July 1st, Moving Day or Canada day?

The 1st of July is approaching very fast! In less than a week, roads of Montreal will be filled with uHaul and Discount trucks ready to start their jobs: moving you out.

Why the 1st of July?

Have you ever wondered why people in Quebec were moving mostly on July 1st while elsewhere in Canada they were not?

There are a few reasons:

• Humanitarian: When they arrived in Quebec, the French government (of course the French!) forbade the landlords to evict their tenant farmers during cold snowy the winter. At first, the leases were starting on May 1st but the Quebec government later decided that it was better if Moving Day was in Summer because of poor weather still happening in May.
• Educationnal: By moving Moving Day to summer, kids would not have to change their school in the middle of a school year.
• Social: By moving to the 1st of July which already was a holiday, workers would not have to take a day off to move.
• Quebec separatists: This is my favorite one! By moving Moving Day to Canada Day, Quebecers are putting aside the celebration of Canada, enhancing the point of the separatists.

What to anticipate?

If you want to move on Moving day, you will have to book your truck rental very early. Prices and availabilities for trucks are going high and fast. Right now for example, on the 23rd, there is no truck available before the 2nd. If you want to rent a basic van for July, 2nd (GMC Savana for example) it will cost you 67$+taxes. If you want to rent the same van for the first date available before the 1st, it would be on the 30th for 331$+taxes. See what I mean?

So if you plan on moving on that day, make sure to book the vehicle early!

I made a list of all the places I could think of where you have to change your postal address. I thought it might help someone so here is the link to download the excel sheet. And you can to to this article to see the list on the website: Click here to get the google sheet file. You will be able to download or print the list. If you see something missing, don’t hesitate to tell me. The list is in French so if you want it in English, please send me a DM on Instagram: @welcomeho.me.

How is it in Montreal?

Few days before Moving Day, people put their not wanted objects in the streets. Some of them will try to sell them but not all of them. So if you walk down the streets few days before July 1st until then, you might find that free bed table you were looking for!

Why writing only now about it?

Well, you might be surprised but I have been in Montreal for two years and a half now and I have live there before but it is actually the first time I am moving on July 1st. Every time I was here, I always stayed in my first flats. It was either because I stayed for only 4 months or because I was good at my place.

This time, I have been living with the same (or almost the same) 5 people for two years and a half. Yes, TWO YEARS and a half with 5 PEOPLE. Lots of people think I am crazy to live with that many people but it was actually a great two years. We went along so well. Everyone knew us as the Team 491 and we were a big family.

We had our separate groups of friends but we often went to cabin in the woods or to barbecues in parcs together. At home we were very organized with a well established planning for chores and we separated the big buys like clean up products, toilet papers, olive oil… We each have our personalities but we managed to find the perfect balance.

But you know, one of us moved to live with his girlfriend, one decided to go on a one year adventure to Australia, and then COVID-19 came along and invited himself into our lives. I wrote an article about it few weeks into it but never posted it because it was really personal and I was not confortable with getting it out in the wild WWW. But I might rewrite it now that I have a more global view of the situation, we will see. Anyway, COVID-19 was not easy for no one. Staying home without being able to go out or see other people was the hardest thing. Of course, you will say that I was one of the lucky ones because I live with five other people right? Well, truth is, I am so glad I had them everyday but it was also very hard.

First of all, we didn’t have the same views on how to handle the situation. I am a bit of an hypochondriac so I was really scared at the beginning of the crisis. No one knew what was going on nor how it would evolve and that scared me. But at home, some didn’t care and still wanted to live their lives. I had a talk that ended up by me crying for a few days, not really getting out of my room because I was realising that yes, I couldn’t force them to stay home but they also didn’t care about the well being of the others in the house, they just thought about themselves and not the community. (I am using they but it was not all of them). For me when you choose to live with 5 people, you cannot think about yourself in a situation like this and I couldn’t understand that the others would not agree.

Second of all, living 24/7 with 5 people is NOT THE SAME as living with them morning and night. You have to be twice as careful with the commons rooms for example. We ate every day, 3 meals a day at the kitchen table so if you didn’t clean after yourself right away, would it be the table or your dishes (and we have a dishwasher), well it would be noticed way more than if you just went and go. I put so much effort into cleaning and be careful that when the others didn’t do the effort, it kind of disappointed me and it ended up annoying me after three months of fight. Same goes with the chores planing we have. Especially during the pandemic, we needed to be sharp on the cleaning. But no, for some it was too much effort

Third of all, I was the only one saying something about it and I ended up being the dark spot of the house. But everyone was thinking it and telling it to me but no one wanted to say it out loud. I love my roommates but a little spoken support would have been better than just bitching behind everyone’s back. I really had that feeling of abandonment. (Again, not speaking for all of them).

So yeah, all in all, it was not possible anymore for me. I loved my flat, I loved my roommates for two years, but I think it was time for me to leave.
The decision was not easy. I started looking around, just “to see what was out there” and I ended up talking about it to one of my roommates. At first, she tried to talk me out of it, but then she decided that she also wanted out and wanted to move out with me.

And yes, that’s how it happened. It was very sudden, we took the decision the 8th of June and the 9th we had found a flat and now we are moving on Sunday 28th!

Wish us luck, for now I am so glad I took this decision, I could not live like this anymore. I am so grateful for all the memories I made here but you have to know when the time is up and you have to move on, and this was the time.

I would love to hear your stories about how it went for you during the first phases of COVID-19. Were we the only one where it exploded?

Let me know if you have any questions about Moving Day!

Featured photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash