Tutorial Tuesday: How [not] to pack.

Over the past seven years, I have moved eight times. Yes, 8.

You would think by this time, I would be starting my own moving/packing business because I'm so well versed in the arts of boxing, transporting and unpacking. Well....

Here's how I like to pack, then I'll show you extremely embarrassing pictures of how our move went [and is going...] Scroll down to the end for the really embarrassing stuff.

Step One: Clean everything.

Picture via marthastewart.com.
I never smile like this when I'm cleaning. 

You will really thank yourself later. Grab your favorite arsenal of supplies (I like white vinegar, windex, pledge, and a whole lot of microfiber cleaning cloths) and get to work. Wipe down everything, wash all your clothes and get it ready to box up.

Step Two: Organize by room.

I'm a planner, so I like to pack boxes by the potential room they will be in when they arrive at the new place. All decorations go in one pile, clothes in another, books in another, you get the drift. Put everything into piles that make sense for what you are doing.

Step Three: Start packing boxes.

My favorite source for boxes is the liquor store. The best boxes are the Godiva Chocolate boxes. They're heavy, laminated, and everyone thinks you are a total boozer.

But, if you are lucky enough to have a family member, husband, supplier that works for Starbucks--they have AWESOME boxes. Don't grab the cup boxes--they are way too big and you'll tend to overload them. Grab the 'bullet' boxes--5lb coffee bean boxes. They are thick, perfect size for stacking, and bring you luck from the caffeine gods.

Don't load any individual box too heavy. IE: Don't put all your books into one box. Combine books with clothes/towels or whatever makes sense via your organization piles.

Pack the boxes so nothing has any room to move. Movement is the worst enemy of the Tiffany's crystal bowl you got from your great aunt. Don't let anything move.

Step Four: Label the boxes, label them well.

I tend to put a list of everything that is in that box. Most of the time, I spell every word wrong.

I also date them because I remember the room I pack by the date I packed it...I'm weird. I know.

Step Five: Get everything in a box before you move anything into a truck/car/house.

Trust me. You will be so much happier if you get everything boxed up first.

Step Six: Furniture time.

Make sure all your furniture is dusted/ready to move. Take all the drawers out of dressers, take the shelves out of the book shelf. Wrap them in blankets and put them in to a u-haul. Trust me. Loading furniture into a pick-up is the pits.

Step Seven: Play u-haul Tetris

picture via blogger games.

The best way to stack a u-haul is like Tetris. Don't leave any empty trapped space. load horizontally first, then stack vertically. Put boxes inside of bookshelves, stack chairs on top of your couch...

The worst thing you could do is leave space for things to bang against each other and all your fine china you got from your wedding gets broken. This would suck.

Step Eight: Drink a beer.

Congratulations! You have packed the perfect u-haul! Time to celebrate! Only drink one beer though, you have to drive the u-haul later.

Step Nine: Start unpacking - yay?

You're at your new house, now what? Do you have a big main room? Awesome. A garage? EVEN BETTER! Unload everything into that one room. Seriously. I'm not kidding. Everything must go into one big area.

As you unload, organize your boxes/furniture into the same piles you had before--room by room.

Step Ten: Distribute. Celebrate.

Methodically, move into each room - one at a time. I would start with a bedroom, you need a place to crash that night. Move the furniture in first, then the boxes. Unpack each box (one at a time) directly into its final resting place. Starting out with a well-organized house will be the gift that keeps on giving.

Now, celebrate. Finish that 12 pack of Coors Light Aluminum Bottles (with 10 of your closest friends) and congratulate yourself on a job well done.


Now, here's how my move went:

Day 1: Panic. OMG.

I just got back from Vegas, and we [semi-foolishly] planned a big party for the same day. THe house had no toilet paper, soap, anything. I put my trust in two 25 year old boys to get this done. They got everything but toilet paper--I was semi-impressed!

Day 2: Chaos.

So overwhelmed over the fact that we just wrote a check that would take 30 years to pay off - I decide to start packing the most random stuff. No cleaning nor organization. Just throwing random art supplies and towels into the same box [what?! who am I?!] Ugh.

Day 3: Amazement.

Ben is not a professional mover like I am. He has only moved once in the past seven years. He still manages to pack up an entire room, plus the storage area and the bookshelf without any direction from me. I'm still in complete panic mode.

Day 4-6: Painting madness.

My trusty helper/mentee, Luke. 

Painter extraordinaire, Benny.
Man, this picture does not do this color justice.
It looks AMAZING.

I panic thinking that we need to paint the house before we get everything moved in. I buy a 5 gallon bucket of primer, and Ben gets to work. Kitchen and one bedroom gets done first, then I bring in reinforcements and we finish priming the entire house in an afternoon.

After the priming is done, we go into pure color madness. We paint the ceiling and all walls in an afternoon. I am in total amazement.

Day 7: Bring in the muscle.

Ben and I figure we only have one day to move all our furniture over. So, even though we have about 7 out of 10000 boxes packed, we empty all the furniture onto the apartment and bring in some muscle. We had the very gracious help of a couple friends and all our furniture got moved into the garage yesterday.

Today:

This is the apartment today. This is the totally embarrassing part. Ugh. Look at this! I'm trying to pull myself together, but part of me wants to chuck everything into a dumpster and call it good. Ugh.

This is the chaos that you see when you walk in to my apartment.
For those of you that are frequent visitors of this place--you know this is my worst nightmare.

This is a pile of dirty laundry. I packed that.

This is a pile of clothes that got in my way.
I put them in a giant box. Unfolded. 

This is a pile of stuff I don't know what to do 

So, that's that. My super embarrassing photos of my moving process.

I can't wait to show you awesome looking pictures next week..but...uhh...