MOVING

[blueroses]

Ok girls, I know that a few of us are dealing with, just dealt with, or are about to deal with MOVING.

I''ve just spent my first day (after much procrastination) boxing things up.

I HATE THIS!

So....feel free to share tips, horror stories, advice, or tough love (i.e. yell at me to throw crap away that I never use--like if there''s a timeline if, in which an item hasn''t been used, that it must be dumped?)

Thank you FLIW.....I need your sage counsel!!

 

[Kamuelamom]

br, having just done this, I feel your pain.

I would recommend you make some plain ole box labels (1/2 sheet) on your computer. I did and simply noted "destination" on the top for where the box goes (like kids br, master br, living room, kitchen, etc) when it actually gets moved, and you can have it delivered directly to those rooms if you have a crew of helpers (non paid ones

), then the rest of the space is labeled "contents" and I listed all the stuff in the box. Even if they all get placed in one central location, it will still help when you are wading through stacks and stacks of boxes. It not only made the move helpful when that box number #96 got picked up, but it helped to prioritize when it came to unpacking. Knowing I still had a punch list a mile long, daily chores with the kids (hey, life had to go on even if we were in utter chaos), school, etc......I tried everything to make things easier on me before hand. It really helped. I still have boxes unpacked but since they are labeled, I know exactly what I need to do (or not do) with them. The hardest part is sorting things before packing, deciding what to keep, dump, donate, etc. Make 4 piles, get boxes all taped and opened to put things in, have your sharpie pen and box labels handy and go for it.

You can do it! As much as I tried to do things before hand, moving day came and I still got caught behind the 8 ball when the helpers were saying, OK, next, where does this go?????

I still ended up just throwing things in boxes at the very end, but those were the boxes that brought me the most frustration. If you have the luxury of starting early, I suggest you make it a priority so things are easier on yourself when moving day comes.

What is your timeframe?

 

[Kamuelamom]

One more thing, I just read somewhere to label each piece of hanging clothing ( I guess this could pertain to other things too) with a date for one year from now. As you wear them remove the tag and in a year all the ones left with tags on them should be disgarded. Don''t know how practical this is but it did make sense to me.

 

[goldengirl]

well, BR, I''m kinda anti-crap so I don''t hang onto much of it. In fact sometimes I get a little carried away and realize later that I actually DID need whatever it was that just went to Goodwill.

But my thing is, every single piece of X that you bring to your new place you have to: clean, wrap, box, tape, label, pay somebody to move, unbox, clean again, find a new place for, and clean periodically. Unless I REALLY, REALLY like something, I don''t think it''s worth all that effort!!

Besides, it is bad feng shui to have every tiny little space of your home crammed to bursting. Chi needs room to circulate.

Take the opportunity to go through your things and decide what really matters to you! C''mon, you don''t even like that porcelain cat your Aunt Edna gave you for Christmas, give it to Goodwill and say it got broken in the move. Donate your toaster--there''s one waiting for you in CA.

No sense worrying about all this stuff, when you''ve got better things to worry about--like where you''re going to stuff all the great wedding gifts you''ll be getting!!

 

[Kamuelamom]

Goldengirl, someday I want to be just like you.

But I''m too damn sentimental for my own good. I think that''s a genetic trait which I inherited from my mother. After what I just went through I''m beginning to think it''s actually a curse.

 

[kanne]

blueroses

I''m a huge fan of the one year rule. If I haven''t worn it, used it, thought about it or looked at it (whatever it is) in a year..then the item is tossed/sent to goodwill or put on ebay. This goes twice for the "oh I totally forgot I had this" stuff. lol.

I''m with goldengirl..let the CHI flow!

 

[appletini]

Clothes: I also go with the one year rule. Besides you can donate to your Church, Goodwill, or a women''s shelter...someone less fortunate will be greatful even if it is no longer in style.

Paper: I''d recommend investing $20-$30 in a paper shredder or borrow one and shred any old financial papers, junk mail, or anything else with personal information that you don''t need...the less clutter the better.

Misc Items: think of the last time you used something or if you ever did, if not then toss it in the trash...this is when you have to be focused and throw sentimentality out the window.

Moving sale: make some money on furtniture/kitchen accessories that you won''t be using or will putting in storage. You''re getting engaged soon so you can put these items on your registry and have someone else buy you really nice ones!

 

[blue_chica]

I think all the suggestions are great ones, especially the box labeling - even though it takes more time to pack, it makes moving and unpacking so much more smooth and organized.

Also, are you renting a truck or having the stuff shipped? UHaul is EVIL! I have had such bad experiences with them, and have heard such horror stories, I would highly recommend Ryder or another company.

 

[wcitygirl]

Blueroses! I feel your pain! I had to move apts while my boyfriend was at war and it was just my mom and I moving my stuff. Our savior, *don''t laugh*

was the "Total Trolley." I know it''s an infomercial, but my mom goes nuts over that stuff. Anyway, it cut our moving time in half. It was a great investment. I even used it to move my couches and heavy furniture and boxes of stuff I still don''t need. (Like you, I have a tendency to hang on to things.)

I disagree with the one year clothes rule. I know, I know. I''m bad, but I feel like if you just keep it a couple of years, it will come back in style? Maybe I shouldn''t be giving moving advice!

 

[blueroses]

THANK YOU ladies!! I''m trying to be good!

I''m definitely being good with kitchen stuff, furniture, lame appliances--goodbye coffe grinder and george foreman--but it''s the clothes, books, cds, etc that I have a harder time with.

THANK YOU!

 

[jenwill]

BlueRoses....I just went throught htis this past weekend! I can definitely say that K-moms suggestion of ladeling items on outside of box is important....I jsut put generic room locations on mine, and now whenever I want something have to look in 4 or 5 boxes to find what I need. Also- for getting rid of things: I am also a book/cd/clothes hoarder. The rest I am pretty good at giving away.

i found that for CDS (I had more than 600- am now down to ~250), that alot of them I really only liked one or 2 songs. So, I wrote downt eh songs, and decided to download them from iTunes- I can load tehm on my mps, or burn to CDmyuself and condense to CD''s of only songs that I like. Sold the Cd''s to a used CD store, and that money will almost pay for buying the songs online. Since you are moving cross country, it may be worth it to do this instead of shipping. Books- kept all hardcovers, and only kept paperbacks of books that I know that I will want to read again. I had hundreds of books that I loved, but when pondering realized that I realistically would never read them again myself. Took all my old books to give away to my old job (lots of readxers there!) and let them have at it! It was fun to give brief synopsis of book and think that I was exposing more peopel to some of my favorites.

Clothing is harder. I have clothing I haven''t worn for awhile, but have recently started diet/exercise, and they are realisticv sizes that I should be in very shortly- nothing extreme like needing to go down 3 sizes. So, I kept some of those items. One thing that really helped was to go through and realize how much of my clothing was ''disposable''. By this I mean things that were inexpensive, and when I really thought about it kind of cheaply made. I picked this up from the show ''What not to Wear''. So many items we all have are kind of cute, but not ''quality'' pieces. So I got pretty ruthless with those items. Also, i decided that my t-shirts- lotsa plain black or white ones- had to be pared down. When I really stacked them all together, It was easy to tell the ones that were reachign the end of shelf life. Decided to only keep quality items. That way I can make judicious purchases int he future, and concentrate on quality over quantity, and add in the occasional ''cute'' item.

Moving is such a pain.

 

[Croí]

naturally I am not in the frame of mind to be giving any kind of sage advice on any *real* issues being entirely wrapped up in clouds and glitter and candy-floss and sugar and spice and all things nice .........


ahem, moving.
I''m bad at it - basically. I''m a total pack rat, I keep EVERYTHING (this is because I attach some stupid emotional sentiment to every object that crosses my path basically - this long list now includes a very large sofa ! heheh !

)
but I did think that maybe you''d get a little lift and a laugh from some ''wisdom'' of a former roomie.

I lived with this very sweet guy who had a gf who was a DEMON for shopping and clothes and shoes especially. His theory was this:

STEVE''S RULE OF ''HOW TO CLEAN OUT A WOMAN''S CLOSET'' -

YOU TAKE EVERYTHING OUT OF A WOMAN''S CLOSET
ANYTHING SHE CAN''T REMEMBER OR DESCRIBE, SHE CAN''T HAVE BACK
GIVE HER ALL ITEMS SHE CAN RECALL, GIVE AWAY ALL THE REMAINING ITEMS

 

[Cath]

Jenwill I LOVE What Not to Wear! I agree after watching that show I have realized how many of my clothes are not really the best, and how poorly some of them fit me! I suppose that makes it easier to part with them when the time comes.

K-mom''s suggestion of labeling the boxes is KEY. I like to label at least 3 sides -- the top of the box and two opposite sides. This way, if boxes are stacked on top of each other or next to each other you can still identify them without having to shuffle boxes around.

Oh, and donate a lot of your books -- if you''ve read them once, are you ever going to read them again? I still can''t part with my college textbooks or some books close to my heart, but all the random books that I buy just for a fun read can go!

 

[goldengirl]

Date: 1/18/2005 11:26:50 AM
Author: blueroses
goodbye coffe grinder and george foreman

Aww, are you kidding? I love my Foreman... the healthy diet''s best friend!!

 

[teebee]

Oh, I hate moving ~ but I should be a pro by now having moved 10 times in the last 13 years... yes, I have gypsy fever...

But I''m also a pack rat ~ I got rid of a lot of clothes this last time, but I''ve still kept a lot, I just love clothes & coats and shoes...

The only thing I can really add is that instead of labeling boxes only on the top, I''ve begun labeling on at least one of their sides as well, because when they''re stacked on top of each other I can''t see the labels on any of them other than the one on top...

 

[blueroses]

Girls, you guys are awesome, and I do appreciate the perspective!!!

GG, I love the Foreman too! I''m only ditching mine b/c my dear BF has one too and we already had the silliness of two in one kitchen when we lived together, so I can just hijack his b/c he never cooks.....at least until we''re living together again, someday

And my folks have a coffee grinder, so I''m not totally parting with them! Just not carting them across country.

JenWill, FIRST of all, is that GORGEOUS piece of ice that''s the new avatar YOUR ASSCHER???!!!!!!!

DROOL!! And along with you and Cath, I adore What Not To Wear--honestly one of my very favorite shows.

Ok girls, I am going to be ruthless with the books, I promise. I am a big reader and usually trade chick lit/airplane novels w/ friends, but I don''t need to OWN every Anna Maxted, Dan Brown, or Grisham novel!! I can''t bear to part w/ scripts or theatre books, but I will DEF. take the advice re: books and cds. (Like, do I really need to own the cardigans, the tony rich project, and other impulse mid-90s cd-club dust-collectors??)

Thank you!!

And Croi, we should all be so lucky....I love your description: naturally I am not in the frame of mind to be giving any kind of sage advice on any *real* issues being entirely wrapped up in clouds and glitter and candy-floss and sugar and spice and all things nice .........

 

[AmberGretchen]

Hey - sitting here amongst what my bf has nicknamed "the great box disaster of 2005," (and notice I''m on PS rather than unpacking them...) I thought I would share too.

I can''t agree more with the labeling of boxes as specifically as possible and on the top and sides. Also, being ruthless in getting rid of clothes. I have fluctuated sizes drastically during and after college (a bad combination of stopping ballet 40 hours a week from high school, and a series of really nasty injuries), but I have also had to move 10 times in the last 5 years, and so I am a firm believer in getting rid of whatever size you don''t wear right now. Keeping small sizes just depresses you and takes away the fun of buying them when you do lose weight, and keeping large sizes is bad for long-term weight loss (as per weight watchers and my stepmom who has lost almost 100 lbs over the last 2 years).

I have to say that I think getting people to help as much as possible is key as well. We were forced out of our first apartment here in SF after the landlords refused to fix the heat (we discovered it wasn''t working before Thanksgiving) in any kind of timely manner, and the cold got to us and made my asthma worse (which the landlords knew, and still didn''t try to be prompt about fixing it - so not only were they doing something illegal, but also just plain mean...). Because of this situation we had very short notice and ended up having to move right at the beginning of my school quarter, so I sent out an e-mail to my entire first-year graduate school class asking for help packing and it was invaluable. Also, my mom helped out a lot and we hired movers for the big stuff. With all the help, we were able to get everything packed up, and moved to the new place in less than 2 weeks.

Fundamentally though, yes, moving sucks profoundly. This move was especially hard because it was me and the bf''s first real home together and we put a lot of work into making it nice. On top of everything, too, the landlords of the old place are being really nasty about us having to fix the place up (there is a water leak from the shower into one of the bedrooms and they somehow are claiming that its our fault), and may try to not give our security deposit back, which means headaches and small claims court and all of that stuff.

On the bright side, once we get the deposit back, bf and I have agreed it will go towards the ring

Anyway, good luck to everyone with the moves, and thanks for letting me vent about the crappy landlord situation.

 

[jenwill]

Blue- Yep that is my asscher...I cannot get the aspect ratio right, so it looks odd, but iti s perfectly square. They are int he process of making up my wax rign right now, I should have pics next week sometime!

 

[NoonersMom]

Blue - Everyone has already post some great tips. My only tip is to start packing and weeding through everything early! When we moved we started packing a month before the move. This allowed us to purge & take our time. It also ensured that we were actually packed if something came up before the move. (We also both traveled pretty extensively for work at that time...so we had to be disciplined).

Good luck! Let the chi flow! hehe.

 

[blueroses]

NM, I will try--my packrat tendencies certanily inhibit chi, and I have to stop that.

So here''s my newest freak-out. I just did a quick little tallying of how much I walk here. This morning, between 9:30 and 1, just by meeting two people and running two errands, I walked around 3.6 miles. So now I''m worried about the lifestyle change back to CA.....I am such a NON-exercise person, and NY always worked for me that way b/c I did it w/o trying just by walking around....so now I''m scared I''m going to gain back 10 pounds if I''m not careful. Yeeks! Off to the gym I guess. Bleah.

 

[Cath]

Blueroses -- take it from a SoCal-born girl -- I don''t think you have much to worry about. Sure, everyone drives a car so you aren''t forced to walk around a lot. But, with the sunny warm weather and beaches, most CA people watch what they eat (gotta look good when you go to the beach!) and/or play outdoor sports. I find when I go back to visit that I eat less and eat healthier...must be the laid back lifestyle.

 

[blueroses]

I hope you''re right Cath

I''m a SoCal native myself, but have been in the best shape of my life living in NY....but I think you''re right, I''m going to be so happy to be out of the cold that I''ll make myself be active outside!!

 

[Cath]

Blueroses I am the opposite! I was in much better shape in CA. Now that I''m on the East Coast, I hibernate as much as possible in the wintertime...don''t want to go out into the cold unless it''s ABSOLUTELY necessary. I don''t live in the city though...if I did I would probably be very unhappy having to go out in the cold.

I also eat a lot more junk food when it''s cold out...

I am SOOO jealous that you''re moving back to CA! I don''t remember what it''s like wear a t-shirt in January anymore...

 

[blueroses]

Cath, I feel your pain!!! These past few days in NYC have almost done me in...especially when I hear from my bf that he just took my dog for a walk in 79 degree weather there when it was not even 9 here!

I will proudly don a t-shirt JUST for you next week

 

[htupper]

I moved back east after being in LA for a couple of years and although i am happy to be back and enjoy the seasons this NYC weather is killing me too! My dog is so jealous of your dog right now, blueroses. He looks at me like i''m crazy when i tell him that it''s time to go out for a pee. he refuses to budge off the couch and i end up having to carry him down the stairs just to get him outside. smart guy! he wants to know if he can move in with you and your pooch in SoCal

 

[Cath]

Blueroses you are too sweet.

I''ll be thinking of you next week while I''m freezing my butt off here!

Ah, I can''t wait to retire and move back to warm weather...

 

[blueroses]

I''m sorry girls, I feel bad even talking about the weather there when we''re all about to go into the deep freeze tonight!!

B-girl, my boy is the same way--thank god he stayed there after New Year''s. I have to carry him down the stairs and then he fakes a limp so I won''t walk him in the snow

Do you have booties for your little guy''s feet? Mattie''s never stayed on him, so I finally just started wiping him down (b/c of the salt) after each walk in the winter.)

 

[fortheloveofdiamonds]

Blueroses!

I feel your pain about the moving. My DH is going overseas and had some stuff packed. I moved home to Canada..the Army wouldn''t move my stuff there so I had to carefully choose what to bring and what not to bring and put it in storage!! I dislike moving, but i''ve moved 5 times in 5 years! Awww... LOVE!

I also am jealous that you are going back to warm weather. For the past two years I have lived in No Cal and Florida and now I am freezing my arse off in Ontario!!! AAAAHHHH!! My poor baby will go out to pee in the snow but he does wear his booties...they stay on him but I assume it is b/c he has VERY large paws!

My advice about moving: If it can be avoided, don''t do it!!!!! When my dh retires, we will buy our dream home and NEVER move again! LOL!

 

[blueroses]

FTLOD, I''m sorry you had to pare down so much (is the army at least paying the storage?) but sometimes it''s good to see how much of your stuff you actually DON''T need? But the dream home is in the future!!

Girls, I posted this elsewhere, but this is the moving thread, so.....I AM THROUGH PACKING!!!! I''m waiting for fedex to come pick up boxes, and then it''s just suitcases on the plane, which are pretty much packed. Bittersweet, but at least it''s DONE.

 

[appletini]

Well it might be a little late, but for the books you can sell them on www.amazon.com and earn some money at the same time. That has been my new project...I posted 5 on Sunday and have already sold 2! $5 here and there adds up or at least pays for tips and valet parking.