I’ve spent a lot of time packing over the past few days to get the non-essentials prepared for the move. We aren’t hiring movers because I’m cheap, and we haven’t even needed to buy boxes because we’ve been saving every one that has been delivered to our house since last fall. Because of the onslaught of cardboard, our storage attic is a slightly more organized scene right out of Hoarders, but our house is ransacked, despite not looking that much different yet.
I don’t really have any tips for when it comes to packing, other blogs can give you more creative ideas than I can. While I like to be organized, I also like things easy, and sometimes it’s easier to shove all of your vases into a box with bubble wrap and jam some soft cover books on top because they fit. I try to keep like-items in the same boxes for ease of unpacking (i.e. all of Julia’s boardgames from around the house are in one box), but whatever works is OK with me, because I’ll be damned if every single box isn’t getting unpacked and recycled once we get settled. It’s enough for me to label the strip of tape sealing the box shut for content recognition, “pillows and DVDs,” “Julia’s art supplies and planters.”
We’ve planned to have a mega garage sale soon after moving to the new house, and I’m trying to pull double-duty and simultaneously pack away stuff that we know we won’t need in the next few weeks (towels, linens, office supplies, our bulk supply of toilet paper that would make you think we’re a household of 10), while dividing out items we no longer want into boxes clearly labeled as GARAGE SALE (excess decor, odd pots and pans).
Our books are stored away too, all in small-sized boxes for easy transport. As conveniently as they pack, I’ve always regretted the times I’ve fit 100 hardcovers into a single box, so I expect that it’ll be easier to carry 10 boxes of 10 books. And it’s actually a whole lot more than 10 boxes, but you know what I mean. Light lifting, this time around, since we have the small boxes available. Not that I’m doing any lifting in my pregnant state, but I’m damn good at filling boxes and leaving them covering every surface in our home until Pete relocates them.
Our workbenches are somewhat of a different story, and are undoubtedly going to be the hardest thing to pack. Fortunately many of the power tools come in their own carrying cases, and we have a lot of plastic bins in which to organize all of the loose items so they can be organized once we have a space set up at the new house. The workbenches will come with us; Pete had designed them in such a way that the carriage bolts could be removed and the framework could be easily disassembled to fit up the stairs. But we’re obviously still a long way from tackling this. I’m waiting for another unbearably hot day where standing in the basement for hours will feel good.
My main goal is to have all of the loose items packed away, not just in the basement but throughout the whole house, by the day that we recruit my Dad to come help load furniture into a rental truck. Let’s get it done.
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