Yes. It’s true. And it’s the reason why I haven’t posted in a couple of weeks. It’s our second move in Florida and I don’t think it will be our last! If you’ve been following us for any length of time, you know that it’s our 4th move in 5 years.

So why move now and where to? Chris got a new job working as a Sous Chef at a senior living facility in Sarasota. Currently, we’re living in Bradenton, which is just to the north of Sarasota. Even though we live in a different town, his commute time is half of what it used to be.

There were a lot of things to love about Orlando, starting mainly with the friends we have, and being so close to Disney didn’t hurt either. But you know what we hated about Orlando? The commute and the food and the fact that we weren’t near the water.

If you recall, when we first moved to Florida, we did so without jobs. So we moved to the first place we found a job and it didn’t hurt that our friend Jess lived in Orlando, too. But we knew it wasn’t going to be where we stayed.

It worked at first. Chris was working at a local hotel and I was working at a local bank. The hotel perks included being able to stay in any of the hotels, worldwide on vacation. Oh, the plans we had. Then…Covid. Chris lost his job and I started working from home. And even though he applied for every chef job that was out there it took him eight months to find work at a senior living facility.

But after a while, the commute started wearing on him. It was an hour to and from work in heavy traffic. He needed to be at work at 6 am, so he left home at 5, which meant we were getting up at 4. On the other hand, I didn’t have to be at work until 11 am. Add in the fact that he worked weekends and you begin to realize quickly that we hardly saw each other.

For the move, I was able to cut my hours down to part-time and start working remotely again, which I much prefer to being in an office. It also helped me to prep for our move beforehand and to unpack on the other side.

Turn Around on a Dime

Now for the fun part. We turned this move around in 2 weeks. From job offer to move. Mind you, we were prepping for a move all along. Chris was applying to positions on the Gulf Coast from Tampa to Naples so we weren’t positive where we’d land. We just knew we would be moving.

On February 25th, he accepted the job offer. The following Tuesday, we drove to Sarasota with planned appointments at several apartments. By the time we left on Tuesday afternoon, we picked one that bordered both the Braden and Manatee rivers in Bradenton. We signed the contract on March 7th and moved in on March 12th and Chris started his new job on Monday, the 14th. Phew…that was quick.

Are we completely moved in yet? No. Are we continuing to downsize? Yes. Why didn’t we do it beforehand? We really didn’t have the time.

The biggest thing I need to downsize is books. I love the BookScouter app for that. You can sell the books and get a label to mail the books, postage free. Yes, I love hardcover books and there are some I’ll never give away. But for the most part, I’ve learned that I love Kindle and Audible better!

Chris needs to learn how to downsize cooking equipment. It’s amazing how much equipment he has duplicated numerous times over. There truly is no need for 10 different spatulas. We’re not running a catering company out of our tiny apartment.

I’m sure you’re wondering whether we’ll stay here and the answer is…not sure. We knew we were moving quickly and that we didn’t know the area or where we really wanted to live. At least for the next year, we have time to check it all out and make a decision then.