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Moving out

Last night I gave notice to the main tenants at the place where I stay. (Is that sentence correct? LOL)

The main tenants rent the whole house from the landlord, then sublet the rooms to us. I’m sure they tend to overcharge us and end up paying just a small fraction of the total rental to the landlord. I pay 360 dollars a month for an unfurnished upstairs room. That’s roughly one-fifth of my salary! Half the people I meet tell me that I’m being fleeced, the other half tell me it’s par for the course. I actually don’t mind paying the little extra… it’s a good place to stay, in the sense that nobody tries to poke their noses into my business and there aren’t too many rules.

Granted, I’m not even in most of the time, so 360 bucks seems a bit much to pay for a place to sleep every night. Plus, Dad keeps on telling me to save money, and if I could pay less rent maybe I would save the difference. What, you’re sceptical? You and me both, mate! *grin*

Moving out is scary, coz I’ve been staying at this place for more than a year. I hate change, and I hate moving; I have so much stuff that packing and unpacking is a major hassle! I once quit my job and did a one-year course I wasn’t interested in simply because I couldn’t face moving to the other end of the state – a totally alien area. Of course, I lived to regret that decision. Running away never solved anything!

You know what gets me? The lack of a “proper” cupboard. I don’t know why it’s so important to me, but it is: a nice, spacious place in which to keep my clothes. At the moment I’m using a plastic collapsible cupboard, the type that zips up right in the middle. I just want a proper cupboard… but of course Mom and Dad said, “If you buy a cupboard, you’ll need to hire a lorry the next time you move!” It isn’t practical. *sigh*

I’ve stayed in the city since 1996 when I left home to attend college here. In that span of time, I’ve lived in six different places. This new one will be my seventh. To tell the truth, I’m tired of moving, and do wish I could have a place to call my own, a haven that would welcome me when I get home from work each day. (Imagine, only 24 and already experiencing the nesting instinct! Am I a throwback or what? LOL) It would be nice to belong somewhere.

And don’t tell me to stay with my relatives. Two of Mom’s brothers are here, and so is Dad’s youngest brother, but I’d rather stay on my own. If I were to stay with any of them, I just feel that my life would not be my own. Relatives have a way of acting like one’s parents, especially if said parents aren’t around. One of my uncles even takes me to task for keeping long fingernails (despite the fact that I keep them nicely shaped and filed and all) and makes comments about the number of calls I receive on my own mobile phone! I mean, it’s not like I’m monopolising his phone line and preventing others from calling the house! ...I will NOT have people watching every single move I make and asking a zillion questions about why I chose to make it. Ugh.

Dad told me to buy an apartment and use my money to pay off the bank loan rather than simply paying rental, but at this moment I don’t want to make such a huge financial commitment. I’ve only been working for a little over a year and I don’t even have a savings base yet! Plus remember, I don’t like change and buying my own place would be a very scary change in my life… *shudders*

Back to the issue at hand: when it comes to looking for a room, I’m hoping to find a place with built-in cupboards. I don’t need the room to be furnished per se (I have my own mattress and don’t mind sleeping on the floor); I just want it to have built-in cupboards and a ceiling fan, and cost less than 300 a month. It has to be in a singles’ house (I absolutely REFUSE to stay with a landlady – in my experience, they never let you forget that it’s their house you’re staying in, and you never feel completely welcome there because you can’t relax). And I’d rather not rent a room in a condo or an apartment, coz the rooms are smaller and I have too much stuff.

There. Is that too much to ask for?