distance from me.

Thankfully, I have an amazing network of NYC moms. I asked a bunch of friends and in the Facebook groups that I run for mover recommendations. Roadway Movers was one of the most recommended and the only company about which no one reported anything negative to me. I heard some really nightmarish stories about other companies, but felt confident with Roadway.

I reached out to Roadway and scheduled a virtual appointment with Ruth, who is one of their estimators. She was able to do a thorough evaluation of my belongings by phone and sent me an estimate the same day. I ended up making some adjustments later on (shifting what I would store with Make Space vs. Roadway) and she was really responsive via email and updated things promptly.

On moving day, the movers were punctual and I was impressed by how well orchestrated, professional and nice they were. They arrived wearing masks and gloves and with all new boxes. I sat on a chair in the corner distanced from them for the entire day. Marius was our foreman and showed me some of the extra steps that he took to properly protect my belongings for a move into storage (e.g., removing legs from tables, extra protection for glass and how everything was barcoded and cataloged).

I feel like I and my belongings were in good hands, and definitely recommend Roadway.

If you’re planning a move, click here for an estimate from Roadway and mention code MIRIAM10 for 10% off your move (terms and conditions may apply).

This was getting long, so I wrote a separate article with tips and hacks to prepare for a low (or maybe even no) stress moving day!