Having moved offices with Alstin twice in the past and having just moved myself twice in a six-month period, our relocation to 121 South Broad Street went pretty well!
I’m a big fan of purging stuff every once in a while—and moving is an excellent catalyst for streamlining your life. I think I get the cleaning bug from my mom, (whose nickname—given by me, my brothers and sister—is the “White Tornado” due to her cleaning fury episodes). Going through ten years of accumulated presentations, hand outs, project sheets, internal marketing materials and the tschokes from various vendors, I was astonished at how much I was holding onto in one small office. A few of the items that I came across made me laugh out loud.
· Careerbuilder candy jar – (What happened to our monthly delivery of Twizzlers and bubble gum?)
· HotJobs travel coffee mug with a square bottom that doesn’t fit in any cup holder I’ve come across.
· CD of “lounge music” from eVite.com that I acquired at a SHRM event when the site was first launching (yes, now I really feel old).
· Yahoo! HotJobs Super Recruiter Action Doll complete with brief case, cell phone, glasses and cape!
· Careerbuilder Monkey Ad promo pieces
· Various Trump Monster stuffed animals, coffee mugs, note pads, calendars, stress balls, eye balls, you name it.
After successfully filling many large trash bags with files dating from 2001, I organized six moving boxes, labeled all my items with stickers and hoped for the best.
Now, it’s Day Five and I’m looking back on the progress we’ve all made:
With the help of two co-workers (thanks Steve & Joe!), I successfully put back together my desk on Day Two (the mover’s weren’t able to figure it out). The bruise on my knee (which I got after the desk fell apart on me) is now a faded memory. My Mac was up and running (of course!) and Internet and email access weren’t far behind which was a miracle in itself (thanks Tony R!!!). All of our stuff is finally moved over – no thanks to the rain delay from Tues night…can’t move in the rain! And, when the rain stopped, building rules said, “Can’t move after 11pm.” Go figure.
Things I really love about our new space:
· I can open the window in my office AND I have complete control of my thermostat.
· It’s on Broad Street (so now I can say I work on the Avenue of the Arts!)
· I can still hear the police and fire sirens very clearly.
· The bell at City Hall is much louder (it’s a nice way to ring in each new hour)
· I get better radio station access from our new location (you don’t know how sick I was of listening to 106.1 – not that it’s a bad station or anything…)
· The sun comes into my office window around 3:30 and gives a nice sunny lift to my day.
· When I shout—looking for people—they can hear me!
· The ladies room has three stalls (we have a lot of women in our office) and hot water (if this doesn’t seem like a luxury item to you, consider yourself lucky).
Things I will be getting used to:
· Dialing “9,9” before every call
· Smaller, but greater quantity, of elevators
· Very cold air conditioning
· Everyone’s new location and “phone buzz”
· Walking up Sansom Street instead of Walnut (I’ve headed for our old space three times so far before I realized where I was/wasn’t.)
So even though my office is chaos and filled with boxes and files, I’m looking forward to the future and all that it holds. (This time I won’t accumulate so much stuff!)
