My boyfriend and I moved in together in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. Here's how we did it while living in New York, the epicenter of the US outbreak.
Kelly McLaughlin
My boyfriend and I moved into an apartment in Brooklyn, New York, on Saturday, and had to take extra precautions because of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
We had been planning to move months before the coronavirus started to spread across New York.
We wanted to find a moving company that had coronavirus guidelines in place. We chose Blue Moving, which provides its employees with gloves and masks, and checks its staff for symptoms daily.
We were moving two apartments into one — first, we went to his apartment on Manhattan's Upper East Side, and then mine, in Brooklyn's Prospect Heights.
When we arrived at our new apartment in Brooklyn's Park Slope, 10 miles away from where our move started, we had been wearing masks and gloves for hours, and wiped down our boxes as a precaution.
Moving apartments in New York City is hard. But moving apartments in New York City in the middle of a global pandemic adds an extreme layer of stress.
That's exactly what my boyfriend, Zach, and I had to do this past weekend when we moved into an apartment in Brooklyn together.
We had been planning a May move for months, and found an apartment in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn in early March, when people were still going to bars and restaurants and walking around without wearing protective face masks.
As the COVID-19 case count started to grow, and measures were put in place to help prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, we realized we were going to have to take serious precautions to protect ourselves and others while moving.
Zach and I found a moving company with strict COVID-19 regulations put in place to help us move things from our two apartments — Zach's in Manhattan's Upper East Side and mine in Brooklyn's Park Slope — into the new place.
We also wore masks and gloves, distanced ourselves from the movers during the whole process, and disinfected our boxes when we were in the new place.
Here's what our moving day looked like.
Zach and I found our new apartment in Brooklyn's Park Slope on the real estate website StreetEasy on March 11. It was before President Donald Trump declared a national emergency, and before New York officials shut down bars, restaurants, and gyms to help prevent the spread of the virus.
Kelly McLaughlin
Source: The Guardian
New York is now the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the United States, so we knew we had to be prepared. On the day we moved, New York state had 282,143 confirmed cases and 16,599 deaths from the virus.
Kelly McLaughlin
Source: WKTV
We used the website Unpakt to find a moving company that was both cost-efficient and had COVID-19 guidelines.
Kelly McLaughlin
Source: Unpakt
On Blue Moving's website, the staff detailed how they help prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. The company banned employee-client contact, evaluates its staff for symptoms, and provides movers with masks and gloves.
Source: Blue Moving
I had been isolating at Zach's apartment for the entirety of the coronavirus outbreak but returned to my Prospect Heights apartment on April 20 to pack my things. I was only moving a room's worth of items, which were easily put into boxes.
Kelly McLaughlin
On April 23, I took a Lyft back to Zach's Upper East Side apartment to help him finish packing and prepare for the movers. My Lyft driver had installed a self-made plastic barricade up to protect himself from customers coming in and out of the car.
Kelly McLaughlin
For weeks, I had been using a mask made out of a T-shirt, because I couldn't find surgical masks online or in any Upper East Side stores.
Kelly McLaughlin
Two days before the move, Zach's parents sent us KN95 medical masks so we would be better equipped to be in close quarters with the movers.
Kelly McLaughlin
We finished packing up Zach's studio on April 24. The movers came the next day.
Kelly McLaughlin
Three movers arrived with a large truck at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday. I didn't take their photos to protect their privacy, but they were equipped with masks and gloves.
Kelly McLaughlin
We piled everything Zach was taking in the middle of the room to make it easier for the movers to get in and out of the space as quickly as possible.
Kelly McLaughlin
While the movers took boxes from the apartment, Zach and I sat in the bathroom to maintain distance from them.
Kelly McLaughlin
Zach left several pieces of furniture for the next tenant, who is moving into the unit at the beginning of May. He considered selling the items but decided it would be safer to give them to the next renter.
Kelly McLaughlin
The truck still had plenty of room in the back when we were ready to head to my apartment, 10 miles south in Prospect Heights.
Kelly McLaughlin
Zach said goodbye to the Upper East Side after living the same apartment for four years. His farewell photo, with him wearing a mask and gloves, looks a little different from what it would during a normal move.
Kelly McLaughlin
We took a Lyft down to Prospect Heights and found that the moving truck arrived before us. It parked on my corner, so it was easy for them to go in and out of my fourth-floor apartment.
Kelly McLaughlin
We sat in my living room while movers took stuff from my bedroom. By the time they were done, the space was completely empty.
Kelly McLaughlin
I posed for a farewell photo outside my apartment, too. Thankfully, we weren't going far this time, though — less than a mile to Park Slope.
Kelly McLaughlin
The movers had a harder time finding space on our small street and had to park a few doors down.
Kelly McLaughlin
The movers put all of our belongings in the bedroom and living room. We planned to unpack the bedroom stuff immediately.
Kelly McLaughlin
We didn't touch our stuff in the living room for days, allowing any germs to die off. According to one study, the coronavirus can last for hours on cardboard and days on plastic, so we waited as long as possible before we touched these items.
Kelly McLaughlin
Source: Business Insider
Once the movers were gone, we took a selfie outside our new apartment to celebrate the big move. If you can't tell, we're smiling big behind the masks.
Kelly McLaughlin
Then we got back to work. To be extra cautious, we wiped down every box in the bedroom with Lysol to kill any possible germs. We also wiped down doorknobs and walls the movers may have touched.
Kelly McLaughlin
Source: CDC, Business Insider
Then we washed our hands, grabbed beers, and had a toast to the new place before we started unpacking.
Kelly McLaughlin
Our writing desk was one of the first things we built, and it looks out into our new neighborhood. We're looking forward to putting the rest of the place together.
Kelly McLaughlin
Read the original article on Insider