But you can get all up in your head about starting a new blog. Like I did. I couldn't figure out how to start and what to say. So I'm just going to start talking...
The most common question we get these days is "are you packed?"
The answer is kind of. But it's complicated, because we were given an original departure date of tomorrow, but learned last week we'd be delayed (paperwork issue) until the end of the month.
Last week David and I spent three days sans kids (God bless grandparents!)
culling, sorting and packing into one of four piles…donate, store, pack, ship.
If I thought living in 990 sq. feet with no basement, attic
or garage had put a dent in my hoarding tendencies, moving internationally is
killing them completely. With each item we’re not taking with us, I have to ask
myself “do I love this enough to pay money to either have it shipped over, or have it stored here?” I’m finding the
answer is often No. Which is huge for me, by the way. And David offers up a Hallelujah.
(no seriously, when we got married and moved into our first apartment, I brought in a large tote full of backpacks, and he was like “when will we ever need that many backpacks?!” and I was like “I don’t know…but we might!!!” )
(we agreed I could keep two, and turns out I’ve actually only used one in the eleven years we’ve been married…so…he wasn’t wrong….:) )
So a LOT of stuff I would have told you I needed a year ago has found new homes, and I still feel like we have plenty here! The kids have “rediscovered” a bunch of their older toys they’d forgotten about amongst the clutter of all their other toys.
At this point we’re about 65% packed. We’re in an awkward there’s still a lot to be packed up but we also still live here for a while place.
Without the kids around we were able to be super productive (and by “we”, I mean David. When I packed up things like all the twins’ newborn mementos I had to go down a few rabbit holes…it can’t be helped ;) ) and even have a good chunk of our belongings already into our new storage unit.
I was laughing with a friend this morning telling her when we first started, I was very thorough and purposeful with labeling each box…”K’s clothes: winter jacket, winter sweaters, boots” and by the end of the three days we were packing boxes like this:
Yes, that is a Hulk glove. One of Two. I don’t know where
Two is packed, but in with light bulbs, our wedding box, and a few wrapped up
candles seemed like an appropriate place
for One.
Today most our boxes are labeled “Misc” and list a sundry of
items grouped together like “K’s shoes, placemats, living room chotskies”, because why not?
Which leads me to believe that when we return, it’ll be a
little bit like Christmas opening and re-finding all our stuff =)
How exciting! I know the latter is how I always end up packing.
ReplyDeleteI'm so excited that you've got your new blog started. Looking forward to all your adventures, which apparently are beginning with all the packing decisions! Glad you've figured out how to "streamline" the process. You'll have fun when you unpack in Kuwait, when you unpack when you come home, and when you bring your stored items home. Lots to look forward to!
ReplyDeleteLove, Aunt Carol
If I may offer a suggestion for packing...we used this successfully in the garage at Kevin Way. For each box make an index card. Number the outside of the box and put the same number on the index card. As you put things in the box, write them on the card. It doesn't matter WHAT you put in the box. It can be your favorite vase, and your boots. The idea is that you don't have to TRY to sort like items together. When you have time after you have moved, you can make cross reference A-Z cards (a recipe box works great). Favorite Vase would go on the "V" card telling you it is in box #___. Boots would go on the "B" card telling you they are in the box #___. It's a super easy way to pack up and be able to FIND things later. You don't even have to make the A-Z cards and you are still ahead of the game. You could scan the numbered cards to find the item you are looking for.
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