After living in the small Belgian university town of Leuven for about 8 years, in August of 2023 I was moving to the capital city Brussels. In those 8 years of living in Belgium, I had moved thrice within Leuven, and now, this was my fourth move but out of Leuven – to Brussels.

I arrived in Belgium in the September of 2015, with all my life in just 2 suitcases. My first living arrangements included a one-room student apartment (also called as a “kot” in Belgium), with shared bathroom and kitchen among 6 other students in the same building. It was a great place where I made many friends and also met my now-wife. Later, in 2017, during the second year of my Ph.D. research, I decided to move to a one-room studio apartment with my own kitchen and bathroom, so I can have a bit more space, flexibility to use the kitchen and a personal shower. This new apartment in Leuven was just 500 meters from my first shared-kot. By this second move I had amassed “stuff” that could fit in about 4 suitcases, but it was not very difficult to move from one apartment to another. I spent the next 3 years in that nice and cozy studio apartment, until the end of my Ph.D. scholarship. So, I got a new job, my then-girlfriend moved from Barcelona to Leuven and we rented a nice place just 1 km from my second studio apartment. By this third move, I had enough stuff to fit in 8 suitcases now. A graph of my “move number” versus my stuff transported in “Number of suitcases” would roughly resemble an exponential function as illustrated in Figure_1. I spent the year 2020 in the third apartment in COVID lock-down, away from family and friends, working, struggling, and learning my new job on weekdays, and writing my doctoral thesis on evenings and weekends, which I eventually successfully defended in early-2021. I got married in 2022, started travelling more post-COVID, before moving again in 2023, now to the Belgian capital city of Brussels.

Unfortunately, by this fourth move, the stockpile of my stuff broke the exponential function trend, and became an outlier as illustrated in Figure_1; I had enough stuff that needed more than 16 suitcases this time. Additionally, my wife and I were moving about 20 km out of Leuven to Brussels, so transporting both of our stuff was not a simple task.

Since I tend to think and write chronologically (which is not always the best strategy), I will follow my instincts here in writing about the move.

3 months before the move

In Belgium, a typical rental agreement is a 9-year contract, with the possibility to extend it every 3 years. However, if you move out during the first year, you pay a penalty equivalent to 3 months’ rent; moving out in the second year has a 2 months’ rent penalty and if you leave in the third year, you pay 1 month’s rent as penalty. This penalty is to be paid even if you inform the owner well in advance about your plan of moving out. Since we were moving out at the end of our third year, we did not incur this penalty. So, we informed the apartment owner 3 months in advance about out plans to move to Brussels.

Searching for a new place is typically an adventure in itself, but we were lucky to have found an apartment rather quickly. A friend of my wife was moving out and the place met our requirements perfectly, so we could fill in the vacancy. So about 3-4 months before the move to Brussels, we had already finalized the apartment we wanted to rent and had agreed with the owner on the terms and conditions.

2 months before the move

As the third apartment we rented was unfurnished, we had our own beds, mattresses, cupboards, shelves, tables etc., that had to be transported to Brussels to the fourth apartment. For this, we enquired with many professional movers, to help not just with the transportation, but also to disassemble and then re-assemble our furniture. After discussing with a few movers, we finally selected a Brussels-based company, who I think did a great job.

During these 2 months, we started packing our non-essential stuff into boxes, only to realize that we needed many more boxes. So, we bought more boxes, packing material, foams, bubble wrap etc. A good tip from my wife’s sister came in handy: to prepare an Excel sheet with the list of box number and the details of what is contained in each box. This helped us a lot to quickly unpack after the move without searching through every box to find the essentials during the first couple of weeks.

1 month before the move

The last month was jam-packed and filled with plans and plannings. We were still packing stuff as much as possible, usually over the weekends. Since my wife had summer holidays (she is a teacher), she took care of almost all these arrangements. One of the critical things was getting a new rental apartment insurance and asking for cancelling the previous apartment’s insurance. Next, was discussing with the energy supplier company to transfer the electricity and heating contracts to the new apartment (this one took a long time). We also had to contact the internet provider, to setup the internet access for the new apartment. Meanwhile, more packing of stuff.

Around the same time, I was also trying to figure out how will I go to my work every day from Brussels back to Leuven. I could take the metro, then the train and then the bus, which will take me about 1 hour 45 mins. Another option was a direct bus, which would drop me 1.2 km away from my workplace, and then I could cycle to it. Around the same time, we were also looking for a second-hand car, which was another option for my daily commute. In the end, I was travelling some days by car and some days by the bus + cycle route.

In the meantime, boxing of stuff was still going on.

Since we were using professional movers, who had a transport truck and a lift to take out and then put back in all the boxes and furniture through the front window of both the apartments, we had to ask the municipality of both the towns (Leuven and Brussels) a special permission to, first, allow us to do this and second, for a no-parking signboard during the time when the truck and the lift will be parked outside the apartments. It was a bit tricky to properly understand the protocols, so it took some time to complete.

The day of move

Finally, the day had arrived. To support us with this huge task, my in-laws came down to lend a helping hand. We woke up early around 6.00 am, had a coffee, and started wrapping up the last bits of stuff. The movers came on time around 7.45 am, started dis-assembling our furniture and moving boxes into the truck. I was surprised by their speed and efficiency. From the front window of our apartment, they were putting out all the stuff on the lift, which was then brought down and moved inside the truck (Figure 2). We were there lugging boxes and helping them as they requested, or cleaning up the place as soon as any room was cleared up of boxes. Minute by minute the place where we spent the last 3 years – first trapped during COVID lockdown, then getting used to new way of living, having friends and family over, getting married, or even just slacking on the couch watching TV – was getting empty. It was a strange feeling to see the apartment as a void.

By about 10.00 am, all our stuff was inside the truck (Figure 3), and we started moving to the new apartment. Soon, we were doing the same procedure, but now in reverse. Taking out the boxes from the truck, pushing them up the third floor by the lift hanging from the front window, and then pulling then in the apartment (Figure 4). By 1.00 pm, all the boxes and the furniture were inside the new apartment. The day was not even half-way through, but it was a very tiring process. Although a big chunk of the job was completed, there was, in front of us, the huge task of unpacking. Till date there are still some boxes that are in the packed condition, untouched after the move. We took some time to rest, had lunch, and started unpacking. Later, internet provider also arrived and setup the modem, which after some initial hiccups was completed successfully.

That long day ended slowly.

Days following the move

We took time to slowly set up everything. The basics came first, followed by on-need-basis things. It is now a month later, and things are settling down. A few trips to Ikea, setting up some new storage racks, trying to find the new location of cups or batteries or blankets, now that the weather is getting colder. We also had to register to the new Brussels city hall, which was followed by a police verification and then a short visit to the city hall for confirmation. We had to provide the electricity and heating meter readings to the supplier so they can prepare the last invoice of the previous apartment.

Slowly, the ‘apartment moving phase’, which lasted a couple of weeks, was cooling off, and the everyday life challenges were restored.