Montreal Moving Day: what happens when a whole city moves house at once?
July 1, 2018 10:45 AM Subscribe
1 July is Canada Day. But in Quebec, which has twice had referendums on independence, it’s when tenancies traditionally end – leading to mayhem on the streets.
But even with all Moving Day’s inconveniences, it’s easy to find Quebeckers who say they wouldn’t change a thing about it. “There is a very popular concept in Quebec,” says Gravenor, “described by this word s’entraider, something like neighbours helping neighbours out. People here take pride in it.” Lala says he has helped friends on Moving Day at least a dozen times, “because they’ve all helped me more than a dozen times”. He agrees that Moving Day is a community-building activity, like barn raising. “Its feeling is of everyone being in something together.”Everything you need to know about July 1 moving day in Montreal:
Get rid of your stuff sustainably - The City of Montreal offers anyone with proof of residency an opportunity to dispose of their belongings sustainably at one of its seven Écocentres. These spaces help to reduce the volume of waste in landfills, as well as greenhouse gas emissions, according to the City of Montreal website. Écocentres accept items like construction waste, metal, electronic devices, clothing and reusable items.Moving can be heartbreaking ... in a good way:
When my son and I moved into our apartment, he was five years old. In the beginning, I tried to make our new life and our new place seem fun. I’d let popcorn overflow when I made it on the stove, and when I cooked spaghetti I’d make a show of throwing it around the kitchen to demonstrate its readiness. There are two pieces of spaghetti that have been stuck to my ceiling for nine years now.
Recently, my son told me he won’t be able live in a place that doesn’t have spaghetti on the ceiling. I was really looking forward to having clean ceilings again. But I’m happy my son managed to hold onto our brighter moments, rather than the darker ones my pasta-tossing days could have easily recalled. Kids have a special gift for this.
Pretty much all leases in my town start on August 1st. To make things worse, pretty much all leases end on July 27th, to give landlords a few days to clean apartments and whatnot. You have to find storage for all of your stuff for four days. It's a completely fucked-up system that persists because this is a total seller's market for rental apartments.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 11:05 AM on July 1, 2018
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 11:05 AM on July 1, 2018
Aha! This is the Montreal equivalent of Allston Christmas in Boston, it would seem.
posted by rmd1023 at 11:16 AM on July 1, 2018 [7 favorites]
posted by rmd1023 at 11:16 AM on July 1, 2018 [7 favorites]
Yeah, Boston kinda-sorta does this, but it's possible to find off-cycle leases — most people I know try hard to stay off the September 1 cycle, because being on it is such a clusterfuck, and landlords seem to be fine with signing a lease that turns over in January or whatever. If every landlord in Montreal literally insists on turning over on July 1 because everyone else insists on July 1, then that has to be a whole nother level of absurdity.
posted by nebulawindphone at 11:22 AM on July 1, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by nebulawindphone at 11:22 AM on July 1, 2018 [3 favorites]
There’s something endearing about all that and I know there are probably very real problems and ridiculous issues created when 130 thousand people move on the same day but I’m going to instead imagine it like a bustling scene out of a Miyazaki film where Kiki the delivery witch and and a magician named Howl discover how to wield their trades to solve the inevitable moving day hijinks which ensue.
posted by nikaspark at 11:52 AM on July 1, 2018 [6 favorites]
posted by nikaspark at 11:52 AM on July 1, 2018 [6 favorites]
I'll tell you what happens. I score free furniture at the curb.
posted by 256 at 11:54 AM on July 1, 2018 [12 favorites]
posted by 256 at 11:54 AM on July 1, 2018 [12 favorites]
Moving Day in Quebec also results in a spike of abandoned pets. People simply leave them behind or set them “free.” Our cat was one of those casualties.
posted by Kitteh at 12:10 PM on July 1, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by Kitteh at 12:10 PM on July 1, 2018 [4 favorites]
If every landlord in Montreal literally insists on turning over on July 1 because everyone else insists on July 1, then that has to be a whole nother level of absurdity.
We moved in to our Montreal apartment in September, and our landlord insisted on a 10-month lease for the first year so that our lease would terminate on July 1 when we eventually moved out.
posted by 256 at 12:17 PM on July 1, 2018 [2 favorites]
We moved in to our Montreal apartment in September, and our landlord insisted on a 10-month lease for the first year so that our lease would terminate on July 1 when we eventually moved out.
posted by 256 at 12:17 PM on July 1, 2018 [2 favorites]
That would drive me crazy. There was a period where I moved 11 times in 8 years, 10 of them single-handed except for the last one where I got a friend to help carry a couch in and out of the moving van. I've been in the same place for 15 years, but I've sworn that next time the only thing I am moving is my small valuables and everything else I am paying someone to pack and move. The idea of a place where you *can't* hire movers, ugh.
posted by tavella at 1:00 PM on July 1, 2018
posted by tavella at 1:00 PM on July 1, 2018
It must be particularly horrible for the elderly and people were disabilities, too.
posted by tavella at 1:03 PM on July 1, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by tavella at 1:03 PM on July 1, 2018 [4 favorites]
You can get off-cycle leases in Montreal, too. I did it for many years, specifically so I could avoid the circus. The issue with this is, you have to be prepared to either:
- find a sublet if you want to move in to another place that ends on July 1 if yours ends before or after.
- be ok with there being a smaller pool of apartments to choose from if you don't want to participate in the July 1 cycle.
posted by jordantwodelta at 1:04 PM on July 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
- find a sublet if you want to move in to another place that ends on July 1 if yours ends before or after.
- be ok with there being a smaller pool of apartments to choose from if you don't want to participate in the July 1 cycle.
posted by jordantwodelta at 1:04 PM on July 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
New York used to have this on May 1st, also called Moving Day
posted by Jon_Evil at 1:44 PM on July 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Jon_Evil at 1:44 PM on July 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
Well, the thing is you can hire movers; you just have to book them in January. I mean, it's pleasing for me to see this very Quebec thing covered by the Guardian, but it also has a hint of "how weird! how freaky!" It isn't. It's just how it is. You get used to it.
Also, kudos for them trying to strong-arm Quebec sovereignty into it, too. It may have been about that at one time, but now it's just so ingrained on July 1st that has very little to do with thumbing their nose at Anglos, and more just continuing a tradition.
posted by Kitteh at 2:48 PM on July 1, 2018
Also, kudos for them trying to strong-arm Quebec sovereignty into it, too. It may have been about that at one time, but now it's just so ingrained on July 1st that has very little to do with thumbing their nose at Anglos, and more just continuing a tradition.
posted by Kitteh at 2:48 PM on July 1, 2018
I've been in the same place 37 years, and every once and a while I'll look around at all the stuff and think "Everything in here, I carried in here. There are no stuff fairies sneaking stuff in while I wasn't looking. And some day, I'll have to hump all this stuff out."
Then I forget about it, and worry about something else.
posted by Marky at 2:49 PM on July 1, 2018
Then I forget about it, and worry about something else.
posted by Marky at 2:49 PM on July 1, 2018
Nice detail: European* agricultural leases, for centuries, began on Lady Day, sometime in early spring**, which is the least difficult time for temperate farmers to move. That developed into the tax year, and lo, the US and UK tax years still begin and end in early April.
And Montreal moved their date from 1 May to 1 July to accomodate the school calendar.
*Pointedly including England
**Variously adopted for the several calendar reforms
posted by clew at 2:56 PM on July 1, 2018 [4 favorites]
And Montreal moved their date from 1 May to 1 July to accomodate the school calendar.
*Pointedly including England
**Variously adopted for the several calendar reforms
posted by clew at 2:56 PM on July 1, 2018 [4 favorites]
That developed into the tax year, and lo, the US and UK tax years still begin and end in early April.
I’m not sure I agree with you a hundred percent on your police work there, clew. Everything I have ever read about calendar reform (more than I really feel comfortable admitting to normal people) traces the English-speaking world’s tendency to have tax paid in early April* all the way back to Dionysus Exiguus creating the Anno Domini calendar. Dennis the Short, as those of us who took a couple of years of Latin call him, very Catholically reckoned the new age of the world in its grace began with Christ incarnate in the womb, so he pointedly has the Feast of the Annunciation (aka Lady Day, March 25) as New Year’s Day. For administrative simplicity, this was also when taxes were assessed.
A thousand years of local colour later, Charles IX of France found it administratively annoying that different bits of France marked the new year on variously the Annunciation, Easter, March 1st or January 1st, so decreed in the Edict of Roussillon (mostly about justice reform) that it was January 1 for everybody as of 1567. That is where the January-as-new-year idea came from, which becomes important in a moment (or 185 years later).
England and later the American and other colonies continued to stick with March 25th date as the New Year and date taxes were assessed until they switched over to the Gregorian Calendar in 1752. Because of the calendar reform, there was some perhaps understandable objection to paying a full year’s tax on a day that was only 354 days long, so the new tax date got pushed on into early April, where it has been juggled around a bit by country but generally remained for most of the English-speaking world to this day.
*Yes, I know Australia’s is in October, but antipodean contrariness is beyond the scope of my explanation here. And try though I might, I cannot even grasp New Zealand’s tax system at all. Two different tax years running simultaneously or something?
posted by ricochet biscuit at 5:28 PM on July 1, 2018 [7 favorites]
I’m not sure I agree with you a hundred percent on your police work there, clew. Everything I have ever read about calendar reform (more than I really feel comfortable admitting to normal people) traces the English-speaking world’s tendency to have tax paid in early April* all the way back to Dionysus Exiguus creating the Anno Domini calendar. Dennis the Short, as those of us who took a couple of years of Latin call him, very Catholically reckoned the new age of the world in its grace began with Christ incarnate in the womb, so he pointedly has the Feast of the Annunciation (aka Lady Day, March 25) as New Year’s Day. For administrative simplicity, this was also when taxes were assessed.
A thousand years of local colour later, Charles IX of France found it administratively annoying that different bits of France marked the new year on variously the Annunciation, Easter, March 1st or January 1st, so decreed in the Edict of Roussillon (mostly about justice reform) that it was January 1 for everybody as of 1567. That is where the January-as-new-year idea came from, which becomes important in a moment (or 185 years later).
England and later the American and other colonies continued to stick with March 25th date as the New Year and date taxes were assessed until they switched over to the Gregorian Calendar in 1752. Because of the calendar reform, there was some perhaps understandable objection to paying a full year’s tax on a day that was only 354 days long, so the new tax date got pushed on into early April, where it has been juggled around a bit by country but generally remained for most of the English-speaking world to this day.
*Yes, I know Australia’s is in October, but antipodean contrariness is beyond the scope of my explanation here. And try though I might, I cannot even grasp New Zealand’s tax system at all. Two different tax years running simultaneously or something?
posted by ricochet biscuit at 5:28 PM on July 1, 2018 [7 favorites]
Wait wait tax question - so July 1 is the new financial year in Australia only? (We just have until the end of October to sort out our tax returns.)
posted by freethefeet at 5:39 PM on July 1, 2018
posted by freethefeet at 5:39 PM on July 1, 2018
police work?
Possibly the whole argument should move earlier: when did the Romans like to start their agricultural leases? All I have found is Agrarian Law, 111 BC which refers repeatedly to appearing with a claim before March 15. It's referring to the specific year after reallocating public lands.
posted by clew at 5:46 PM on July 1, 2018
Possibly the whole argument should move earlier: when did the Romans like to start their agricultural leases? All I have found is Agrarian Law, 111 BC which refers repeatedly to appearing with a claim before March 15. It's referring to the specific year after reallocating public lands.
posted by clew at 5:46 PM on July 1, 2018
I have no special knowledge regarding Roman Calendaring but, well, when it comes to the Expansionist Empire stage of Christianity it's not like they weren't above appropriating all kinds of other local custom & lore. I don't think it's all that far fetched that (regardless of any possible Christmas numerology) that roughly corresponds to the period between lambing season and planting season would seem like a soft target no matter how it's rationalized.
I wonder if it's not at least a small part why many calendars use the vernal equinox (instead of some other such observable event) as an annual demarcation.
posted by mce at 6:52 PM on July 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
I wonder if it's not at least a small part why many calendars use the vernal equinox (instead of some other such observable event) as an annual demarcation.
posted by mce at 6:52 PM on July 1, 2018 [1 favorite]
An aside to my aside above, thereby bringing me back to the topic at hand, this is my first "Moving Day" in Montreal. I am very happy not to be moving. I arrived in the fall, had a run of short term rentals and have leased a placed that had been renovated and wasn't already subject to a July 1st leasing schedule.
I guess it also helps that my landlords are French french and no more local than I am.
posted by mce at 6:54 PM on July 1, 2018 [3 favorites]
I guess it also helps that my landlords are French french and no more local than I am.
posted by mce at 6:54 PM on July 1, 2018 [3 favorites]
so July 1 is the new financial year in Australia only?
Can’t speak for every country, but Canadian and American companies in my experience run April 1 to March 31 for fiscal year.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:38 PM on July 1, 2018
Can’t speak for every country, but Canadian and American companies in my experience run April 1 to March 31 for fiscal year.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:38 PM on July 1, 2018
> Wait wait tax question - so July 1 is the new financial year in Australia only? (We just have until the end of October to sort out our tax returns.)
Most state governments in the US run on a July 1-June 30 fiscal year, and therefore most public universities and other nonprofits which rely on state funding follow suit.
posted by desuetude at 8:59 PM on July 1, 2018
Most state governments in the US run on a July 1-June 30 fiscal year, and therefore most public universities and other nonprofits which rely on state funding follow suit.
posted by desuetude at 8:59 PM on July 1, 2018
Chicago has this too, but May 1 and (secondarily) October 1. For 100 years, most Chicago leases began on May 1, so to this day May 1 is a terrible day to have to move because a statistically significant number of leases begin and end on May 1 so everyone and their mother is moving!
"England and later the American and other colonies continued to stick with March 25th date as the New Year and date taxes were assessed until they switched over to the Gregorian Calendar in 1752. "
George Washington, notably, was born Feb 11, 1732 OS (Old Style; i.e., Julian) and died Dec 14, 1799, New Style (i.e., Gregorian). Anyway that's why he was born Feb 11 (according to him), but we celebrate Washington's Birthday on Feb 22 (according to us).
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 9:20 PM on July 1, 2018 [2 favorites]
"England and later the American and other colonies continued to stick with March 25th date as the New Year and date taxes were assessed until they switched over to the Gregorian Calendar in 1752. "
George Washington, notably, was born Feb 11, 1732 OS (Old Style; i.e., Julian) and died Dec 14, 1799, New Style (i.e., Gregorian). Anyway that's why he was born Feb 11 (according to him), but we celebrate Washington's Birthday on Feb 22 (according to us).
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 9:20 PM on July 1, 2018 [2 favorites]
Although we are going further afield, I have always enjoyed how Cervantes and Shakespeare both died on the same date (April 23, 1616), but a week and a half apart. Spain was Gregorian but England was still Julian.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 11:21 PM on July 1, 2018 [8 favorites]
posted by ricochet biscuit at 11:21 PM on July 1, 2018 [8 favorites]
And try though I might, I cannot even grasp New Zealand’s tax system at all. Two different tax years running simultaneously or something?
Not as far as I know. Our tax year runs 1 April-31 March, though companies might have different financial year ends (30 June is common as well as 31 March, with a few on 30 September). If you're really curious feel free to MeMail me, a good friend of mine works in tax policy.
*I realise this has little to do with Montreal, and apologise*
posted by Pink Frost at 1:36 AM on July 2, 2018
Not as far as I know. Our tax year runs 1 April-31 March, though companies might have different financial year ends (30 June is common as well as 31 March, with a few on 30 September). If you're really curious feel free to MeMail me, a good friend of mine works in tax policy.
*I realise this has little to do with Montreal, and apologise*
posted by Pink Frost at 1:36 AM on July 2, 2018
It has been over 10 years since I lived in Montreal but because of now when even passing acquaintances say they are moving they are usually shocked when I immediately offer to lend a hand, but I don’t hesitate, nobody wants to be stuck moving alone. It’s a true measure of friendship.
posted by furtive at 7:21 AM on July 2, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by furtive at 7:21 AM on July 2, 2018 [2 favorites]
Pretty much all leases in my town start on August 1st. To make things worse, pretty much all leases end on July 27th, to give landlords a few days to clean apartments and whatnot. You have to find storage for all of your stuff for four days
Somehow, in the six leases I had in ten years of rental housing in three cities, this sort of thing never ended up being a problem for me. I'm not sure how I ended up being so lucky.
posted by madcaptenor at 8:02 AM on July 2, 2018
Somehow, in the six leases I had in ten years of rental housing in three cities, this sort of thing never ended up being a problem for me. I'm not sure how I ended up being so lucky.
posted by madcaptenor at 8:02 AM on July 2, 2018
Madison, Wisconsin has this on the most ridiculous dates of August 14-15, and it is insane. Moving is already the worst, why not make it even more horrible?
posted by Maarika at 8:45 AM on July 2, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Maarika at 8:45 AM on July 2, 2018 [1 favorite]
Madison is running on the academic calendar, then. All the students are coming back.
posted by mneekadon at 3:17 PM on July 4, 2018
posted by mneekadon at 3:17 PM on July 4, 2018
MetaFilter: *I realise this has little to do with Montreal, and apologise*
posted by ricochet biscuit at 9:24 PM on July 4, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by ricochet biscuit at 9:24 PM on July 4, 2018 [2 favorites]
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