'Tis the season

If you are not from Ames, you may have no idea what this title may represent. If you are from Ames, you know all too well.

Blame it on poor planning, the university schedule or whatever you want, but every year at this time our city fills with U-Huals, horse trailers, golf car trailers, busses, pick ups, vans or whatever else could be used to move young people from apartment to apartment. You see, most apartment leases in Ames run from August 1st at noon, to July 31st at noon. That leaves the people who didn't plan, out on the street for a 24 hour period. That leaves all other apartment flippers to finagle a way to move in early or shack up with a friend.

This apartment flipping or "turnover" as we in the biz call it, it the biggest headache all year long. Everyone wants to be the person who can have special privleges or doesn't want to follow the rules of the lease they signed. In this 2 or 3 day period, apartments are congested with every moving vehicle type known to man fighting for that one prime spot right in front of the entry door.

To add to the circus, most rental companies require the carpets to be "professionally" cleaned when you move out, meaning cleaning company vans flock to the buildings to throw some cleaning solution on the carpet, suck it back up and then charge you 98 dollars.

The third group of people who descend on the city this week will be those looking to furnish their houses. People moving out will leave old furniture they don't want to move on the street, by the dumpster or anywhere where they can deny it is theirs. This means you can literally deck out your entire place in one afternoon, for no cost to you. If you are in the right place at the right time, you can actually score some pretty good stuff.

So as i look out my window and watch truck after truck drive by, some with traditional tie down straps, some with more brave mattress surfers, i smile, take a trip down memory lane and give thanks that i don't have to do that this year.