On the front lines of Boston’s Sept. 1 weekend moving chaos – The Boston Globe

Fisher and Braun are two students moving this weekend, a notorious one in Boston when 70 percent of the city’s leases start on the same day. Trying to move in a cramped city at the same time as thousands of others is exasperating. Even those who aren’t moving feel stressed by the congested traffic and piles of junk on sidewalks.

Adding to the moving confusion is Allston Christmas, an unofficial Boston holiday during which Allston/Brighton students leave their unwanted goods out for people to take. The holiday has grown over the years, expanding well past Allston, and sidewalk piles pop in areas like Fenway, Mission Hill, East Boston, and other neighborhoods with high populations of students.

The holiday has a chaotic yet jovial atmosphere, with students walking the streets hoping to find free home goods or furniture treasure amid piles of junk. Though the city warns against picking up stuff from the street for multiple sanitation reasons, including the spread of bed bugs and the sidewalk piles being ideal for rats.

Other renters prefer listing their odds and ends on Facebook Marketplace.

Northeastern graduate Becca Miller carried her mattress down from her home to the SUV of a buyer she connected with through the online platform. The mattress was one of 13 items Miller sold on the app over the past three days.

Selling the items online was stressful. Miller estimated she talked to around 70 people, many of whom ghosted her or didn’t offer the right deal, before finding buyers for her belongings. She said the process was like having a full-time job.

She was trying to get the belongings sold by her move-out date. Her roommates were already gone, having left the country to study abroad in Indonesia. Miller is scheduled to meet them there in a month for a post-grad opportunity.

Advertisement

Despite the stress, Miller liked the process of buying and selling used goods. Most of the items in Miller’s apartment were second hand because she and her roommates were environmental studies majors.

“Buying new stuff, I have a block around it,” she said.

For Ian Furst, 28, a project manager of a local biotechnology company, moving from the Fenway area was a family affair. His fiancée’s family; his parents, Andy, 60, and Samantha, 54; and his brother Nate, 27, came to help the couple move out.

Furst lived on the sixth floor of his building, something that wasn’t a huge problem until the elevator broke down. It hasn’t been fixed for 15 months, so his family helped him carry boxes, bags, crates, and bulky items down the stairs.

“We love the neighborhood, Fenway is very much our home, but Jamaica Plain was calling,” he said.

Samantha said that last weekend, when they got a head start on moving, her two sons did 110 flights of stairs each. This weekend, she said, it’s somewhere around 50.

“This sucks,” Nate laughed as he lugged three tote bags of stuff into their minivan before going back up to do it again.

Furst lived in Brighton in 2019. He bounced around apartments in the area before finding the Fenway spot that he’s currently leaving. His parents live in North Reading, but during their college and young adult years, they also rented apartments in and around Allston and Fenway. They were all familiar with the standstill traffic and double-parked streets that fill up this time every year.

“It’s an adventure,” said Andy, of the busy weekend.

Furst was grateful he had some help on that adventure.

“It takes an army to move out of an apartment on a Sept. 1 timeline,” he said.

Izzy Bryars can be reached at izzy.bryars@globe.com. Follow her @izzybryars.