Boxes are slowly but surely beginning to take over corners and rooms of our house. I’ve been tackling packing in my own way going room to room, starting with the least used areas {i.e. guest room} first. I haven’t been numbering boxes and then detailing specific items according to box number on a separate sheet of paper like so many people do. Instead, I’ve just been writing a general one word description on the box like ‘decor’ and then listing each item in the box under the description word. For me, keeping track of a separate piece of paper with our entire home’s inventory seems daunting. And when it comes to unpacking and looking for specific items, I’d rather just go straight to the boxes and find what I need. But that’s just me. There are probably a million different ways to pack for a move. I’m just doing what feels comfortable and what I’ve done in the past. This is my second time packing up our family and it worked well the first go around.
We bought our moving boxes, bubble wrap and packing paper off Craigslist from a family who had recently moved. We have plenty – maybe even more than we’ll need – and they only cost us $25. I fully plan on reselling them once we’re all unpacked after moving into the Underdog in a few months. I think we can make our money back.
Besides labeling each box by category or room with specific items listed beneath, I’m also writing ‘apt’ or ‘no apt’ on them. Since not everything that will eventually end up at the Underdog can fit into our interim apartment, we’ll have to store many boxes elsewhere. I frequently find myself staring into the abyss contemplating ‘apartment or storage?’ I’m really trying to minimize what we take to the apartment just so I don’t have to turn around in 3 months or so and repack it all. But I also want to make the apartment somewhat homey and familiar for the time that our family will be living there. So packing is taking longer than it would with a typical home to home move because I’m trying to decide what we will use or need at the apartment and what we can do without for a few months.
{How freaky does that reflection of a throw blanket look in the fireplace glass? It looks like a sobbing tragedy mask. Anybody else see it? As you may also see, the kids aren’t stressed one bit by the whole packing thing.}
It’s amazing how quickly a home can go from show house conditions for selling purposes to complete and utter disarray for moving purposes in just a matter of weeks. Our home is starting to look less like a home and more like a house. Meaning it’s becoming more and more barren and sterile with each item I pack. It makes me think of when we bought the house and how I saw this huge empty space that we could bring to life. It’s been a kind house to us over the last 3.5 years. No major issues…just little cosmetic changes here and there that didn’t require permits {besides the man shed} or lead or asbestos testing before digging in. It’s been a good home for Handy Hubby to piddle around on acquiring more DIY know how along the way. It’s been a good canvas for my design loving heart allowing me to experiment with interior design without hardly any construction dust. We’re very thankful that we got to live here and play around.
Thank you house!
images: all Dana Miller for House*Tweaking
DIY, kid-friendly, organization