How to Move (part 3)

I'm so NOT moving. But my friend is, and she's brought back the countless (ok, there's 8 but countless is more dramatic) times I've moved. In part 1 I talked about moving tips, and part 2 was about general packing tips, materials, and what not to pack. Here, the last of the how to move posts, I'll talk about how I actually go about packing. I developed quite a method and at least now I feel like I know what I'm doing when we do move. Hopefully, some of my ideas will be helpful to others in the same boat.

Method to the packing madness

I try to pack in waves. If I have the advance notice, I go through the house at a few different stages and pack what I can at each stage. The earlier you start the better so that you are less stressed and have a more manageable job in the end. You also will have more time to pack things with care. This approach isn't really necessary if you're only packing for one or two people or you don't have kids or you're not going far. But if you have the time, a few kids, and/or a big move and you're wondering how to tackle the mountain of moving with wisdom, here you go!
If you don't have the luxury of time then get down to business! Go room to room and pack it all in one fell swoop. Scroll down to "the week before" and "the first the last and the ugly" but you can ignore the first couple phases of packing if you like.

First: When I first know that we're moving, I pack up all things in storage and all off-season things. This includes seasonal decorations, clothes that don't fit the kids yet, extra household items like the toothpaste and deodorant you stocked up on, and maternity clothes. Even if some of this storage stuff is already packed, you may want to repack. Sitting in the top shelf of a closet is different than riding in a stack of boxes and being loaded and unloaded.

Second: Next, pack up all your decorations. You might need to do this to stage your house for selling anyway, but pack up all your art, pictures, nick nacks, and such. When you get your decorations done, (especially the family photos) if you are like me, you may need to sit down and eat some chocolate and tell yourself it's ok. Your home will start to not look like your home so much. Think of unpacking in your new awesome place. The upside of home not looking so much like a home anymore is that you will begin to see everything with new eyes. Open up each closet, cabinet, and drawer in its turn and assess everything to see what you can live without. You will be surprised how little you need. Pack everything you don't regularly use. Pack books and anything else you can think of. Look at kitchen stuff. You probably won't need cake and muffin tins and platters. Pack all but one cookie sheet. You hopefully won't need seasonal stuff like gravy boats, canning equipment, crock pots etc. This stage will keep you busy for a while and you should be able to get the bulk of your packing done! Pat yourself on the back when each box is done. It's another you won't have to pack later. I like to brag on us about how many boxes we get packed on each good day.

When you've packed everything else non-essential, it's a good time to start on the kids' rooms. I save these until the last (before basic necessities) to delay the effect of major change on their space as long as possible. It also gives them all their toys to play with and a space to play while the bulk of the packing is done.

The week before: About one week to a few days before the big move, do all the laundry so everything is clean then plan what clothes you will all wear for the next week or so. Pack them up in a suitcase. Shoes, a sweater, everything. Now pack up all the clothes you won't use for that week into boxes or bags and mark them so you know to open them soon on the other side. If your washer and dryer are going into the moving truck you'll want to wash what you've got dirty of them right before you load up the washer and dryer. Otherwise you might have to go to the laundry mat once right before you leave. Then you'll have a few day's to a week's worth of clean clothes for the trip and the other side.

Also, make meal plan for the week. Hopefully you've been using up all your pantry and freezer foods but check what you have left and meal plan around that. Make it simple food that doesn't take a lot of pots and pans and tools and ingredients and time to make. Keep track of what pots and tools you'll need to prepare the food and pack everything else. You should be able to consolidate to using just a few cabinets and drawers and you can pack up all the others. Consider switching to paper plates and plastic cups and utensils for the last few days. When you do pack up your dishes, pad them with clean kitchen towels or new packing paper. This will keep them clean and you won't have to wash them all as you unpack at the next house. Keep a shopping list of foods and household stuff you need to buy on arrival at the other side. Don't lose the list in the madness and chaos!

The First and the Last and the Ugly: On the last day or two you may not have too much packing left to do if you've done well before. Everything you do pack at this stage should be the very most important basic items. All these "last and first things" should be stacked in the same area and hopefully they will go on the moving truck last so that you will unload them first on the other side. If you are driving and moving across the country these are the boxes and things that you may want to fit into your car if you can. Your survival list for last and first items includes: Toilet paper, paper towel/rags, cleaning supplies, mop, broom, hand soap, toilet bowl brush, dish soap, shelf liner, light bulbs, towels, first aid kit, snacks, paper plates, and water bottles. All your toiletries should go in your suitcase. Like toothpaste, toothbrushes, shampoo, and soap. I strip the beds first thing in the morning/after the last nap in the old place and like to put these linens and the shower curtain into empty laundry baskets with cleaning supplies and stuff to stock the new bathroom. All your dirty clothes can be in a labeled trash bag. If you're driving for a long time consider if you have space in the car for your cooler and pack it with food for the trip. You'll be using up what you would have been throwing out anyway and saving on fast food and eating more healthily on the go. Don't forget to pack medications you use, cell phone and laptop chargers, toiletries, and some cash in your suitcase...

Arrival: When you get there, clean the bathrooms and stock them with toilet paper and hand soap and shower stuff. After that, wipe down kitchen cabinet shelves and counters and unpack the kitchen. I like to have a general plan in my head of what will go where in the kitchen. It's much better than having to do a major re-organization just to make it functional. Next I worry about sleeping places. When the beds come in, get them made and after all the boxes are unloaded into the house make sure there's a path to the beds. Call the nearest pizza place and order lots if you have extra helpers.

Pizza is a must on moving day. At least at each of our moves. It just makes it better. Bless you as you go through your change. Hang in there and enjoy the excitement and new experiences. Thanks for listening to my 2 cents. I hope it was helpful!

How to Move (part 2)

If you've not read part 1, know please that I'm not moving and that my friend is and it's reminded me of my super organized way of moving that I've developed because I've moved a LOT. In part 1 of my how to move posts I gave all my moving tips away for free. Picturing people not going insane from the stress of moving is more than enough recompense for me. I'm generous like that. Here, in part 2, I'll share packing tips. So, now that you're caught up, here it is...

What not to pack

Keep all those important papers that you might need out of the moving boxes! Especially if you are flying keep your passports, ssn cards, kids' birth certificates, et al in a safe place. If you're buying a house, keep financial papers you're likely to need unpacked and accessible. Keep contact information for all utilities on both ends of the move.

Think twice about packing heat sensitive things. You aren't supposed to pack anything liquid, chemical, flammable, perishable, or hot/cold sensitive in moving trucks. This includes candles. If you are driving, plan to pack this stuff in your a/c controlled car last minute and unpack them first thing. If you're not driving, you may want to get rid of this stuff and restock on the other side. You can make a pile of stuff you can't take and let your moving helpers pick through it. Think about any houseplants and pets too. They must be transported with care or find new good homes if that's not an option.

Packing materials

You can usually get free or super cheep boxes from craigslist or freecycle. I've only paid for boxes once in 8 moves, and it was $10 for 40+ high quality moving boxes with dividers and packing materials from someone on craigslist! You can also call around to local stores and ask them to save boxes for you. Pass on grocery store meat boxes and produce boxes. You don't want to risk bugs/raw meat juice. Ew! But often there are plenty of great sturdy clean boxes from stores. Save up newspapers for packing fragile stuff. I pass on the love and give away my free boxes when I get to my destination and unpack.

Packing Tips

I like to use trash bags for blankets, pillows, and clothes not used for padding furniture or for filler in boxes. Make sure to label the trash bags clearly with colored labels or permanent markers and keep them all together. No one will think it's trash if there's a pile of them and they're labeled. These bags work great in the moving truck to pad furniture or fill holes or just to throw up on top of everything in the end. By the way, I've never had anything thrown out yet!

Pack hanging clothes by making a hole in the middle of a bottom of a trash bag for the tops of the hangers. Grab a big handfull of clothes by the hanger hooks and pull the hooks through the hole and then pull the edges of the trash bag down over the clothes. If it's a long move, you can pull another trash bag up from the bottom of the clothes if needed and tape it in place or use drawstrings on the bag to loop over the hanger tops. Hang them back up in the closet and on moving day take these out last and lie them on top of all the boxes and stuff. At the new place, just pull off the trash bags and hang them up in the closet again.

Label your boxes well. Even if you don't know what your new layout will be like, you're going to label the kids' stuff to go in their room, and decorations to go in the living room, etc. You can color code or number boxes for which room they will go to. Make a list or a rough map with each room assigned a color or number. This makes it a little harder and takes longer on the unloading end (so take this into consideration if you have volunteer movers that aren't quite friends yet) but it is much easier on you to have things get to the right place. Make plenty of copies of your list/map if you make one and post them on the front door and at different levels of the house. Label each room with it's color or number too. I've moved without or with labeling and maps and I'd say what I do just depends on how organized I feel at the time. The pictures below may convince you to be organized though. We actually could not walk into our house after our new friends helped us move in here. We all just dumped it anywhere. The overwhelming sort out was painful. Lesson learned.

Mark fragile boxes on the top and at least one side and pad breakables well. Stacking picture frames and dishes and platters vertically decreases stress on them. Label heavy boxes clearly and grab the right size box for the job. For light items, grab a large box; for books or anything else heavy, a small box. You want to completely fill boxes so they don't buckle later and make a whole stack of boxes unstable. If a box is very heavy but has extra space at the top you can fill the rest with throw pillows or the like.

For large breakables like mirrors, tape padding onto it. For furniture that you don't want scuffed up, wrap it in a throw blanket or furniture pad.

Keep a container full of your packing paper, packing tape, trash bags, scissors, and permanent markers. Take this container around with you when you pack and you won't spend hours searching for "that packing tape that was just right here."

Well, it looks like there will be a part 3 of these how to move posts. It will talk about the method I use to actually pack. If you wonder where to get started and what's important to remember when packing, it will have some great info for you.

How to Move (part 1)

In celebration of NOT MOVING I'm going to write a few posts about the practical how-to of moving. In the past 10 years, I've moved 8 times. I was pregnant for 3 of these moves and had young children for 5 of them. We've made 2 huge moves. One from Illinois to Pennsylvania (a twelve hour drive) and then, coast to coast from Pennsylvania to California. Nomadic tendencies must be in our blood. We have been at our current house for 1 year and 9 months. I'm pretty sure this is a record and I'm very thrilled! So why this post? My friend, in the middle of a big move, got me thinking about it all again. As far away as I am from her, I can't help on either end of the move, but I can share the wealth of wisdom gained from experience. Moving, as exciting as it can be, is a load of work. But it's very satisfying to go through all your belongings and get them all in order. As I'm a pretty organized person always looking to do things better and on a budget, I've come up with a lot of methods to ease the pain of moving! This first post is full of tips to help you think of everything and plan out your move. Even if your not doing a big move these tips can save you time, money, and work.

Stess

First, kinda a no brainer but it really is important! Try not to get stressed out. Eat healthy food, take breaks, and try to get good sleep. If you're like me, keep a note pad or your phone with a list app by your bed at night. If you can't sleep because you think of something you have to not forget, just write it down on your list and try to sleep. I'm not gonna lie, there's a LOT to do, but start checking stuff off your list and you'll have a great feeling of accomplishment that can carry you through.

Schedule services

As soon as you have a moving date set, call the electric, gas, trash, and internet services to schedule disconnect at the old place. Also get services scheduled to connect in your name at the new place. It can save you all kinds of hassle to call far in advance. Forward your mail in enough time to not miss or delay any. Schedule the moving truck. We have done this before we had an exact address and just confirmed it later.

Job compensation

If you're moving for a job, see if the new company/organization covers some of the moving cost. This has been a big help with each of our far moves! It may make the difference of being able to fly and ship a car instead of driving for a few days with a car full of kids.

Give away

Nothing, as much as moving, will make you minimalistic and non-materialistic! When you have to pack it, carry it, unpack it, and find a new place for it, make sure it's really worth it! I like to use the opportunity to get rid of tons of stuff. Make three piles, one for trash and one give away and one for stuff to sell and see how big you can make them. If you don't love it and don't use it, get rid of it. If you've been looking to replace it, here's your excuse. :) Obviously, consider your funds and don't get rid of vital things unless you can replace them in a reasonable amount of time. Consider the space your moving to also and downsize if needed. Post stuff to sell on craigslist and/or do a garage sale. Give away what's left over. It really works to post all your leftovers on craigslist with a "must take all" note. Then you're done with it all and it feels really good to have it gone! Get the kids to go through their stuff and trash broken toys and puzzles with missing pieces. They can give away or sell things they've outgrown or toys they don't play with much. Start to use up the food stored up in your pantry and freezer. Don't buy in bulk and do buy the groceries you need to complement the things you have stored up. Give away stuff like the canned sweetened condensed milk that you won't use until next Thanksgiving!

Moving trucks

If you're moving in town and want to keep it cheep, rent a standard moving truck. Price out what's the best deal in your area. Try to find a place that has drop offs and pick up locations near your origin and destination. Try to get the right size you need because frequently the extra per mile and gas will make the price of a second trip higher than a larger truck. Still, if you need to, you can make a second trip. If you're making a big move (bless you!) try looking at different options. You may need to drive your car or both of you may need to drive your two cars the whole way. You won't be able to make two trips for sure or at least it really isn't worth it! I loved U-Pack and found it to be the least expensive for long distance moves. (and I'm not affiliated in any way.) They deliver the truck to your house, you pack the truck, and they drive it to the new location. You pay for just the footage you use of the huge semi-trailer and you can use as much as you need to. This made it a fun game to see how small a space we could use but we knew we'd be able to fit everything in. Invite your friends that appreciate a good challenge and a work out to a life size game of Tetris! You will stack everything then put up a divider that holds your belongings in the space. Before you start filling the truck, put a tarp down in the bottom of it. I cannot describe to you the mysterious black dust that is at the bottom of most moving trucks and will coat your belongings en route if you don't use a tarp. Sweeping alone does not work to remove it. It's better to cover it.

Cars

You have several options to get cars to the new place. Of course this is only an issue for long distance moves. You can drive or have a friend or family member drive. This is great for a place to pack those things you'll need immediately at the new place and transporting super fragile or valuable things or heat sensitive things. The U-Pack trucks don't have an option to tow which is their one disadvantage in my opinion. But we've found shipping prices to be pretty good once considering the price of gas and hotel stays when driving. Do be aware that the car carrier semi truck may not be able to come down a residential street so you may need to meet them on a main street. This can be difficult to arrange when you don't have a car to drive there. :) I've walked before out to a main street. Fun fun. Or not.

Helpers

We've always had friends or family that volunteer to help out. It's really a labor of love and an incredible way to send out or receive with love. Helpers can be so useful. But if you are a control freak or worried about your stuff, let them do stuff like fill nail holes, touch up paint, fetch boxes from craigslist/grocery stores, take give away stuff to salvation army, arrange garage sale stuff, bring meals, clean, watch the kids, or pack the kid's toys. The more deep cleaning you do before hand the less you have to worry about on moving day. Think appliances, ceiling fans, cobwebs, and baseboards. I've never needed or used professional movers so don't know much about them. But I think that they would be lovely. Expensive, but lovely.

Moving with kids

You might find your little kids get a little uneasy with all the change and they don't want to get rid of anything. They may freak when you start to pack up their precious things. Explain, and re-explain, and then explain all over again that you are packing to put it on a truck to bring to a new house that will have a new room and then you will open the boxes and unpack in their new room. Talk often about how they will unpack this stuff or where it will go in the new room. It helps them when they see you label their boxes "Drew's stuff." Read a book with them about moving. Show them pictures of the new place if you have them. You can pay the kids per box that they help you pack. Sometimes, though it's just easier to pack when they nap. Do have them pick out their favorite stuffed animal and lots of little activity games and toys and pack them in a bag. Tell them they will have this for the trip. Kids LOVE to play with cardboard boxes! Set up a few big ones for them and let them play caves and make tents and hide in them and line them up to make trains and cars for their stuffed animals and siblings. Let them watch dvds when they are tired of packing or unpacking and you really need to get some work done. I put all the favorite dvds in a small cd case that stays accessible through the whole move. But make sure you're spending the extra family time together and having some fun with them too. They really need the stability of extra time with Mom and Dad and you probably could use the break and de-stressing. It's hard for them to think about leaving people (just like it's hard for you) if you're moving far away. Talk about keeping in touch with them and about making new friends. I always tell them that we will stay friends. My kids like that they have friends all over the country and they get an opportunity to make more with each move. We made little photo albums with pictures of far away friends and family that our kids keep with their books.

Moving when pregnant

Tell me you're not moving when you're pregnant! If you are moving when your pregnant my sympathy is with you! I've managed to move every time I have been pregnant and I hated it. If you have a choice, move in your second trimester so you have more energy, less sickness, and still some time to nest in your new place before your baby arrives.

Well, I hope someone benefits from my own hyper organization and thoroughly thought out ideas about moving! In part 2 I'll post about my tips and method for packing.

Nature vs. Me

This year in my gardens I'm growing tomatoes... and nature is growing tomatoes. We are competing and here's where we stand. Nature is kicking my butt!

On the left, you can see an example of my plants. In February I started a lot of tomato plants by seed. Every day I misted the soil and kept the children away from them and watched them and faithfully moved them to the east window in the morning and the west window in the afternoon. And some of them grew and then eventually they all died. I had tried to ease them outside and the sun roasted them. So sad. I started more by seed and they died a mysterious death a few weeks later. I finally, out of time to grow more by seed, bought some plants from the store and put them in my plot. About half of these are also from a friend that had extra. And these are the survivors of that batch as about a third of those bit the dust too. I know how to grow tomatoes! Promise! This year they are not liking me though. Now, the plot I also put time and money and hard work into. I dug up all the grass and bought a lot of dirt and spread 6 inches of this awesome organic garden soil with mushroom compost mixed in. (By the way, buying dirt is a stretch for me so I had high expectations.) I've fed them with blood meal fertilizer and babied them along.

On the right you have nature. Last fall some of the late tomatoes fell to the ground and rotted on the vine in the garden. I spread a bit of the compost from my oldest compost pile (where we throw yard waste and kitchen scraps) in that area this spring in preparation to plant strawberry plants there. (By the way I planted them and they all died. Only 5 of 50 left. Heartbreaking story for another time.) Anyway, this spring when I was weeding I saw what I really thought were tomato seedlings popping up all over the old garden. I left them to grow. A couple months later this is what is there.

I must confess, though it is not to my credit, that my plants on the left must be watered every day to every other day or they whither and that nature's plants on the right never need to be watered at all. From the beginning they've had a will to live of their own and never needed anything from me. A few days ago I pruned them because they were all over the place! So this is actually the growth left after a fairly severe pruning. And yes, these pictures were taken at the same time and the plants on the left are probably older than the plants on the right.

This is so like life to me. I can pour and pour myself into something and see little return, and then on the other hand, have life and growth unexpectedly bless me in it's time. Sometimes my best intentions can be so frustrated. But at the same time what God intends to grow is just blessed. I'm so amazed by the way of things.

Cherry Pie

It's almost the end of our cherries for the year. A few handfuls of fresh ones remain. This Father's Day I made a cherry pie for my man and it was really really good! I always wanted to have a recipe with a "secret ingredient" and now I do but it won't be a secret anymore because I'm telling you. I improvised majorly, taking a cue from the cherry orange salads we've been enjoying and the secret ingredient is... orange juice! It gives some needed acidity and a fresh flavor to this sweet cherry pie. It doesn't taste orangy at all, just perfect. ;)

Sweet Cherry Pie

4 cups of sweet cherries, pitted
1/3 cup orange juice
1/4 cup flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 T butter, cut up
pastry for 2 pastry pie

Mix cherries, orange juice, flour, and sugar together well and pour into bottom pie crust. Put cut up butter on top of the cherry mix. Put on top crust of pie and cut and pinch edges and cut slits. Cover edges with foil for first 20 minutes of baking. Bake at 400 degrees for 35 minutes or until done. Let sit a few hours at least before cutting into it.

Enjoy with some ice cream!

Menu

Take scrapbook paper and insert in picture frame behind glass. Use letter stickers to write FOOD. Use dry erase marker on glass to write the week's menu. Done.

This was my fastest and maybe most functional diy ever. I use it every day! I've been drooling over menu boards on pinterest and mine is not the most beautiful or complicated of them but I wanted mine to be super simple, easy, and customized. So, I rewrite it all every time I use it. This is perfect for when I want to start the menu on a different day of the week or whatever. The snack ideas keep me presenting healthy options and a variety and what we have instead of caving to demands. the Upcoming food ideas help me when planning the next menu or switching out meals. That's right, my menu is not god (it works for me not the other way around) and often gets changed but I do love having it and roughly planning so that I can get everything at the store that I need, and know what I need to thaw when, and not have as much food waste, and have a good plan for supper. The kids can also read what's for supper instead of being on my back about it. Somehow seeing it in black and white means less complaining on their part that they aren't happy about it. Menu planning has solved so much of all that drama. Yup, I'm in love with menu planning. :)

Cherries

My belly is full of cherries. As was my canner, freezer, fridge, and the dehydrator (borrowed from a friend) today. We made cherry jam, fruit leather, dried cherries, cherry chicken salad for supper, cherry smoothies for snack, and frozen cherries (as good or better than frozen grapes to just eat plain in my opinion). My hands are stained from all the delicious cherries.

I love this time of year and we are blessed to have an awesome u-pick farm for cherries near by. We are more blessed to have a generous friend with a bumper cherry crop this year. All in all I think I got 45-50 lbs of cherries. I'm so not sick of them too. The frozen are my favorite so far as they get us through the hot hot summer here and are great for throwing in smoothies.

Tomorrow I think I will make cherry pie. Mmmm... Tell me of your favorite thing to make with cherries. I have a few more left. Here's some pics of our picking adventures.

Thank God that the kids love to pick, pit, and eat cherries!

So lovely.

Add caption

Munching on cherries in the tree. Pits were falling from the sky!

The littlest one trained for next year... She got to the second ladder rung next. And then there were no more pictures because I had to keep up with her. :)

Validation Images

My current output is this and it is my blog so this is what gets written today. No, I didn't make anything and I didn't even take a picture of anything. A bit of a different flavor than normal to this post. What can I say? I've been contemplative.


I have beyond natural trouble reading validation images. You know... they're all over the place online. You type what the picture says to prove you're not a computer. Well, apparently I am a computer.

For a girl who loves words, I've learned thoroughly that they are best when severely restricted in quantity. Someone said, "Everything is easier said than done. Except talking, that's about the same." I would add that this is probably why talking is so commonly overdone. If I could un-say all the things I regret or that were pointless to say, than many people might wonder if I'd taken a life vow of silence. At very least, I'd seem to be much nicer and wiser than I am.

A favorite word today: succinct.

Comments turned off. This is a bit like a journal entry made public and if would just be uncomfortable if the journal spoke back. :) (Awkward grin.)