Move It Monday: Still going strong 8 June 2009

Yep. Day 7 and we’re still at it. Sorry to all those who thought we’d 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 .

There’s been a fair bit more sleeping, spending quality time with our friends & neighbors and playing than I had anticipated. We are having such a high time getting re-acquainted as a family after all these months of separation (thanks to JumbleSpouse’s intense school schedule). I just don’t have the heart to interrupt. So, we’ll really have to kick it this week to make our departure deadline of next Monday.

Here are a few random thoughts I’ve had about making moving less painful this week…

Get the Buy-In

Paper Chain Making

Getting the buy in for the move from JumbleSon has been far too easy. We started talking about what we might find/experience in Seattle several months ago. If we saw a bald eagle in a book, we’d explain that we’d be able to see them in the wild (or even in town!) there. If we had a cloudy or rainy day, we’d explain that this was the type of weather common in Seattle. But the real clincher was pointing out that we would see lots of Cranky the Crane at the harbor! Once he got word of that, there was no turning back.

Our greatest challenge now is coping with his enthusiasm and incessant requests to “go to Seattle right NOW!” At last, a definitive clue that he really is our child! Travel is in his blood!

A paper chain, counting down the number of sleeps until we leave has really helped.

First Thought, Best Thought
Our packing system is sooooo tedious. It’s making what should have been a 5 day move into a ## day move. I’m pretty frustrated with our slow process, although I know I’ll be glad for it if we have to go to Oz at the end of the year. JumbleSpouse has come up with a new idea for helping work through some of the puzzle. He’ll just pop up with an item and say, “First thought, best thought. What category?” I think this is key – not just for our move, but for the future as we think about how to manage clutter.

Speaking of clutter…remember the Dread Closet of Doom?

Coping with the Chaos

Dismantling the Dread Closet of Doom

Mr. Jumble has the courage and the patience to deal with it. And he’s doing a fine job. In fact, it’s nearly empty now. And, most of the contents are sorted, categorized and boxed up. I do believe that his progress was aided by the number of beers we’ve opened since starting . I just can’t cope with living in a home in the throws of moving. Happily, JumbleSon doesn’t seem to mind at all (even without the help of alcohol).

Seriously, though. I’d love to hear how others cope with the chaos of moving. Please talk amongst yourselves (I promise that I’m listening even if a bit silent)…

Move It Monday: Packing Without Tears & Giveaway! 1 June 2009

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! 

Move it Monday: From the Outside, In 25 May 2009

GARDEN

Even though we are renters, I want to leave our place in as beautiful condition as possible – at least on the outside – as a gift to our neighbors. They all take such loving care of their homes and tiny garden/deck space.

Each year, I had such good intentions for our sweet little garden and each fall I have left it looking like this:

Following several weeks of work, it now looks like this:

I potted up about 8 small containers of plants to move that were gifted to us by special friends and family, transplanted some to community beds and gave others away. It feels so wonderful to take some of our garden with us, as well as leave bits of it behind.

PACKING MATERIALS

About two months ago, I put the word out to friends requesting that they begin collecting boxes and packing materials for me. I’ve also begun to watch Freecycle & Craigslist closely. On Friday when I was at the liquor store behind our house, I scored a few sexy boxes – because interesting boxes are SO important when moving . And then got a HUGE box of ink-free packing paper off of Freecycle. (I detest newsprint and won’t wrap a thing in it, so this was a particularly happy find).

Molly also took me on my maiden Costco voyage. That place is full on! There I acquired these groovy Space Bags. We usually stuff all our clothes, bedding and towels into garbage bags when we move. But, since our move involves storage and could potentially be overseas, I thought these were a good investment.

We’ll probably also follow Maria’s excellent tip and use towels, sheets, etc. to wrap breakables in rather than buying more paper.

CHEERING SECTION

Prior to really digging in and packing, it is a family ritual to select the Moving Mascot. The Moving Mascot presides over the entire process and at the end is left behind to greet the next resident.

The selection criteria for a Moving Mascot is three-fold. It must be

1. something that is in our possession, but we have no idea why
2. something that slightly horrifies us
3. something that slightly humours us

We want the newcomers to our home to feel both welcomed by and slightly curious about us previous renters.

Past Moving Mascots include such things as

1. a plastic viking helmet
2. a rubber chicken
3. an inflatable alien

If anyone out there has found one of these in your new rental, please let me know. I’d love to hear from you!

So, without further ado, I am pleased to present to you the 2009 JumbleFamily Moving Mascot:

JumbleSon often serves us Elmo Cocktails in this gem. The veggies will not be left in Elmo’s mug, and hopefully JS won’t miss him too much. Instead, I suspect a nice bouquet of dried flowers will be served up for the next renters.

So, tell me about your Moving rituals, traditions, and pre-packing strategies. I’m always looking for ways to make the process more efficient and more entertaining .

Move It Monday: Approaching Your Move 18 May 2009

Welcome to my new weekly post – Move It Monday! Here I hope to share strategies for making a complex move organized, cheap and efficient. I’m also looking forward to hearing tips and suggestions from you, my fellow nomads.

I say “complex move” because this one is, undoubtedly, the greatest challenge we’ve faced in our moving careers. For the most part, moving has been straightforward up until now…pick a destination, pack the stuff in to boxes, take it to the new location, unpack, repeat.

Not so this time. And, the fact that we don’t have a home yet isn’t even half of the mind-bending challenges we face.  (More will be revealed about that as we go.)

So, I think that’s where I’ll start today – with approaching your move.

Approaching the Sydney Harbour Bridge January 2006

As a general rule, I use moving as an opportunity to purge my home of unwanted items pre-packing. You may recall that earlier in the year I did a mighty decluttering. Although there are a wide variety of de-thinging strategies out there, my approach was to ask one question:

Do I want to pack, drive over 16 hours with, and unpack it on the other end (undoubtedly with JumbleSon’s “help” at each step)?

Yes? Leave it. No? Find a new home for it.

But that was months ago, and it seems that now I must ask an entirely new set of questions for every item in my home:

How long do you want to keep this item? And what category does it fit in to? When will you need it/use it next? Where should it be stored for easy access?

Here are some of our answers:

• Over 10 years – family heirlooms, memories, photos and our library
• 2-5 years – older homeschooling supplies, age-appropriate books for JumbleSon, tax records & other important documents
• 1 year – maternity clothes & special gender-neutral baby clothes (just in case ), chapter books for JumbleSon, homeschooling supplies
• 3 months – everything else that will fit in to one small storage pod (with all of thee above), plus 5 suitcases full of clothes, household items, books, electronics, toys and important paperwork that we’d take overseas with us should that move be in the cards
• 1-3 months – 1 Toyota Celica  full of camping gear, clothes, toiletries, JumbleSon entertainment, electronica, food and the like for our cross-country trip & temporary stay in Seattle
• Immediately – packing supplies, cleaning supplies, kitchen essentials, essential electronics, JumbleSon entertainment

We must be willing to part with anything in the “everything else” category (except the 5 overseas suitcases) should it not fit into our storage container, and/or we end up leaving the country, as these items will be sold, donated or given away.

Under normal circumstances (traditional moves in which you’ve seen your future home and know when you’ll be arriving there), I would also ask these questions of each item before packing it:

Where will it go in your new home?  Will it fit?  Does it match?  If not, are you willing to re-decorate the new place to match what you’re bringing in?  Will it make you happier to have it with you in your new space?

So, tell me, how do you approach your moves?  What criteria do you use for determining what stays and what goes?