Stay Orgainzed While Moving

I mentioned in an earlier blog about using my Bill Box during a move. That made me think of other things I did for that move that helped me stay organized. 

• Packing boxes- no time for nostalgia!
  • get tons of newspaper and grab at wrap
  • moving day is not the time to organize everything - it is appropriate to have a ‘TOSS’ pile for those items  that are definitely NOT going to your new life.  If it takes more than one SECOND to decide than you must wrap and take!
  • Make a box marked ‘IFFY’ for items that you’re not sure you want anymore.  Then leave that box packed.  IF you make it 6 months and never need a thing in there then TOSS the whole box - or put it in the garage sale.

• The ‘OPEN FIRST’ box (or boxes) is the box that has everything you need to get your new life going.  Think:
  • Going to Bed - personal items AND sheets/towels/pillows 
  • Morning shower
  • Meal Making - although pizza as a first meal is almost written in stone!
  • Coffee maker with coffee right there with it!
  • Kids favorite toys
  • Bills, address book, stamps, pens, A PHONE to plug in right away (even if service isn’t hooked up)
  • NOTE: we were moving some things to an apartment and other things into storage. We made sure the movers loaded these boxes on last so they’d come off first at our apartment.

• Marking boxes - use a Sharpie Marker and put the note on the TOP and at least one SIDE
  • I marked mine ‘UPSTAIRS’ or ‘DOWNSTAIRS’ for the apartment.  If you know where you want things in your new house you can make an additional marking for the room they need to go to.
  • Boxes going to storage got a general label: ‘KITCHEN’ then a few KEY WORDS (blender/bowls/etc) to remind me what was in there - important since it’d be a long time before I opened them again!

• Taping boxes - get one of those packaging tape holders (like the professionals use) it is WORTH IT!

My main goals:

• restore some sort of order as soon as possible when we hit the apartment
• avoid opening a box until I was ready to unpack it
• avoid having to heft boxes up and down stairs

Of course there’s always going to be a little of that going on - after all it is a MOVE!  But thinking about the minimum you need to get life going again and marking boxes will help a lot!