2. My favorite appliance is my label maker.
3. I almost named the dog Roy G. Biv.
4. I hate organizing stuff, but I figured you might post a video at the end of this and it could turn out to be worth my while to keep reading.
So I was hanging out with one of my besties today. Tracey is as much of an organizer as I am. Maybe more so. Or not. Okay - it's probably a dead heat. Anyway, we were talking about the challenges of this sort of move. Not your ordinary move, where you go from one house to the next, but one where some things go into long-term storage and some go with you but you can't haul them around for the next month while you are "houseless." Then there is still another category of goods that you need for month long interim. I told Tracey about how my brilliant engineer husband came up with a really great system for packing. She thought the rest of the world might want to hear about this, since moving is practically a hobby for most Americans and many people decry their own lack of organizational skills. So I will share about our system. WARNING: YOU WILL WANT TO BAIL OUT ON THIS POST NOW UNLESS YOU AGREE WITH ANY OF THE FOLLOWING STATEMENTS. 1. I know where to find my keys, last year's tax return and probably the owner's manual for my child's baby monitor. And said child is now in fourth grade. 2. My favorite appliance is my label maker. 3. I almost named the dog Roy G. Biv. 4. I hate organizing stuff, but I figured you might post a video at the end of this and it could turn out to be worth my while to keep reading. The first thing we did was instead of writing the contents of each box on the outside, we numbered them then created a spreadsheet that listed the box's contents below its corresponding number. That way, if we get into the middle of nowhere and suddenly realized we really should have brought along the _______________ (assuming it is worth mailing vs. just hitting a Walmart) (but you should understand the lengths to which I will go to avoid a Walmart), Kevin can find it and retrieve it from storage on his next trip back to Orlando. I didn't try to pack Harley. He climbed in that backpack himself. The numbered boxes were only for the things we began referring to as "See you in a year" items: things not making the trip with us, but worth keeping (dishes, photo albums, the cat) (not really, he's down the street with a friend). We kept a running list of the numbers of boxes that contained things we thought we might possibly need so that they would be kept at the front of the storage unit and thus readily accessible. This list turned out to be pretty small. As in three boxes containing homeschooling materials I would have to hunt down online then have shipped to Stu's Camping World in StuKnowsWhere, South Dakota and THAT issue of shipping stuff is a whole other blog post. Stay tuned. We packed (as much as possible) the "see you in a year" items first. That left the "see you in a month" items (stuff going with us) to be packed in unnumbered boxes. We used the lack of a number as our cue to know which storage unit they should go to (we have one for the yearlong storage and another for that which we would need come January 9. Also, by the time we hit this point in the packing I could barely remember my birthdate, let alone what number to give a box. Somewhere along the line my sense of humor deteriorated to the point that as I put the heating pad into a box I said aloud, to no one in particular, "Hey, look! I'm packing heat!" HUMOROUS SIDEBAR: you find some truly funny things when you pack after living in one place for 11 years.... For the "pre-nomadic era" of our journey (from house closing to fiver move-in day), each person has one or two stackable bins for clothing. Each child has one plastic bin of personal items (toys, games, books) for entertainment. We have several smaller bins each containing toiletries, electronics, important paperwork, or snacks (possibly Nutella). We keep two cloth grocery bags for laundry. I loaded one child's backpack with drawing paper and art supplies. For more general organization I kept a list (or 15) in the Notepad app on my iPad reminding me of what things to do. I normally use iCal for that, but I just got to a point where seeing a list of things to do was more helpful than having a calendar beep reminders at me all day. I had numerous lists, all neatly categorized by school or packing or RV, reminding me to do things like change our address, cancel utilities, turn in quarterly grade reports, update Harley's microchip information, inhale, etc. I also kept a list of things we will need to purchase for the Bob T (Big Ol' Bahonking Trailer) once we can move into it, but that I don't want to buy now since I don't know where I'd keep it. I love lists. As organized as we were, packing and moving is still a bear and perhaps our notes will be of help to you should you someday get a wild idea about traveling the country in a land yacht. If not and you only kept reading this far in hopes of some promised entertainment, you'll find it below. You're welcome.
Kim
1/10/2013 07:42:07 am
Is it odd that I found all of that fascinating? I even realized I was reading your instructions slowly-- not sure why. And I can relate on loving lists. I LOVE LISTS. I make one or two every single day. Crossing off something on my list is almost euphoric. Why is that??? Ohmygoodnessgirl, a reason to make a list is a par-TAY! I have been known to do some little task that wasn't on my list then write it down on the list just for the thrill of crossing it off. I bet if you did the Clifton Strengths assessment you would find you have the Achiever strength. It's my top theme. We are known for our relentless drive to accomplish something, no matter how small, each and everyday. It just feels right. Comments are closed.
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