I really loathe packing. I’ve never been keen on puzzles, and truly excellent packing requires supreme puzzle-solving abilities…skills I am short on.
Thankfully Mr. Knapsack Problem-solver is a brilliant mathematician, and was raised in a family that moved frequently. He can pack more stuff into less space than Space Shuttle engineers.
Meanwhile, I am the Mistress of Planning. It keeps me awake at night, but since I haven’t slept in 2 1/2 years anyway, it’s an excellent use of those hours between 1 and 4am.
Together, we make a mean packing team…
Stage 1: Establish packing categories (outlined here)
Stage 2: Make labels – each box label contains an itemized list of contents, the room the items belong in, and is colour-coded for the length of time it may remain in storage (or, if you’re moving straight into your new home, the length of time it can stay in boxes):
- Red – storage up to ten years
- Yellow – storage 1 to 5 years
- Blue – storage up to 3 months
- Green – everything else (safe to sell if necessary)
- White – cross country trip and first two months in Seattle
Stage 3: Arrange for storage space (and/or moving truck)
Stage 4: Create (& maintain) spreadsheet listing storage details, box numbers, room and content
Stage 5: Devise strategy for packing with a toddler
- Mornings – I pick an area of the house, sort everything into the respective
colour category (while selling, giving away, etc. items that don’t make the cut), and ready packing labels, markers, boxes and other materials while JumbleSpouse entertains the JumbleSon off-sight. - Afternoons – JumbleSpouse works his packing magic (fitting as much as possible into as few boxes as possible, while at the same time keeping the weight of each at a minimum) while I manage JumbleSon.
- Evenings – I update spreadsheet and determine what area will be tackled the following day.
Stage 6: Timing.
JumbleSpouse predicts it will take us 3 days to pack because “we don’t have that much stuff.”
I have allotted us 12 days because “have you ever packed with a 2 1/2 year around before?” and because “we want to be absolutely sure about everything we decide to put into a box – both whether or not we should keep it at all, and then what category it should go into.”
GIVEAWAY!
Just to keep you interested in this fascinating topic, how about a little giveaway? I’m not sure yet what it will be – maybe a collection of treats I pick up on our cross-country trip, or something I find in our temporary (home) town, or maybe even something from my own hand.
If you’d like to enter, just tell me how many days you think it will take our family of 3 to pack up a 2 bedroom condo. Those with the right answer will be entered in a drawing to receive a thank you gift for supporting us through this crazy time. We’ll pick a winner (from anywhere in the world) our our last day of packing, so stay tuned! 
Wow! I’m utterly impressed with your planning and sense of organization. Quite remarkable!
I’m guessing six days.
What an adventure!
Very impressed with the organization! It would take my family at least 3 months to pack a household to move……
Lisa
That’s a tough one…it sounds like you want to do a “purge and pack” kinda packing which is what I’d do too. No sense in moving stuff you don’t want to keep anyways! There’s the spouse factor can mean that there will still be some boxes that are full of “stuff/s*&^” that he just won’t part with even though he hasn’t wore/used/looked at it in years. Hopefully Jumblespouse won’t do this but I know mine did..we still ended up moving boxes of “stuff” and with Jumbleson..hum…*pushing buttons on calculator*..maybe 10 days? Are you a fellow insomniac too? I understand…
Wow, I think you can do it in 4 days (if you spend that time only packing), but if you spread it out two weeks. Your system is very organized. When we moved I admit to zoning out and spending 1/2 an hour drawing on a box…at least the drawing was related to the contents of the box.
You’re amazing. I adore how you approach everything in your life.
I mull, ponder, reflect, ruminate, plan– but never seem to come to a good solid plan of action to carry out.
Though I’m sad to hear you’re not getting sleep. That’s going to make the move and everything else more trying.
Seriously, however. . .CAN you believe YOU’re MOVING! to the PNW again? !
Ooh a giveaway. I “heart” giveaways. Hmm, I will say it should take about 7 days to get packed. Good luck. I cannot stand moving. It is too much work.
I’m the packer in our house…. for camping trips and whatnot.
But that color-coded thing you’ve got going there is way out of my league!
I just write one or two words on two sides of the box….
But what do I know? We’ve moved twice in the last twenty years, and hope to never again…. :/
Oooof. good luck.
Go
(that Go was a typo.)
What a fun idea for a giveaway! Ok, how many days…this is a tough one because adding a toddler as a variable is just so tricky…I think 7 days, I’d rather say 5 to 7, but I think 7.
I hope it’s as painless as possible.
You’re so organised! It’s certainly going to make things a lot less painful at the other end.
I always think I have a system, and then I find myself unpacking boxes that have pants mixed in with pots, and nobody can find their toothbrush.
Ok, I’ll toss in 6 days as my guess. Only because that’s how long it took us once we actually focused on the job.
all. 12. days.
[...] be done by now! Which reminds me, don’t forget to enter the Great Moving Giveaway over here. Feel free to put in a revised guess based on today’s info [...]
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