Please tell me I am remembering correctly that, when packing, there is a long period of time where it feels as if one will continue to pack box after box throughout the remainder of eternity, never actually making any difference in the amount of stuff that remains to be packed, like some sort of ancient mythological participant whose liver is pecked out and restored daily, or who rolls a stone up a hill daily, or who sands away a mountain with her beak until the mountain is gone—but that then one day, ONE DAY IN THE ACTUAL EXISTING FUTURE, there comes a point when suddenly it will feel as if rapid progress is being made. Please tell me that is an accurate memory. Right now I am sanding down the mountain and the mountain is still apparently completely there, whereas my beak is starting to get worn down and discouraged.
We have discussed already that I am doing the absolute easiest of all possible moves. It is in the same town. We have flexibility with selling our old house, so we can take the transition slowly. My kids are all in school, not under my feet. And still, STILL, I feel as if this is the most monstrous, consuming, gigantic, nearly-impossible task. So I wondered if those of you who had to do this same task but under far more challenging circumstances would like to take this opportunity to vent about how that went. You will have a very sympathetic ear.
Our landlord is doing a short sell on our house, which we rent month to month. So he gave us one month’s notice that we need to move (I’m not sure, why, I thought we were friends Clay!) I’m early pregnant, this is my very busiest season at work and I have a toddler that can climb out of cribs and over baby gates. I’m so overwhelmed I’m almost not sure where to start at this point. I am following your progress with sympathetic nodding and somewhat depressed spirits. I’m sorry you have to move. Moving sucks so very hard, irregardless of how much time you have to complete the move or why you are moving. I am trying to look on the bright side that when this is over maybe my handsome packrat of a husband will have pared down his old computer parts and car tool collection. This is unlikely, but if it’s gonna happen now would be the time, right?
All moving is terrible. It is very, very hard to live betwixt and between. If the decision-making doesn’t kill you, the limbo will. (Not really, but you know.)
Every time I ever moved, I just really wanted to be able to snap my fingers a la Bewitched and have it be done. I love the actual result, but I loathe what it takes to get there. Which pretty much sums up my life, and more’s the pity. I will never, EVER, be one of these “enjoy the journey” people. EFF THE JOURNEY.
I don’t have anything to add but I, too, just wanted to say EFF THE JOURNEY.
Packing is the worst. My only suggestions are to take away your donate pile every day (if the donation center is close to you), so it looks like less stuff overall, and make the children pack one box each before they are allowed to have dinner. That would be four more boxes a day! I’m really hoping these are new and revelatory ideas that make you feel better.
Also I have moved 6 times with children under age 4 and multiple times pregnant, once two weeks before I was due (DO NOT RECOMMEND). So I am tres jealous of the older-kid situation.
I have vowed to NEVER, NEVER move again. We chose a new house after visiting an open house on a whim and got ours ready to sell within a week, which was ALL ME. Husband was busy and out of town and the children were underfoot and it was AWFUL. I moved load after load of stuff to my brother’s garage (thankfully, he offered the space, otherwise we would have rented a storage unit) until I could clean and stage for the realtor. Then we waited an agonizing 9 days for an offer (which is nothing, I know this, but it felt like an eternity to live in a super clean house and take the dog to work and keep everything immaculate with three kids) and then we began to pack. But not everything! No, some things we had to USE on the regular. We closed on the sale/purchase the same day but luckily (I know! So stressful and yet we were so lucky!) the buyers of our old house were not able to move in for a week so we RENTED OUR OLD HOUSE BACK for 5 days so we could move while I painted and sanded and put new flooring in the new house (still ALL ME! Because it was a tax deadline and husband is a CPA! I will never move again!). And all the while, the children were going to school and I had a composites company to run and a dog to exercise and people kept expecting dinner every night and someone had to pack the boxes. But here’s the good part: it’s all done. We have been moved for a year. There are no boxes left to unpack. Somehow, it happened, in a frenzy of five days of intense moving and cleaning, we got out of our old house and into the new. You will get there, too. Just keep moving forward.
I would just like to call attention to this sentence, written by someone who moved a year ago: “There are no boxes left to unpack.”
I always had a box or two that I couldn’t be bothered to unpack for a year or two.
So we moved twice in eight years and we brought several unpacked boxes with us ON A THIRD MOVE AND MY HUSBAND WILL NOT LET ME THOW THE CONTENTS AWAY.
In case I’m not clear, boxes were packed for move one, sat UNOPENED for the entire time we lived in house two, and then moved to house 3 where they sit, still unpacked.
He says that he paid good money for the (out of date) college text books in one box and he might use them one day. The swimming and soccer trophies that fill another are very important to him (even tho he can’t say when or why he won them and his brothers name is suspiciously on two of them). Very important memories people!
I put them between the sump pump and the septic pump so they would be the first things damaged in a flood/back up. No luck yet but a girl can hope.
I am crying laughing. “the first things damaged in a flood” haaaa
This strategy is excellent.
Thank you!!!
I moved cities this pasar summer with a 2 and a 4 year old underfoot. It was miserable. We weren’t really finished packing until the last box was on the truck. And THEN we had a junk guy come and remove a pile of trash that just grew and grew on the last day. It was miserable and I swear that we’re never moving again.
I have moved a LOT of times: in town, out of town, with movers and on our own, and it all SUUUUUCKS. And yes, it feels as though it will never ever end, especially when you get closer to moving day and you start to believe that your closets are actually replenishing themselves with more stuff. (Pro tip: they are. It is dark magic.)
My unsolicited advice for in-town moves is this: treat it as though you were moving across the country, not across town. Hire a moving van, get helpers for moving day, pack everything like a juggler will be moving the boxes, and label it all. Don’t think, “Oh, we’ll just take a few things over every day in our cars, it’ll be easy!” It will not be easy, you will be making trips until the day you die, and your Christmas dishes that you thought would be fine without bubble wrap will not, in fact, be fine.
At least you’re packing ahead of time; several years ago I helped some friends move just a few streets over and when I got to their home on moving day, they had packed zero (0) boxes. They didn’t even have ENOUGH boxes. They were of the “throw it in the back of the car” mindset and . . . for a myriad of reasons we are no longer friends but I will admit this move is one of those reasons.
Yes to this! Get helpers, offer free pizza. We saved money by not renting a moving truck for an in town move, but that was when our family was smaller. And we still had a cousin with a pick up truck and flatbed trailer.
Make a list of what is essential, and you can pack the rest.
The biggest help in our last move was printing big sticky labels for each room. As well as writing what was in each box, I slapped a huge label telling us what room it should go in. I also labeled the doors of non-obvious rooms of the house. So so much nicer for things to go in the rooms where they will be unpacked. And then things I wouldn’t unpack for a while could just go in the garage.
“You will be making trips until the day you die”
Preach.
The advice to act like you are moving across town is SPOT ON! The last time we moved (I will NEVER move again!) we hired someone to move the furniture; which was a blessing. The Husband pooh-poohed the notion that we should rent a moving van for the various boxes all in one fell swoop…this meant endless trips of driving back and forth.
Uggh! NOT “across town” – across country!
Yes! I am stuck in this hell now. Hired movers for the furniture, am driving the 60 mile round trip a few times a week to bring car loads of boxes over. I am at the stage where I hate EVERYTHING I own and don’t know why I have so much STUFF.
Also pack a few suitcases like you are going on a trip. Then pack everything else, room by room. Otherwise you feel like you need to keep so much out that you can never finish.
It feels so much better to have conquered an entire space. I really recommend finishing a room or two right away. Also you can use the space for staging boxes.
Hiring movers is the answer. I won’t move myself ever again. It is fine when you move just yourself immediately after high school or college when all of your belongings fit in the back of a compact car. You have minivan amounts of children and over a decade of accumulated items for seven people.
Be a martyr and unpack everything at your new house. (I’ll choose to pay for that service next time too)
All moving is terrible. There comes a time when I give up packing neatly and just throw it verything in boxes and sort it out later.
The worst move was when I was home with 2 kids and my husband was deployed and we bought a house (the paperwork with a power of attorney was a nightmare itself). Also an in town move but just me and eventually my dad who helped me move furniture. My husband loved coming home from the Middle East to a brand new house with everything unpacked. I have told him the next move is on him, as I will be on vacation in the Caribbean.
Moving is always horrible! I moved from MA to FL this year, and even though nothing major went wrong, the work and the stress of it just about did me in. I’m still feeling the aftershocks.
Yes, you WILL get to the point where you can see that you’ve been packing. You’ll know you’re there when you find yourself looking for things and then realizing, oh wait, I packed that already. But keep on: someday it will be over, and that will be a good day. You can do it.
Our last move was in-town. We packed and packed and packed and still ran out of boxes. I say it’s not a true in-town move until you are throwing random crap in garbage bags & loading them in your car at midnight!
I resemble this remark.
In my experience, it starts going much faster once you abandon your dream of an organized move and just start throwing shit wherever it will fit. That is usually the day before the moving truck is scheduled to arrive.
Yes, moving is awful and terrible and nothing makes it better. Maybe hiring movers? I don’t know. Our last move was only 2.5 miles away in the same town and… I thought I would never stop packing. 6 people! All old enough to help. and yet – I did the vast majority of the packing and unpacking. IT NEVER ENDS. I mean, you think you’re making progress but there seems to always be more. Until you are done. I always reach a point where I am just tossing stuff in random boxes because my level of caring has reached zero. Reusable grocery bags are great for all of the cords you find when you take out the tv, computer, etc. There is always more until that last time you walk out the door. (Sorry. But it does end eventually even though it seems like it never will.)
We last moved 16 and a half years ago, a distance of just a few miles. I remember it being so much work packing up an apartment that housed just three people that I never, ever want to move again.
Of course, one of the three people was a year old at the time and not in day care and between us the adults had two full-time jobs. (I was working partly from home and we arranged our hours so one of us was always home with the baby.)
When the movers arrived we were still throwing things into boxes without even looking at what we were packing and they were literally taking the half-filled boxes away from our hands. And in the end a lot of stuff never got into the movers’ truck because it wasn’t in boxes so we had to drive it over to the new house ourselves. But we did get everything over there.
Don’t hate me, you had to know one was out there, but I LOVE packing!! I wish I could magic myself to you and take care of it all for you! And the culling! I love culling! And the secondary cull once you’ve moved in and can’t figure out a place for a thing and then wonder why you bothered to move it, and out it goes! But yes! to the moving crew!
Did I mention the movers came early?
“Tell a horror story in one sentence.”
We moved several hours away and my husband moved first, leaving the packing to me. No children thank goodness, but i was working nights at the time. Somehow we decided for him and my dad to come and move all our furniture and most of our stuff, ONE WEEK before i was supposed to move. So I slept on the floor for a week. WHY?? I then had to clean the rental and pack what was somehow still a pickup truck full (cleaning supplies, trash cans, vacuum, clothes) and drive that several hours by myself. With the two cats.
I will say, there are some good people in the world. I was stressing about mowing the yard one last time before moving, and a co-worker I barely knew offered to mow it for me. AND SHE DID. I think she even brought her own mower, she must have, because I didn’t pack a mower in my last haul… it makes me tear up a little thinking of her.
The last time I moved one of my boxes was labeled “things that were close to this box” so anyway….it’s not just you?
Ha! During our last move, Scott labeled the last several boxes “Random Crap.”
Moving is the worst! The packing of boxes most definitely feels Sisyphean!
Here’s the crazy (unbelievable! Ridiculous! Sounds like I am making it up but honestly it is true!) story of our last move:
Family of four – Mom, Dad, 2 yo and tiny 2 month old baby. Buy a house in a neighboring town (hooray! Homeownership!) and have a month of overlap to get some work done on new place and slowly pack up the rental (see tiny children).
3 days before moving day, around 8pm, as I’m cleaning out the fridge and packing more boxes, a CAR RUNS INTO THE HOUSE. A CAR. INTO THE HOUSE. The entire front entry was sheared off and I will never forget the sound of the entryway floor crashing into the basement. It was terrifying and so surreal.
Luckily, the rental, and luckily, we had a place to go, and thank goodness they missed the spot where my husband and BRAND NEW BABY were sitting on the couch! We are fine, the teenage boys (racing) the car were in rough shape but ended up being ok.
Needless to say, the packing became throw everything in the truck and get the eff outta there – I am still (over a year later) unpacking boxes and finding the most random mix of things (how did my hair brush end up with the kitchen aid mixer- gross!).
I hope we never have to move again.
What a horrifying story! Thank goodness your family was safe-I got teary eyed reading about this.
Moving is the worst. When we moved to this city from our previous city – four hours’ drive away – we somehow underestimated the size of moving truck we needed (the one sized to fit a two bedroom apartment, which is what we had, was much too small which makes me feel cranky at number of bedrooms as a unit of measurement) and then of course the larger size truck wasn’t available and also of course my husband was starting school the following Monday. So we had to pack the small truck and drive four hours to our new house, unpack and drive four hours to the old one, pack and drive four hours to thw new one. In a single weekend. It was not pleasant.
Our last move, from an apartment to our house merely five minutes away, was “ideal” – we hired movers to do the big stuff, we had a few weeks or maybe even a whole month left on our lease, so we could leisurely move the rest on our own. But that flexibility made us lazy/procrastinate-y and so the move dragged out interminably.
In both cases, the packing and moving and unpacking DID end. And there has been a childbirth-esque erasure of the pain of it to the point that I often find myself thinking of buying a new house and going through with it again.
The packing eventually ends, but I’m here to tell you that you will never find the mortar and pestle you know you packed.
I totally agree with all commenters. Packing and moving SUCK and the process definitely feels impossible and endless though it WILL end.
Unsolicited advice: procure way more boxes and packing tape than you think you’ll need. Signed, the woman who drove to the store at 4 AM because tape had run out and movers were due at 8.
I will share the things that were crappy about my last move, then I will share the strategies that helped me survive it.
We moved in March, at which point the baby was 2.5 mo and our older daughter was 3.5. The move was for a good reason (husband got a job out of grad school), but with pretty quick turnover- I think from accepting the job offer to sleeping in our new house was 6 weeks. So I had a newborn and was still postpartum (and dealing with bleeding and birth certificate issues) while also packing up our two bedroom apartment. ACK. We had help from family with the actual MOVE and truck-loading, but the packing was almost all me. Here’s how I did it:
-I started hoarding boxes super early. We knew we would be moving in the first half of 2018 , so between the holidays and the new baby I had a pretty good stash once found out it would be March.
-3.5 yo was in morning preschool and baby was still sleeping a lot during the day. Otherwise, crap.
-LISTS. So many. What to pack when, bureaucratic stuff for hubby to do with school, closing accounts, a big calendar with appointments and flights and deadlines. I’ve continued with the public calendar because it was so helpful.
-Pack fragile, seldom used things (ie fancy dishes) and out of season/seasonal stuff first. In fact I think I packed almost all our dishes right away. This makes a big dent and you won’t miss the stuff.
-I labeled boxes on the top in the bottom left corner for consistency. Don’t worry if it’s too late for that, though.
-Dedicated small box of packing supplies. Packing tape, sharpies, a big FRAGILE stamp
so things are clearly labeled and I didn’t have to write it over and over (kind of expensive but highly recommended) Now that we live in in a two story house I would have one supplies box upstairs and one down. HISSS at anyone who takes things from the box and doesn’t replace them. HISSSS.
Hoarding boxes: yes. I forgot to mention in my comment, I was working nights while packing, and I would stop at the grocery store on my way home (around midnight). They were usually stocking shelves and glad to hand over boxes.
We did an in-town move 5 years ago. I’m surprised to find that I cannot recall packing or unpacking. I recall cleaning the new house with more vividness and a two week construction project stretching to 8 weeks. But nothing about packing. Must have been so traumatic or expensive that I blocked it out.
I have moved an obscene number of times and I don’t know how it happens, but it does eventually end. I mean, I live here now. At some point all the things from my old house got into a box and got to this house instead.
Moving is the worst. The worst.
I relate so much to this comment. An OBSCENE amount of times.
I want to know how – HOW – do things get lost, never to appear again? I can see with my eyes that the old house is completely empty. I absolutely know that I put the things in a box. How did they disappear from that box (which box? Not entirely sure…) during a 20 minute car ride? It’s one of life’s great mysteries.
Whew, here I’ve been following Swistle’s moving adventure and thinking maybe *we* should move too! I love our (tiny) house and we have no current plans to move, but we live in a great neighborhood and I’m pretty sure we could find a house we love even more. But now that I think about it, the last time we moved we drove across the entire country and then had an enormous fight and slept on the floor covered with bath towels. Maybe what I really want is to move into SWISTLE’s new house. I’ll bring my mortar and pestle.
Husband and I had a deal that I would pack and he would move the boxes to the storage unit. This was okay with me because I don’t mind packing (but you’re right, it’s NEVER ENDING) and he was happy because he hates packing and organization of any kind and taking ikea furniture apart is most certainly not his forte. The problems were:
1. I had 3 kids under 5 at the time, and while they were old enough to play themselves in their rooms, certain Little Brothers did not possess the impulse control needed to not scale the pile of boxes, and ended up with 3 stitches, for which I simultaneously felt bad about and was blamed by EVERYONE who heard about it.
2. Husband’s family had a major issue with how long it was taking me to pack the house: “she’s home all day, what the hell is she doing?” (see #1.)
3. Husband’s family also took issue with me “doing nothing” on moving day because remember, she who packed the boxes doth not have to CARRY the boxes.
4. I purged so much stuff because they made me feel guilty about how much stuff I had (kitchen stuff, books.. stuff I USED) and then when we were unpacking I realized there was a 1:4 me:husband ratio of boxes, so TAKE THAT, EFFERS.
Some rooms seemed to take way more boxes than I thought. Some pieces of furniture are apparently capable of storing way more than what fits in however many boxes take up the same amount of space as said furniture (I unknowingly had a Tardis as a dining room hutch.) Some rooms I literally spent all day packing and there was still some stuff in them! Some days I just spent carrying one object from place to place. In the end it was just, whatever fit in the box at hand. But at the beginning I had to be careful because we knew our stuff would be in storage for 3 months and I needed to label what would go in front, like the kids’ next season clothes, for example.
We had one single laundry basket of toys (and half of it was lego.) for all 3 kids that summer, and it’s one of my fondest memories.
Unpacking in the new house was kind of fun, and I got to purge more.. I love purging!
Your in-laws sound horrible. I hope you moved far away from them. :\
Hang in there Swistle; it will end eventually. I have moved many times. The worst ones were usually the ones where we only went a relatively short distance. The best move? We moved from Washington State to Colorado and I did very little. I had to start my new job so I moved a week before my husband which left him to pack up the house and the U-Haul. Also it was the best because it was pack it all up in one trip and go. When we moved from our rental in Colorado to our house it was a nightmare; even though I got a U-Haul and hired some kids, we didn’t get it all in one trip (because we still had time on our lease) and I was making endless trips and doing endless cleaning. I would echo the advice: Treat this move as though you are moving a long distance, rent a truck and do it all in one weekend! My favorite moves were when we were younger and family and friends would come help (they were all younger then too). We would pack, move, unpack and eat pizza! Of course we also had less stuff then too. Whoo hoo!
I HATE moving! And I hate packing boxes even more! But eventually, it gets done. And then you get to unpack…and I’d rather unpack and find homes for things than pack any day.
Packing is never fun no matter what the situation but you will eventually pack one day!
Our packing happened in the middle of winter (early January) when my son was about 4 months old. I had to work around his schedule when it came to packing which pretty much meant I could pack after he’d gone to sleep for the night. My husband works late hours so I ended up packing up quite a bit (to be fair it was my house majority my stuff). Also, on our actual moving day, we had a snowstorm and had to cross a very well known bridge in the northeast with the baby, dog and all of our stuff packed into a uhaul and my small suv. It took us about 3 hours to get across what normally takes 1 hour. Thankfully we made it and my husband helped a ton with packing the uhaul that day. But…I don’t want to move for a long long time if possible. Good luck!
In my married life, I have done 5 inter-state moves. The first was with an 8 week old baby who cried if I ever put him down (he was my first, so I also never put him down). Then we moved with a 5yo, 3yo who was recovering from heart surgery and a PITA 1yo. The following year we moved again and the 1yo was then a PITA 2 yo. We’ve done a few in-city moves and they were almost worse. The endless trips by car to the new house made me want to get rid of all our belongings and live freely in an empty house. I am hoping that we are done moving for the long term but have the good sense to still keep all our moving blankets.
Every time I have moved, I’ve gone into it with the very best of intentions. I vow to pack a bit every day and purge every possible thing I can. I have grandiose dreams of neatly labeled, numbered, and color coded boxes stacked neatly and sorted by room for easy unpacking. In my head, there is a clipboard with a tidy printout detailing the contents of every box.
And every time I have moved it has turned out nothing like the “Martha Stewart on an amphetimine binge” fantasy I dream about. By the morning of the move, I inevitably end up chucking random items into whatever box is closest and running out of bubble wrap or paper for breakable items.
The only useful piece of advice I have discovered is to NOT label boxes of books as “Books”. Even the nicest of friends will avoid boxes labeled as such and will search for any other box because books are heavy. So label them “misc” if you have lots of books!
We moved around the corner. I wish we’d moved cross country. It felt like you described; a story with NO end. We were constantly moving those boxes you talked about. It was just painful.
We moved in August after 18 years in our previous house. The pain is still fresh and there are still a few boxes of crap in our guest room closet I need to deal with eventually. One thing that got me through the move was thinking about how in X days (or weeks) I would be on the other side of the move, relaxing on the lovely porch at the new house. Hiring movers was totally worth every stinking penny. Buying boxes, including the dish packs, instead of trying to scrounge them up was worth the time savings to me. Yes, packing feels endless but it really, truly does get better. I so hope you love your new house.
I moved twice while pregnant and on bed rest with preterm labor. The second move happened because the first move was into an apartment with a raging, undisclosed bed bug infestation. It was incurable because one of the neighbors refused any pesticide treatment and kept reinfecting the rest of the units.
The only bright side was we found a nicer and cheaper place, so all’s well that ends well. Also we discovered the bed bug issue before fully unpacking (bed rest slows that down) so it was less trouble to move again. We *did* have to get all of our stuff gassed in the back of a moving van overnight while we stayed in a hotel. We took only our keys, and phones in plastic bags, and threw out the clothes we entered the hotel in. It was a major operation.
I would venture to say overall the experience stripped me down to the core and made me a more easygoing person in some ways. But it’s hard to untangle from the preterm labor saga, and then having a (late term and blessedly healthy!) preemie. It was an intense ride!
I *do* know that endless box feeling so well, though, wow.
It is coupled with the: “why did anyone in history ever bother to invent the written word? it is so cumbersome!” feeling that comes with packing the fiftieth book box (we are pack rats for books).
I was nodding along sympathetically while thinking, “I’m so glad I’ve never had stressful moving experiences.” And then I remembered. I have.
Once we had 2 days notice to move out of the home we were living in into a much smaller space. I’m still discovering hastily packed boxes from that move (12 years ago. I think I’ll just throw them away.)
And we when bought our first home, we moved in the middle of summer, when I was 8 months pregnant with my second child, when I also had a 2.5 year old who had yet to be diagnosed with autism. SOOOO… I think there’s a reason I blocked that one out.
I JUST remembered this but it’s a tiny tip that might help you — if you wrap somewhat breakable things (I don’t mean fine china, but knick knacks and picture frames) in your fabrics, like extra linens or curtains or even summer clothes you don’t need right now, then you’ll have emptied two places (linen closet and bookshelf) in one go!
I sympathize with you because it does indeed feel like it will never end.
Ooooh yes this is a great tip. Towels, sheets, tablecloths, all make great padding.
I’ve moved a number of times in the past 15 years. My hope is that our last move was to our “forever” home. Anyway, across town, temporary rentals, to a new state, while pregnant, with 2 preschoolers…. I’ve done it a lot of ways. You are right, it feels as if the packing never stops and the more boxes you pack the more stuff you find. I agree with the previous comments that stated pack as if you’re moving across the country, not just across town. Ultimately it’s all the same and I find it’s easier to organize that way. It forces you to be more intentional about what you’re willing to keep and pack to move vs. “why do we still have this? Will we ever use/need/value it again?” good luck!
“Moving is fun!” Said nobody ever.
What you’re feeling and experiencing is 100% Normal if that helps. I look at moving as a great opportunity to get rid of crap. I have said to myself while in this process (most recently last winter and summer – long story): “do I want to expend the energy to pack this item up and transport it and then unpack it?” If the answer is no, it goes in the “get rid of pile”
The mythical creature who rolled the stone uphill everyday was Sisyphus.
We did a move similar to yours 11 years ago (not far, didn’t sell the one house until 4 months after the move). We moved most of the furniture and daily essentials in one day (with our own vehicles, and family helpers who were rewarded with pizza). We also actually moved that day, as in started sleeping at the new house. Once we got most of that stuff unpacked, I would make an almost daily trip to the old house with multiple empty boxes. Some days I would fill 6-10 of those boxes up and take them to the new house. Other days I would stay a couple of hours and pack 15-20 boxes, and take back what I could. Just depended on the day, etc. My kids were 6, 4, and 2 with only the oldest in full-day school, but I did have family help to watch them for those hours I did some packing). And no lie, about a dozen of the boxes which were moved in 2007 were not unpacked until 2016-2017 (I had an extensive shot glass collection but didn’t care to display it), and just some random decor type things – which once I unpacked them, I re-packed them and donated the boxes!
We moved in December too, so I can sympathize with it being a difficult time of year! But it was easy to hide the “Santa” gifts until Xmas eve (we left them at the old house).
I haven’t moved in 17 years, but I clearly remember the feeling that I was never going to get everything packed. It is actually impossible, until moving day when miraculously things start happening. This is precisely why we are still in our “starter” house. Also, because my husband is an expert packrat and I have dreamily proclaimed that I cant wait to throw away half of our stuff. My biggest question is how many moving trucks could we fill? Since I rented the smallest one for just myself in an apartment all those years ago, when now theres 4 of us in a three story house? Im thinking 3 trucks, maybe 4? Makes my feel ALL the feelings and literally want to leave it all behind and live in a camper. Ugh.
We kind of did it in one day. Since we had the old house before moving we did stuff like, remove the entire kitchen drawers and stack the in a a truck, then transfer the stuff out of them, directly into the new kitchen drawers.
For my closet, I literally grabbed the entire thing, laid it in the back of my car, and hung it in the new house. Zero boxes. Any drawer I could remove, I removed and stacked, emptied and then took back to the old house.
Also we took all of the really big stuff first, moved it in, and then slowly picked what small stuff we wanted. We figured it was easier to not pack it, move it, and then discard it. We moved beds, dressers, couches, tables etc. Clothes, and kitchen goods. Then when it came to the towel closet, I only threw what I knew I really needed into a box, the rest, I threw into a massive donate pile. Then we called goodwill and had them pick up and load the donation stuff. I didn’t move anything to the new house that I didn’t 100% want there. We left a lot in the garage until we were sure we didn’t want it.
Being alone while moving is not nearly as bad as watching small children while moving, but MUCH MUCH harder than having company. I recommend an all-family packing day on a weekend if you don’t have a good friend or relative who will come over regularly to help you feel like it’s not All Depending On You.
we moved four years ago from a house we’d lived in for nearly 30 years. We had no idea how much stuff we had. it was obscene. We intended to purge before moving but never got around to it. We bought the new house in September, it was renovated by February, so we had time. I did get rid of a lot of stuff but didn’t realize how much more there was. We hired movers to move the boxes. it was -13* on moving day and we had to leave the doors open. I don’t think I’ve ever been that cold. it took days to warm up. Then I cleaned the old house to put it on the market. The day it went on the market we left to drive to Florida. My mom lived in a 2nd floor condo in Florida and while we were visiting, she purchased another unit that had elevator access. Both condos were sold fully furnished, but she wanted to switch most of the stuff around. So we moved washer & dryer, bedroom furniture, kitchen cabinet stuff. We took an entire U-Haul filled with stuff from the new condo that she didn’t want to Goodwill. I hired moving help, but basically moved most of it with very little help. Did I mention that it was 92*? I don’t honestly know which was worse, the cold move or the hot move. I don’t intend to move again.
I am moving across country with a 5yo and a newborn. Husband is already at new location. Thank god parents are here to help. We’re actually getting packers and movers for our stuff, but I’ve had to clean the house out for showings to get it sold. Trying to keep the house clean and trying to find stuff in the garage as we need it is awful. Hate it. Feel like I’m living in a deserted house. It sucks especially during the Christmas season, when things should feel homey and holidayish. Plus, having random people walking through your house while you’re living in it sucks anyway, but then again, if not enough people are coming through, you feel like its never going to sell. Ugh.
I am in pre-move territory: under contract on my first-ever home purchase, nervous about literally everything. We don’t close until January, and I’m torn over whether I want (and can afford) to hire someone to remove the popcorn ceilings and paint before I move in. I mean, of course I want to hire people to do things so I don’t have to do them myself. The other thing is, I’m moving into a place with roughly twice the storage space. I definitely need to get rid of some stuff, but is there stuff that hasn’t found a home in my current place that could live comfortably in a wide open cabinet in the new place? Hard to say.
This tale is to make you smile. In a fit of last-minuteness, I packed two big, lawn and leaf size bags full of bed linens, and asked my nephew to put them in the back of my car with some other last-minute items. The next morning, leaving a hotel halfway to my new home, I jumped into my very fully packed car and found it just STANK in the Texas heat. Exploring the load, I discovered that my nephew had packed not 2 but 4 lawn and leaf size bags, 2 of which contained the castoffs from cleaning out the refrigerator and freezer in my old house!
I hate moving with a passion – it is one of the most stressful things ever. My worst move was moving WA to CA with a 1.5 and 2.5 year old – and I broke my ankle 3 days before we moved, had surgery on it 2 days before we moved and then the day before we moved had to take care of the 1.5 and 2.5 year old while supervising people loading up the UHaul!
Packing absolutely sucks but if you’re anything like me (am I a weirdo?) then the unpacking at the other end and arranging everything in its new home(s), all without having to deal with the crap that you chucked out while packing (it’s always a lot!) is so much fun! At least that might be something to look forward to? Packing sucks but UNPACKING is a party with an actual reward at the end! For a few minutes, anyway, until the people who live in the house mess it all up!
I have nothing relevant, just taking a moment to marvel at the really stellar community of warm, witty people you’ve built up here. I’m annoyed that I can’t heart all the comments and I love everyone here (even the weird lady who loves packing).
I am so late to this post but still have to comment because it’s this exact feeling that keeps me from moving 1/2 the time. For various reasons we moved twice in two years when Oldest was 9 months old and then just under 3 years old and I felt thisclose to just walking away from 1/2 our crap the second time I had to pack it. It’s been 13 years since we moved but I can still access the feeling of despair. It will get better! The piles will get smaller!