Moving your household is a costly decision that winds up costing you a lot more than a pile of cash. Our days are packed from the minute before your feet hit the floor to the minute they get back into bed.  If you are contemplating your options or nearing the end of your lease let's take a look at what's at stake.  We are talking about real dollars that you work hard to accumulate and precious time you are often trying to find more of.  This is a list that reveals the REAL cost of moving:

• You will organize, pack and clean.

• You will shop around for reasonably priced and reputable movers, leave messages, try to hear them through broken cell reception, arrange to meet them for a quote.

• You will miss out on an epic event because you had to “pack”, meet the movers, meet the cable company, etc.

• You will have to arrange for utility transfers and pay transfer fees

• You will have to change your address with countless entities (and never ever remember everyone).

• You will have to buy boxes, tape, packing materials, bubble wrap, wardrobe boxes, etc.

• You never buy enough supplies because you always under-estimate how much stuff you have.  Now you have to stop progress to go buy more supplies. (check, check and check)

• You will pay a small fortune to the moving company. OR

• you will pay a small fortune for a truck, mileage, gas, or a portable storage unit.

• You will buy your friends dinner and drinks because they helped you pack, move, watched your dog, kept your kids or all of the above. Of course now you are obligated to reciprocate which is a debt always called upon at the most inconvenient of times(I hate when that happens).

• You might have to pay your nephew $50 to help unload something, unpack something or move something that was improperly placed (personal experience).

• You will pay new pet fees, application fees.

• You will have to buy miscellaneous household items because for some reason things like your bath mats never look right in a new place.

• If you are changing counties, there may be unexpectedly higher personal property/vehicle tax that you find in your mailbox one day. (It happened to me).

• You may end up paying storage fees if there is a lapse in leases (or you may have to stay with the in-laws until the new place is ready-also happened to me).

• You will have to arrange to return TV equipment(yep).

• You will have to take some time off from work. Say bye-bye to your precious vacation time. But then again who wouldn't want to pack and move on their vacation.

I get it, sometimes rates increase and you really think the increase is too much.  Others may say that your original rate was too low so you lucked out on your first lease.  The cost of moving is multiplied exponentially over the small percentage your lease rate increase.  It actually pales in comparison to the out-of-pocket expenses associated with moving your life.  The real cost of moving is the loss of time and energy and the old knee injury that is begging you to never move again.  The bottom line is that stability when you have a choice reserves your resources for a time when you have fewer options.  You never know when an employment opportunity or the right person will make a move necessary.  If this was an advice column, I say "stay put until the absolute best option is to move".