My house is starting to reek of cardboard, which is highly unpleasant. We have been obtaining boxes from people – which is extremely helpful – and so there is an ever-present reminder, both scent and visual, that we should begin packing.
We have boxes. We have a plethora of things to put INSIDE the boxes. But I cannot force myself to get started. It is so overwhelming.
I feel like I just need to pack ONE BOX and then it will a) feel productive and b) hopefully unleash a flurry of additional packing. But we are still living here, for at least a month, and I just can’t get myself to DO anything. People do this! This is not rocket science! I know where to start: Just pack up the winter closet! That makes SENSE. It is full of winter coats and boots and also assorted other things that should probably go straight into the donate pile. It’s a fairly small closet, although it’s really cram-jammed with stuff, so it should feel both doable and also satisfying to complete. And yet… I keep coming up with Obstacles. Like… Can I really just shove a bunch of winter coats in a cardboard box? Is that… okay? What about boots and shoes? Do they just… go in a box? Do I need to… wrap them in anything? The guest room closet is another good candidate. It is full of fancy dresses and extra pillows and assorted other things we hardly ever use. That would be a great place to start.
I keep getting stuck thinking about LEGO. What is the best way to move eighty billion LEGO bricks from this house to the next? Do I dump them in a cardboard box? That seems too simple. And also with a high potential for losing LEGO bricks between cracks and flaps. But I’m not going to go out and buy a big plastic bin for them. They currently live – well, they are supposed to live – in fabric bins that fit into shelving units in the basement. Should we just move them in those bins, rather than packing them in something separate? But the fabric bins aren’t particularly sturdy, plus they don’t have lids.
I could start packing books. Those are easy. They go in cardboard boxes. They fit in nice and tidily. But… I cannot bear the thought of looking at bare bookshelves. There is a bookcase in the guest room closet! If I empty those shelves, I won’t have to look at them. However, my husband says we should do books last because they are heavy and he doesn’t want to move a box full of books more than once.
Carla – who is very excited about the new house, and who has now met some of the neighbor children – refuses to think about how moving to the new house means leaving this house. I get it. But that mindset is highly oppositional to packing.
My husband is on call, so he won’t have any bandwidth to help.
I just need to pack ONE BOX. Maybe writing it down here will force me to get going.
In the meantime, we still need to eat. I am trying valiantly to eat the food that is already IN our house. Vast amounts of food that I would rather not have to pack and move. But I still need to buy things like produce and some quantities of meat. Perhaps my meal plans will grow more and more haphazard as the moving date approaches.
Dinners for the Week of July 10-17
- Roasted Salmon with Strawberry Salad: Strawberries at my grocery store looked very lovely indeed, so I’m building a meal around them.
- Chicken and Zucchini Stir Fry: Zucchini is one of my favorite summer vegetables. It’s abundant and lovely right now, so let’s snap it up.
- Pork Chops and Broccoli: I don’t know what I’ll do to the pork chops or to the broccoli, but we have pork chops in the freezer so we are going to eat them.
- Greek Salad with Chicken: Another salad. A salad I have had multiple times in recent memory. But it’s nourishing and fairly easy.
If you were me, where would you start packing? What are you eating this week? Also, do you have any good “throw it together from ingredients on hand” recipes that you care to share?
Wait, so you’re moving? I missed this part! Why? 🙂 Also, as regards packing, I’ve used large garbage bags in the past for certain items. Of course boxes are better, but sometimes, for odds and ends that are not too heavy, garbage bags work well too. I also gave up some of the books before moving into a new place. Funnily enough, though, I missed those books afterward!!
Yes! We got a new house! My husband and I have wanted a little more space for several years, and we found a house that checks all our boxes and we’re moving!
Good luck with moving and all my best wishes for your life in what will become your new home! 🙂
Thank you Mira!
Mira, I’m wondering the same thing! Did I miss something? I looked back at blog posts I’ve not read yet after seeing this title in my feed and…Suzanne, are you moving???
Yes! We’re moving!! I mentioned it in the A League of Their Own post, but I blather on about so much nonsense I’m not surprised it didn’t register LOL.
Going back to reread… So exciting!!! (Well, except for…the packing…)
LOL!
I have moved many times, and I pretty much always start with books. Easy to pack, but the boxes start stacking up and it gets me rolling. I tend to just leave the boxes in the room where I packed them, waiting for the movers, but then again, I don’t think I’ve ever packed more than about four days in advance of a move – even when I moved from a 5 bedroom house! – so it’s pretty much complete chaos at that point.
My biggest packing shortcut is to purchase wardrobe boxes and glasses boxes. They’re expensive, but omg do they make packing/unpacking faster and easier.
A friend of mine has wardrobe boxes she may be able to pass on to us once she’s unpacked. Good to know they are worthwhile! And I am also deeply relieved to know that you packed a 5 bedroom house in four days. I find that very soothing!
Books are relatively easy to pack, and they are also heavy. I would recommend either using small boxes (the movers will thank you: the last two times I moved, the movers commented on how many books I had), or put some books in a larger box and then fill with something light–like winter coats!
I probably would put coats and boots in plastic bags within boxes, as I always imagine a corner of a box popping open and a sleeve or something dangling out and getting dirty. Not that I think that has ever happened to me, but eh. I worry.
If it would help you get your mindset ready for packing, one thing I like to do before I start with the boxing is make a list of things I will absolutely need to have in the new place before any unpacking gets done. A few changes of clothes and underwear, bath kit, sheets/bedding, that kind of thing. Plus, I find thinking ahead to when the move is done, and what will make the first few days go smoothly, to be soothing.
Hang in there! You will survive the move, I promise!
I like the idea of plastic bags within boxes — good tip! Love the idea of planning sort of backwards from what we will need. Very smart.
So fun that you’re moving to your dream house! I had a post from when we moved, that might be helpful to you: https://helloself.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-last-2-weeks-in-our-old-house.html (Ues paper or plastic plates/cups for the last week or two, so you can pack your dishes.)
I know we also kept some cleaning stuff unpacked, so that after the movers took everything, we could do that last cleaning of our old house — and also good to do a quick cleaning of the new house once you’re there.
I don’t know, I found it fun to live without decor or books on the shelves for a few days – ups the anticipation factor. 🙂 Good luck!
Great plan to keep cleaning stuff out! Thanks, Lee! And I will check out your post!
My advice on packing is…GOOD LUCK! No seriously, give yourself a lot of grace. Moving is stressful no matter what.
Thanks Beckett!
I have zero advice because I don’t know where I’d start? We packed over months when we moved from our (tiny) apartment. Just a bit at a time. I think I’d use a different approach now that we have so much more stuff since we’re settled into a home.
Could you hire someone to come help out? I know movers can be expensive, but even hiring a local teen to come help might make it feel less onerous?
Good luck and THIS IS SO EXCITING!!! It sounds like a fabulous new spot and how wonderful that Carla is pumped and already has made new friends <3
It is SO EXCITING!!!!!
As in other aspects of my life, the prospect of asking for help seems worse, somehow, than doing it myself. My dear MIL said she would be happy to come over and just hand me things or put things in boxes! And that is SO KIND — I mean, who would do moving tasks voluntarily?!?! But I get so anxious thinking about having to direct her to do something! I know I make things way harder on myself than they need to be. :/
Congratulations on the new house! I had to read back through because I missed the news as well!
I highly recommend buying stickers (I found them on Amazon) to label the room that each box goes to in the new house (master bedroom, bedroom 1, office, basement (etc), and then make signs to hang up in the new house that match the stickers on the boxes. This made our last move so easy, and I didn’t have to tell the movers where everything went. Also, the movers provided wardrobe boxes- they put the empty boxes in each closet and we put hanging clothes in them (and shoes in the bottom) and then when we got to the new house, we hung up the clothes and they took the boxes away. Definitely worth asking your movers if they provide this service. It made it so easy, and it gave us a big head start on the unpacking! As for what to do first, I also recommend books, but make sure you put them in small boxes. Also, winter clothes and other off season things (Christmas decorations, other holiday decorations, etc) are a good place to start. You will feel like you are making progress, and you won’t miss those items.
YOUR MOVERS PROVIDED WARDROBE BOXES!!!! This is amazing! I am definitely going to look into this!
It really was awesome. The put the empty boxes into each bedroom and by the coat closet, and I loaded them up while they loaded all the other stuff in the house into the truck. When they brought a wardrobe box into the new house, they partially opened it and my son looked at the clothes and told them which room to put it in (coat closet, his room, our room). Then I unpacked the boxes and hung stuff up while they were putting the other boxes into the labeled rooms. It saved so much time and money.
That is an amazing add on.
Also- the best money we spent was to have our housecleaners do a final clean after we moved all of the stuff out of our old house.
For coats (and actually, any hanging clothes), I gather a few hangers together, get a large garbage bag and poke the hanger hooks in a group through the bottom of the bag – turning it into a dry cleaner bag, basically. Then I tie the open bottom closed. (I’m trying to describe this and I’m not sure if it makes sense.)
I usually start packing things like unused dishes – all the dessert glasses, things like that. And I make a spreadsheet that corresponds with the labels I put on the boxes – even making the spreadsheet is a bit of forward motion! 🙂
Wishing you ALL the best with your move!
A HOMEMADE DRY CLEANER BAG. Genius Wendy!!!
So as soon as I know I am moving, I start to pack like a mad woman. I kind of love packing because it gives you a chance to purge. I would not worry about how you are packing things, except fragile things, of course. But winter stuff? I’d just stuff it in a box. It sounds like you have plenty of boxes, but when we moved, we rented “green boxes.” They were so great. They were self-closing (just closed in a certain way, nothing fancy, but better than taping boxes), they were study/stackable, and the company dropped them off and picked them up. We bought before we sold, so schlepped a lot of stuff back and forth so the boxes worked great since we could pack and unpack them over and over.
I think I might be unique in liking the packing process. But I love a good purge and moving really shows you what stuff you really do not need. So we donated a ton of stuff to goodwill before our last move 4 years ago.
Your dinner plans sound great! This is a weird week w/ evening commitments several nights for me – for the kids or Phil. So I don’t really know when we will eat the meals i planned, which is shrimp tacos (carryover from last week as we didn’t make this), grilled ahi tuna with asparagus and rice, and chicken wild rice soup (the least summery meal ever but so good).
I love a good purge, too! The prospect of starting with a clean slate sounds so decadent!
Now I need to look into these green boxes!
So what I have been thinking that helps me is that everything is just going to be chaos for a while, and I have to be fine with that. So, I would start with the books. They are the easiest to get started and yes, it’s a bit sad to see the empty shelves but it’s temporary. In terms of Lego, this was a problem for us. My sons have a lot of Lego from their youth that is in sets, and they just put the whole assembled things into boxes, and packed soft things around them. Hopefully they survive the move. Most of our stuff is being packed by the movers, but since we are getting rid of a lot of our furniture, I really had to go through and pack things that were on shelves that were being donated, a hutch, etc, that kind of thing. Also we have purged a ton of stuff, and it was sort of shocking. I’d start just one small space at a time – like I said, books are the easiest to get going. Boots and shoes can just be thrown in a box, same with winter coats. Moving is so stressful and so much work, but I feel like making a mental shift to just accept that the house is going to be a disaster for a while really helps. Ahhhh! Good luck! xo
Okay, I am going to attempt this mental shift. Temporary chaos. I can do it.
Packers!! Get packers! (They really do pack everything including trash and junk in a junk drawer, so maybe clean first)
LOL!
If you’re hiring movers, just start with books and stack them in an out of the way corner. Then move to the guest room. Then the basement. Then clothes. Honestly, you only need five to seven outfits and the rest can get packed!
A wardrobe box is SUPER helpful. We basically were able to get our entire master closet in one. It was wonderful.
Anything non-breakable can be chucked into a box. So I wouldn’t think twice about throwing LEGO into a box. Or most toys.
The key is, as you have said yourself, just to get started with SOMETHING. One box leads to another and so on. Good luck! It’s going to be amazing!
Thanks, Engie!
I would start with books. They’re the easiest thing to pack! And for the Legos… I know you said you didn’t want to do this, but for my son’s Legos we had one of those large plastic bins that go under the bed. It’s good for storage because it’s easier to see what’s in there, rather than a deeper bin.
Yes, i would imagine your dinners are going to get very haphazard as the date draws closer! When are you actually moving?
Okay, you’re right. we probably need a bin for the LEGO! Or maybe I can repurpose one from elsewhere in the house?
Not sure yet on the actual move date, but close enough that I am already panicking.
It’s been so long since we moved (21 years) and our house is so crammed with stuff I think I’d be in your position, unsure where to start.
Everything feels so immoveable in some sense? Like… I can’t pack the wineglasses. What if I have people over and need to serve wine? Silly things like that. (Obviously in this example we would just use water glasses or plasticware.)
One thing I have done in the past, that may or may not make sense in your situation, is to leave all drawers packed. If the movers will move them that way, great, but we have never used movers. Just remove the drawers and throw them in your vehicle and drive to the new house (which is not far, I assume?) In my experience, it’s worth it to make a few trips with harder to pack things vs. trying to box them up so that the movers don’t break them. Like lamps, or maybe Lego creations 🙂
I was pregnant when I moved, so I paid the moving company to pack. Best money I ever spent. They packed my 1500 square foot house in 3 hours. It would have taken me weeks!! I will be budgeting for that from now on.
I’m going on the assumption that you aren’t moving far. If that is the case, as far as your hanging clothes either do as Wendy suggested or wardrobe boxes are great; but you can easily take the hanging clothes and just toss in your backseat. As far as anything in a drawer or bin (including Legos); don’t empty them, use them as “boxes” for whatever is in them.
Also, get yourself to Total Wine or the liquor store – those divided case boxes are perfect for glasses and delicate decorative items.
Also pack one box that will have everything you need immediately (toilet paper, hand soap, paper plates, coffee/tea, etc.) upon arrival at the new home. You need to keep that box close so that you know exactly where it is when you need it.
The only other advice I have is to try to label all four sides of the boxes (not on the top) because odds are good when those boxes land at your new home; they will be stacked on top of each other and at least this way, you should still be able to see from the label what should be in each box.
If I were you, I would start with books (small boxes, please – those books are HEAVY), rarely used dishes, decorative items, etc.
I’m so excited for you!
The last time I moved (27 years ago), I had three “piles”-donate/give away, throw away, and move. With what was left to pack, I labelled boxes with the room they needed to end up in so that they got taken directly to that place. My teacher dad who moved furniture in the summer always told me to move furniture and boxes one time instead of dumping the stuff then having to carry it somewhere else. You probably know all this already!
We are not moving, but life is nonetheless crazy hectic at the moment. Sorry to be so tardy. I have good excuses – I promise. It’ll be clearer what we’ve been dealing with soon -ish.
Anyway, I would definitely pack the winter stuff. Pack the winter wardrobes too. Pack those Legos or anything Carla can live without, toy-wise, for a month. The sooner you start, the less hectic it will be in the end. It gets VERY hectic – because you just don’t realize how much stuff you use daily that has to wait until the very end.
Good luck making meals from what you have in the pantry. That makes so much sense, but I can’t say I’m an expert at it.
I didn’t know you actually GOT the house. Bravo. I’m so happy for you and your family; this is really exciting.
I would start with the winter garb, then the guest room. The legos can stay in their fabric bins, just plop them into some boxes and hope for the best! 😜
Maybe give yourself a goal of two boxes a day for the next week, then up it some?
We are so different when it comes to moving because I love packing so much! I do a little bit at a time and spacing it out that way makes it so much easier. I’ve never moved from a house, though, so maybe consider hiring someone to pack and unpack you? I know that can be SOOO very helpful when there is a lot to move.
I would definitely start with books and anything on your walls and other decor. You’ll feel so accomplished when you start the process!
I usually start with books, because they take up such a surprising number of boxes, and then there is a tidy pile of boxes. When we last moved, I found I could get myself going by listening to certain songs. I cannot explain why each song helped, but it did: Sledgehammer by Fifth Harmony; Wheels by the Foo Fighters; Hall of Fame by The Script; Immortals by Fall Out Boy; Stereo Hearts by Gym Class Heroes; anyway I’ll stop now because the songs that would push YOU would be different than the songs that pushed ME–and in fact, I would have different songs now TOO. My real point is that I found certain songs would just PUSH me, and if I put one on and clenched my teeth, I would pack a box.
I LOVE the idea of a packing playlist. And I have never heard of ANY of these songs you list, so I need to give them a listen!
Uff, the joys and downsides of moving. It’s easy to get excited about the new house, but packing up the old is always daunting. Personally, I’d have a hard time starting to pack so “far” in advance… but then again, we’ve only moved with a 1-bedroom apartment (not a whole house, including kid’d stuff) and we usually got it done the weekend before the movers came.
Good luck, friend.
I’m late with my comment but first off: congratulations!! Where would I start? Al of your ideas are legit. I would start anywhere. If I see it- into the box it goes. Oh and yes, packing playlist is a great idea!