Packin’ Up

I’ve been MIA for the past few days. I’d love to say I went back up to the cabin, or I’ve been painting a huge mural, or anything else really fun.

But, no. I’ve been packing to move.

Not my favorite thing. I don’t think anybody actually likes to pack. It’s just overwhelming.

It’d be bad enough to pack up the house. But we also have a barn. Full to the gills. And, let’s not forget all the stuff the people have left with us over the years.

Overwhelmed!!!

I needed a system. A strategy.

I thought I had it all figured out with a dot-labeling system. Different colors for different rooms. Made sense. Because I’m never the one lugging the boxes in – I just pack and unpack – the dot idea seemed like a good one.

Then I found FlyLady. I heard about her last year. But who needs someone telling them when to scrub their sink and when to vacuum, I wondered?

I’ve sense rethought that. But I’ll deal with all that when I actually have a house to clean.

I asked her group about moving tips. A bunch of gals had great advice. Here’s what they told me.

1. get colored markers
2. pack rarely used stuff first
3. mark the box with a number in the assigned color for that room
4. keep boxing up, numbering, etc.

Here’s the theory – in the new house you can put a card with the associated color marked on it over the door to each room. Then you’re movers/friends will know where everything goes.

Rather than trying to unpack everything, you only need to address the higher numbered boxes – the stuff you use the most often. Eventually you’ll get to the lower numbered boxes.

I liked this system better than my dots. Labels can fall off. And who knows what is in a box when you have hundreds?

Off to Walmart I went. I scored 11 markers for 70 cents. Gotta love back-to-school. And Walmart.

Then I asked if I could get some boxes from them. This was the real score!

Just come back tonight after 10 and you can have your pick, the customer service manager told me.

I dragged my butt, and my son, down to the store at 10:15. Boxes everywhere. Up and down every aisle. But they were full of stuff.

Apparently the Walmart stockers were dragging too.

Until I found Donna. She had just unloaded some plastic totes and had a huge, beautiful box.

Can I have that?

Oh, do you need some boxes? I’ll just save some for you, as long as you come back in the morning by 7 a.m.

At 6:15 I headed back to Walmart and found two shopping carts packed full of flattened boxes in every shape & size. WhooHoo!!!

I grab my sharpies, my tape, and plunge in. I’m packing, stacking and rolling along. For most of the day.

Then I hit the Wall.

I think it was after I realized that I had marked the contents of each box on the TOP of the box. Not a good idea if you want to see what’s in each box and they’re stacked on top of each other.

I went back and marked the red boxes on the side. Red is for Kitchen.

After that, I quit marking numbers. I quit marking contents. I just grabbed boxes and stuffed junk in.

But today’s a new day. I’ll have a new outlook, new energy and be ready to tackle the rest of it.

If you don’t hear from me for a day or two, don’t worry. I’ve probably just boxed myself into a corner.