Mom. Dad. Uncle Scott. Cousin Marty. Ashley Fischer.

Marty Dollen, 9, carries a load of stuff out of his cousin’s apartment Friday. Dollen was helping his cousin, UI senior Ashley Fischer, move out of her apartment and into a new one. Press-Citizen/Jason A. Cook

One by one, they carried boxes, clothes, even a light fixture with red and green hulas clinging to its neck. They helped load the belongings into a red trailer attached to the Fischers' black 1998 Ford Expedition.

Friday was a family affair. What they all had in common: helping Fischer move out of her Johnson Street apartment. She plans to move Monday into an apartment on Iowa Avenue.

"It falls under the job description of being a parent," said Fischer's dad, Jim, 45, dressed in a red polo with sweat visibly seeping through.

"It would be worse if I didn't have the help," added Fischer, 21, who will be a University of Iowa senior this fall.

Moving tips • Move on a weekday if you can, when banks, utilities and government offices are open. • Order preprinted address labels with your new address as soon as you know it. It makes the change-of-address process much easier. • Keep a utility log to check service-transfer dates. If you’re moving locally, leave the power and water on at your old address a few extra days so you can go back and clean up after your move. • Choose a “packing room” ahead of time and box up a few things each day. • Mark each box with its contents and destination room. That way, you and your helpers will know where each box belongs at your new home. • If moving locally, you may want your pets to spend moving day with a friend. Animals can become confused and frightened during a move. Source: Uhaul.com

It's that time of year again - time for leases to end, people to move out and begin the long haul of switching apartments.

Old desks, couches and chairs line the streets of Iowa City, tagged with signs advertising "Free." People drive for hours to help their family, such is the case of the Fischers. They live in the little Iowa town of Minden, about three hours away.

Others recruit friends or neighbors to help sort, pack and fill borrowed or rented vehicles.

That's what Meiji Zhang, 27, did. She recruited four friends to help move her belongings from one apartment complex on Benton Street to another.

"It's exercise," said Zhang, a UI graduate student from China, as her friends moved boxes and furniture into a white truck.

The worst part about her move: not being able to move into her new apartment at Carriage Hill, off Benton Street, until Sunday.

Ashley Fischer, 21, vacuums the living room of her apartment after all of her belongings were moved out. Press-Citizen/Jason A. Cook

For Fischer, it was emptying her apartment and figuring out how to pack her belongings into the limited space of the red trailer.

"We're almost done," said Marty Dollen, Fischer's 9-year-old cousin, as he carried the plastic lid of a white garbage can.

The boxes, clothes, everything, are all packed away. The trailer that has made two trips to UI and two to the University of Nebraska for Fischer's older sister is ready to go.

And all that's left in the apartment has migrated to the living room: a laundry basket full of clothes, a stereo system separated into sections, a metal ladder, and pillows stacked about two feet high. Clothes still hang in the entranceway closet.

"It's actually not that bad," Fischer said of the experience.