Living in Two Different Houses

My parents got divorced when I was 13 years old, right before Covid 19 shut everything down. While it was hard, and I hated my mom for some time, five years later, this is not my problem. I’ve dealt with the insane girlfriend, living with my grandparents, telling my mom that I wanted to stay at my dad’s, telling my dad that I wasn’t coming home until his girlfriend was gone. The only thing that still bugs me is living in two different houses. I am very happy with the lack of arguing and fighting and wondering where one parents is. But living in two different houses is a nightmare. My parents have 50-50 custody so every Wednesday, my sister and I go to my moms and every Saturday or Sunday we go back to my dad’s. And so does half of each of our rooms. Yes, I’m being dramatic but, seriously, it’s terrible. Now that I drive, it’s a little easier. We basically live out of my car. My sister keeps a luggage bag of clothes that she likes to have, shoes, school supplies and anything she needs to get ready in the morning, in my car. We keep our school IDs and textbooks in the car so that we never don’t have them. I’ve acquired a large makeup bag that holds everything I could possibly need to get ready in the morning: medicine, toothbrush and toothpaste, deodorant. You may be thinking, wow, you’ve really got this together, but do not be fooled. Now that I drive, forgetting things at one house is no big deal - at least not to my sister. Meaning, we stop at our dad’s house almost every day. I will say driving makes it a lot easier but it is still a pain. I remember when I was really excited about working out everyday and I carried two eight pound weights back and forth because I only had them at my dad’s house. I carried my new weighted blanket back and forth for about two weeks. I carried my cello up and down three flights of stairs for two years. I still bring bags of yarn and books and every other random thing that I think I might want back and forth. I have no good advice for anyone in my situation. I know people whose parents split up and they bought a whole other wardrobe for their dad’s house. That was a painful haul to sit through. I know kids who pack a suitcase every time they visit there dad. I know that people have it worse off than me but when I was first trying to figure out the secret to living in two houses, I found nothing. I remember one specific article about a woman that often traveled to her vacation house and how she had to digitize a lot of her work so that she could bring it back and forth. I found the article useless and slightly infuriating. I never could find something about a kid who had to bring their stuff back and forth between two houses. And, at the time, I didn’t know anyone else who struggled with it. I am two months away from moving to college and I am mostly excited because I get to pick exactly what things I want to bring and what I will always have immediate access to.

P.S. I didn’t even get into my struggle with forming routines at two different houses. So I guess that will be another article.