I’ve finally decided to give in and start packing although the entire idea totally stresses me out. I detest moving mostly because we did it so often when I was younger. I hate the idea of watching my life be reduced to a cardboard box. The only fun part is getting the new home but it’s short lived when the cardboard boxes follow you and now you have to put your entire life back together. It’s a like some screwed up life sized jigsaw puzzle and I’ve never liked puzzles. I’m also an obsessive labeler to the point where pretty much everything in the box is written on the outside. My husband thinks it’s crazy since his idea of labeling is “kitchen,” and mine is an actual list of what things from the kitchen are hiding behind the brown boxes from hell. Basically, I’ve banned him from labeling at all.
Even though we don’t have a set closing date yet and we’re still waiting for proof of termite treatment (from 3 years ago) from the owner that the inspector is demanding I’ve decided to let the what-ifs go and start packing the non-essentials. This means our office/guest bedroom because there’s nothing all that important to daily life in there. Well, except some paperwork but that can easily find a new home in the meantime.
Once I agreed to start packing is when the omen-if-there-were-such-a-thing came in. We headed out to get some cardboard boxes on Saturday and basically the skies opened up. I don’t mean it sprinkled and we all just ignored it. No, I mean buckets of water came pouring from the sky where if you even thought about opening your car door you were already soaked through to your skin. Not to mention it was also humid so basically it was a bad mood inducing day. So there we are to get cardboard boxes that enjoy disintegrating when wet when monsoon season decided to make an appearance. Did I mention it hasn’t actually rained here in weeks? Yeah, it was fantastic timing and I refused to get out of the car which means only Hubby actually got wet because he refused to use my bright pink umbrella.
Somehow we actually caught a short break in the rain to get them into the car so the trip wasn’t a total loss. It didn’t actually stop raining though; it went from full on monsoon to steady rain. It still wasn’t a good situation but it was better then the alternative we were facing. So after all that we then had to bring the boxes into our apartment and find a place to store them. They’ve been here since then still in the folded state and I haven’t packed a thing. I will, I swear, I just can’t guarantee exactly when that will happen. I’m hoping for tomorrow but don’t hold your breath because you’ll most likely die and I don’t want that on my hands. I also don’t really know where to start even though I’ve narrowed down a room to begin with. That’s another one of my packing issues, I never know what to pack first and it just gives me a headache. So you can picture me standing in our office/guest room looking around wondering what corner to attack first.
Any moving/packing tips? I’m hoping to avoid the stressful side of moving as much as possible so I can enjoy it but I haven’t invented that magic potion yet. If you have, then please send it my way.
5 comments:
The only piece of "advice" I can offer after moving 7 times in 13 months is this: If its worth is in question, set it to the side til closer to the end of the packing process. You'd be shocked how much you're willing to part with when you hope to never cut yourself on another cardboard box or hear the screech of packing tape ever again. By the time I made my last move (December 2006), not counting furniture, I could fit everything I owned into one carload. =P
My advice: Hire someone to pack you, move you and unpack for you. Moving is my least favorite activity and it is well worth the money to pay someone else to do it. Your welcome!
Put down the packing sista, you've won an award! Scoot over to Stalking Sunsets to pick it up.
xoxo
Zen Mama
http://www.stalkingsunsets.blogspot.com
The only packing advice I can think of is "don't put all your books in one giant box". It gets really heavy. You probably already know that.
Congrats on the house!
I just went through this, moving out of my three bedroom apartment and into a house that I'm still painting and fixing and redecorating and dealing with plumbing issues.. wait, I got distracted by the bad again, my bad. Anyways. I will tell you, I am the worlds worst procrastinator in the world. I mean, THE WORST. I packed a few things here and there, sure... but I will tell you, the weekend we moved? Was the weekend I threw everything into boxes and put it all in the moving van. So while hubby and father in law took one load... I was packing up more boxes. Well, really more tossing shit in and then unpacking it every other load so I then had those boxes to repack and pack more crap... ... it wasn't the best system, but it got the job done. Now, if you're moving far... probably don't go my route. Pack what you don't use first, then... leave toiletries, basic kitchen supplies, enough clothes and your bed for last. Bed needs to be the first thing set up in the new house. Want to know why? Because at the end of the first day of moving in... you wont want to crash anywhere but in your own bed and never move again. So, do yourself THAT favor and make sure that bed is one of the first things set up, made, and ready to be curled into. It'll make life SO much easier.
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