Big Post of Packing and Moving Tips

I'm about to move cross-country for the third time in three years.  So I thought maybe I should actually write a post about how I do it.  I've pretty much got it all figured out.  ;-)

Let's get this out of the way: We move by packing our own boxes, loading our own boxes onto a semi truck, and then letting the semi truck moving company drive our stuff to its destination.  We pile into our car, beat the semi to our new home, then unload it when it shows up.  So all these tips are from that perspective.  We do it this way because we've found it's the cheapest for cross-country moves. Yes, even cheaper than renting a U-Haul and driving ourselves (gas is expensive), in addition to considerably less stressful. Neither Norman nor I wants to drive a U-Haul towing a car, nor does one of us want to be alone with Lucy while trying to drive that far.

Tip #1: Keep track of all expenses.

The IRS allows a tax deduction for expenses incurred during moves for changing jobs. (See the specific qualifications here.) If you qualify, you can deduct the costs of packing materials, transportation of your belongings and yourself, gas or mileage, hotel (but not meals), some storage costs, and some other stuff. Check the link. Keep track even if your employer will be reimbursing you -- you can still take a deduction on any qualified expenses that your employer won't reimburse for.  You'll need to file Form 3903.


Tip #2: Check out MovingScam.com.

This website helped me a ton before the first of our major moves.  They have hundreds (thousands?) of reviews of moving companies.  Definitely check the forums there before deciding on a company.  The forums also have pages and pages of packing tips -- it's where I got most of the ideas I implement.


Tip #3: Declutter before you start packing.

Maybe this is just me, but I can't declutter while I pack.  When I'm packing, I'm in packing mode, just trying to get everything to fit snugly and safely in the box.  I can't think about whether or not I want to keep the things.  So I sweep through the house for a while looking at everything and thinking, "Do I really need this? Do I use it? Do I want to pack it? Do I want to pay for the space on the truck necessary to transport it?"  It's easy to do most of this while you're going about life.  When you're putting dishes away, stop for a second and think about the things on the next shelf over.  When you're picking out clothes in the morning, think about the pieces in your closet that haven't been touched in the last year.  This phase can be going on while you're gathering packing supplies or finalizing your decision to move.


Tip #4: Start packing as soon as your know for sure that you're moving.

Fact: It will take you longer to pack than you think it will.  Start as soon as you can by packing stuff you can do without until after you move.  I usually start with seasonal items, books, craft supplies I don't use often, nicer china and the like, and stuff that is already in storage.  If you get done packing things you won't need way before you feel comfortable starting to pack things you *will* need, lucky you! Go for a spa day or take your kids to a museum or something.


Tip #5: Get the right stuff for the job.

Even though we move on a budget, I still want to use the right tools and materials for the job, because in the end, a few extra dollars will make my life way easier.  So here, in my opinion, are things to buy and things not to buy for packing and moving:

Don't buy:
*Boxes. These are free everywhere. Check Craigslist and Freecycle. Ask friends. Check your local liquor store. Here's a list full of suggestions of places to get free boxes.
*Bubble wrap. It's really not necessary. Paper, good technique, and your old towels will be perfectly fine. Not to jinx myself, but in two moves, we haven't broken one thing. Not one.

Do buy:
*Certain boxes. Yeah, I said don't buy boxes. But you really do need:
1.) Dish packs. These are large, extra sturdy boxes meant for filling with dishes. Get some cell packs to go along with them for your drinking glasses.
2.) Frame corners set. Like this. They'll fit almost any size framed thing. This would be for very large art or posters framed with glass.
3.) Wardrobe boxes. Actually I never bought any of these. Pro: You take your hanging clothes out of your closet, you hang them in the box, you pull them out, you put them in your new closet.  Saves a lot of time.  Con: Your clothing will take up more space in the truck that way. I've always taken the clothes off the hangers, put most of them into our extra luggage, and put all the hangers in one giant box.

*Packing paper/newsprint.  Really, just do it. I get mine from U-haul. It's blank newspaper. It comes all compact in a box. You don't have to save up newspaper and circulars for forever. And most importantly there's no ink to come off all over your dishes.
*Mattress bags. Super easy. Just spend a couple bucks and buy these. You just stick your mattress in (with the top sheet if you really want), tape it -- boom. Mattress stays clean.
*I use an old egg crate foam mattress pad to protect my picture frames. (I either had it from college or bought one at a thrift store -- I don't remember.) Just cut it up with scissors to the sizes of the glass in your frames, place the piece of foam on the glass, then wrap the whole thing in packing paper like a present. Then label the outside with a word or two that will tip you off to what is inside. You can also use bubble wrap (if you happen to have some) or wadded up paper to pad the glass.

*STRETCH WRAP. This one is so important I'm yelling it at you.  BUY SOME STRETCH WRAP. Your life will be so much easier.  I think we've gone through 3-4 rolls of 5" wide 1,000 ft stretch wrap on each move.  Use it to secure the lids on Rubbermaid tubs and the drawers of plastic organizers, wrap removable bookshelf shelves together, wrap folding furniture shut, wrap tall skinny things together -- last time we even used it to just wrap our flatware into its drawer organizer.  Endless uses.  You'll probably also want a much wider roll to wrap up couches and to secure moving blankets onto wood furniture.

*Packing tape dispenser. I almost forgot this one because it seems so obvious to me. (But I use packing tape for packaging Etsy items several times every week.) Definitely pick up a packing tape dispenser and several extra rolls. Doesn't have to be anything fancy -- I use one of these.

You'll also need moving blankets and a dolly/handtruck. These are included with the moving company we use, but if they're not you need to buy or rent.  Sometimes it'll be cheaper to buy a bunch of old blankets from thrift stores, then donate them to another thrift store on the other end.


Tip #6: Pack (and unpack) one box at a time.

Do not, under any circumstance except the most dire, have more than one open, half-packed box going at once.  Start packing a box, fill it as best you can with relevant items (i.e., items that will go in generally the same area in the new house), pad the rest of the box with extra linens or wadded paper, taped it up, then and only then, start filling another box.

Same goes for unpacking.  Unless you're just desperate for a specific kitchen utensil or something, don't leave half-unpacked boxes sitting around.  Find a place for everything from one box (even if it's not ideal -- you can shuffle and perfect organizational systems later), break the box down, then open another box.  This will save you mental energy because you won't have to keep track of what's going on in more than box at a time, and it will save floor space as you pack and unpack, which will help save your sanity.


Tip #7: How I label boxes

I read about this method somewhere (probably the MovingScam forums), and I just thought it was brilliant. It is, it's brilliant. It's the only way to label and inventory boxes for moving long distances, in my opinion.  Here's how it works:

You need:
*An index card organizer
*A pack of index cards
*A hole punch (optional -- some index card organizers are two-ring binders)
*A pen
*A Sharpie

You're going to write a code on each box (on the top and on at least two different sides) in Sharpie. It's going to look like this:  CR#11

The first two letters are an abbreviation for the room the stuff came from (you can make up whatever abbreviations make sense to you); the number is which number box from that room it is. (So this one is the 11th box from the craft room.)

Then write the same code on one index card.  Underneath, write everything you put in the box. It's a 3x5 card, so you have plenty of room.  Especially if you're packing kitchen stuff, you're going to want to know exactly what is in each box.

Keep the index cards organized in order, by room and number, in the index card binder.

Then, when you get to the new house, you can tape signs to the doorway of each room with the room code, so whoever is helping you unload can at least attempt to put everything in the right room.

This method will also enable you to:
*Cut down on theft if someone else is handling your items. If the outside of the box doesn't say "Bluray player", it's a lot less likely to get stolen.
*Check off everything as it comes off the truck.
*Give yourself a nice visual checklist when unpacking. Once a box is unpacked, throw away the index card that goes with it. The binder of cards will dwindle, and you'll feel like you might actually be making progress even though your house is a giant mess.
*Easily compose a household inventory for insurance purposes.


Find more tips: 

There used to be a fabulous website that showed, in depth, how to pack every kind of thing in a house. The kitchen section was especially helpful, and it's where I learned how to pack all the different kinds of dishes I have.  Sadly, the website is gone.  However, this video does a pretty good job of explaining the basics.  (Caveat -- for goodness sake, do not individually wrap every hardback book you own in paper. Overkill.)  Additionally, I've been trying to gather websites with excellent packing and moving information on this Pinterest board.


Bonus tip that maybe no one needs but me:  Stuff giant bean bags into twin mattress bags.

 And then... you just have to unpack everything in your new place. Good luck!

If you have questions or other tips, leave a comment! I will be adding to the post if needed!

Playroom Cleanup

Lest anyone is under the mistaken impression that I am 1.) a meticulous housekeeper, or 2.) a strict disciplinarian, I offer the following for clarification:

 

[Lucy's playroom]

It's looked this way for the last... two weeks? At least? Probably more because we were on vacation last week and it was like this before that.  

Every now and then Norman or I will go in and put some things where they go. We don't make Lucy clean it.  It's her room, and if she doesn't clean it, the consequence is that playing is harder and she can't find stuff.  Also I understand the frustration of having to clean up a "mess" when you're in the middle of creating something.

Lucy has free rein over safety scissors and a large amount of paper, scotch tape, stickers, and writing instruments.  She creates paper trash like nobody's business. She's quite prolific and is not sentimentally attached to most of it.  She also makes quite a mess of the drawers that all these craft supplies are kept in, of course. 

And every now and then, I just can't stand the playroom anymore.  I just can't stand that much of a mess for too long.  Plus I feel sorry for Lucy.  I know when it gets that bad, there's just no possible way for her to even begin to clean it.  Like, it's developmentally impossible for her.  So about every two months or so, I go through and really clean everything out and toss the scribbled on and cut up bits of paper and junk mail that she hoards.  Today she helped... a little.  I put everything where it goes and cleaned out and organized the craft drawers.

I got rid of almost a whole trash bag full of stuff (mostly paper).  But only the stuff she won't miss.  One of my earliest traumas was my dad going through my room and giving away a bunch of the toys I had left on the floor.  I was about Lucy's age.  I know he was doing the best he could, just like I am.  I'm about the same age now as he was then.  But man did that suck.

 

[Ahh, lovely.]

So it'll look half-decent for the next day or two. :-)

Totoro

Well somehow we got it in our collective heads at our house that we needed a giant bean bag chair.  But not just any giant bean bag chair.  A giant Totoro bean bag chair.  This seemed crazily unfeasible (bean bag filling is expensive!) until I found 3 large used (i.e., gross, nasty, covered in who knows what) bean bags for free on Freecycle.  Well that's the filling then, isn't it?

In searching the internet for examples of a giant Totoro bean bag chair, I came up with almost nothing.  But designing a giant Totoro myself seemed crazy.  And then I happened upon this guy, who made himself one, only his is a giant pillow (stuffed with pillow stuffing, not bean bag chair beans).  And he sells the pattern!  Now, the "pattern" is only a one-sheet PDF with all the pertinent Totoro parts measured in inches.  I will take it!  This saved me hours of work.  In fact if I hadn't had a pattern, I might not have tried it.  If you want to see his pattern, you can give him a dollar and he'll e-mail it to you. 

$50 worth of fabric later, and I was sewing.  I modified his pattern somewhat.  Gave Totoro a big smile instead of a tiny mouth, sewed his whiskers flat on his face, left off his tail, and put his arms at his sides.  I also had to go crazy on the bottom.  I needed to put in two layers of zippers since we were going to fill it with extremely messy styrofoam beans.  And I managed to do it!  I'm pretty proud of myself, actually.  I got skills.

[Cutting out the body]

["Consummate v's! Consummate!"]

[Parts and pattern]

[More parts]

[Laying him out to pin] 

 

[My sewing machine chugged right through this genuine leather like it was butter, but less messy. Old school Berninas, y'all. Seriously.]

[I finished sewing him and Norman decided he had to wear him. Creeptastic!]

[After Norman put in about 2/3 of the stuffing. Comfy, but not quite right.]

[Then I obtained another giant bean bag, and... Full!]

[Such a happy sort]

 

[And we've decided he's best right here.  Lucy can jump onto him without running into anything hard or pointy, and we can lounge on him and watch TV!]

Oh my goodness -- he is so comfortable.  You mush in and it all just molds around you.  Aaaahhh....

All told I spent about $75 on materials (including buying two used bean bags for their filling), and I-don't-even-want-to-know number of hours of work, not to mention the time Norman spent taking the filling out of the bean bags and putting it in Totoro.  This is certainly the biggest and craziest project I've ever undertaken.  I'm quite proud.  And comfy.

PS - If you come visit us, you are welcome to use Totoro as your guest bed. He is totally big and comfortable enough. But then you might not want to leave.

New Crafting Space

And by "new", of course, I mean that I've lived here and had the room put together for 5 months but I'm just now getting around to posting photos.

 

[Car. Driveway.]

My fabulous husband insists that I have a crafting room*.  A family of three should normally be able to get along just fine in a two-bedroom, but not us!  We picked this house because it has a nice double living room (all the way).  The converted garage is off the main living room.  The high ceilings and big window make it pretty much perfect for holding all my crafting stuff without it looking like a cave.  And since it's right next to the living room, Lucy doesn't seem to mind as much when I work while she's playing or watching TV. 

We did, however, have to get a little creative with the toddler-proofing...

[Toy Shelf + Baby Gate + Filing Cabinet]

[The curtains are to keep our warm gas heater air out of the rafters at night.]

Before we moved, I got rid of my sewing table, one small bookshelf, and a set of plastic drawers.  And when we got here, we put the Britney shelf in the storage/mud room -- that room needed it more than I did.  To compensate for some lost storage space, I made what is possibly the tallest stack of under-the-bed Rubbermaid containers in the world, or at least in Humboldt County.

All full of different types of fabric. I think my corduroy collection is taking up three of those...

I can't really complain about the layout -- I have enough space, and I can see all my supplies pretty well.  My only problem is lighting (the room has no built-in lighting), which I could fix if I weren't such a cheapskate.  I think I need one of these.

 

[Squeee! Yes, those are old, giant, pull-down classroom maps standing up in the corner! Updates when I finally make the project I have in mind for them. (Thanks, Dad!)]

Sometimes I have visions of rigging up a pulley system to hoist my lightbox up into the high ceiling and out of my way. Probly not gonna happen.

[George!]

If you absolutely must have more photos of this and my other crafting spaces, I have a Flickr album of them here.  And if you want to see tons of other photos of other people's awesome craft rooms, you should search "craft room" on Flickr.




*His reasons are three fourfold:
1.) I have a calling to craft (and I enjoy it, and I'm good at it).
2.) I have a tendency to... acquire, which is curbed by having to keep it all in one room.
3.) He doesn't want to put up with my projects being scattered all over the house.
4.) (Added by him before press time, and I quote:) "I like the moneys!"
So as you can see, it's a mixture of encouragement, tough love, and selfishness.  I'll take it!

Short Take: Moving

Currently reconsidering crystal ownership as a lifestyle choice...


(Extremely helpful and detailed packing instructions found here.)

Christmas Not-a-Tree

We're not doing a Christmas tree this year. You all know that I love Christmas trees, but it just wasn't in the cards this year. The tree we had last year, we had gotten for free, so we didn't feel too bad about giving it away after Christmas. It was going to take up a lot of room in our garage. And we have an extra piece of furniture in our dining room this year, so the space where the tree was last year is gone. And last year we just put the baby gate up to keep Lucy away from it, but that wouldn't really fly this year, and I have some ornaments that I would be so sad if they broke. I don't want to be mad at Lucy for breaking them. So we don't have a tree. My original idea was to buy a small, potted live tree, but we don't really have the space or the money for even that.

But I love Christmas trees.

So I decided to check out how much artificial greenery garlands cost at Hobby Lobby. Well, lo and behold, when I went in to check them out, they were half off. I got two lengths (all of what is on the wall above) for $8 plus tax. I will take it.

It's just like a tree! We put lights on it, we (I) decorated it with our ornaments, and we can set presents under it if we want. Perfect!

[There she is again -- my favorite ornament.]

[It's nice to have something framing the window!]

[Our Lady, etc.]

Kitchen Appliances Anonymous

Today I put an electric grill/griddle on my Wist. This prompted me to start listing for my husband all the other small kitchen appliance we own, which I am pretty sure is every kitchen appliance known to man besides an electric griddle and an electric can opener. And then my husband said I should write a blog post about it.

[They hide in every nook and cranny of my kitchen.]

So, without further ado, here is the list:

Key:
electric
manual
purchased second-hand
{how often we use it}

Toaster {every day}
Toaster Oven {every other day}
Microwave {every other day}
Coffee Grinder {about once a month}
Hand Mixer {once every couple months}
Stand Mixer {haven't used it yet; need to see if it will knead bread for me!}
Blender {once a week, on average}
Immersion Blender {once every couple months}
Air Popper {at least once a week}
Stove Top Popcorn Popper {just got this for my birthday; gonna make kettle corn!}
Percolator {I think I used it once; it's constantly in danger of being purged}
Waffle Maker {once every couple months}
Hot Pot {4-5 days per week}
Espresso Machine {haven't used it since Lucy was born; before that, a couple times per month}
Bread Maker {once or twice per week}
Food Processor {several times per month}
Crock Pot {once a month}
Dehydrator {once or twice a month}
Ice Cream Maker {three-ish times per year}
Large Coffee Pot {once or twice per year}
Smaller Coffee Pot {1-3 times per week}
Juicer {haven't used yet; wondering if I should keep it; hi, Mom!}
Meat Grinder {haven't used it yet}
Pasta Machine {haven't used it yet, but will very soon}

So as you can see, we actually use most of these fairly frequently. Which just confirms my suspicion that I spend too much time in the kitchen. But just think of how much time I would spend if I didn't have all these gadgets! (Or something similarly cheery...)

[Isn't that contact paper fabulous? What kind of mind decides to disguise a stove vent pipe with brightly colored floral contact paper?]

Oh my gosh -- I just realized I'm also in desperate need of a tortilla press (which I would use at least once a month). I have a sickness.

Thinking Outside the Frame

I've been in a very de-stash-y kinda mood lately. I just want to get rid of stuff. This week I went through our bookshelves and found about 30 books to give away, and this was after going through them two months ago for the garage sale. You see, my husband will be finishing up his PhD this next year and going on the job market. So in a year we'll be moving literally God knows where. And then, because of the way academic careers work, we'll probably have to move again a year or two after that. The prospect of moving all our crap potentially all over the country is not a happy one.

So I've been rather mercilessly destashing and decluttering. (For me, anyway. I'm definitely a stuff person.) I was looking around the living room and spotted a picture frame on top of our tallest bookshelf. We got it as a wedding present. Over four years ago. It's never had photos in it.

[See it there behind the wise men?]
[...which are no longer there. This photo is from last November.]

I thought, "Well this is ridiculous. I should just get rid of it." But I couldn't do it. I like it. It's pretty. But I knew I'd never put photos in it. Because of its odd shape, I'd have to either cut up some of our photos for it, or get new copies of three photos specifically for this, which I knew I'd never get around to doing.

So I was at an impasse. Until I decided to take it to the craft room.

[A magical place]

Once the frame was in there, it was like the blinders fell from the sides of my face and I realized I didn't have to put pictures in the picture frame -- I could put anything I darn-welled pleased in there! Pieces of old maps? Pretty wallpaper samples? Cute illustrations from vintage children's books? Each of these might make their way into the frame eventually. But today I settled on flowery upholstery fabric.

[Yes]

[Much better]

[Side note: the little pottery bowl in the photos was made by my friend Laurie. She makes pottery as a hobby, and I'm blessed to have this bowl, another bowl, and a set of coasters, all made by her. Love it!]

I want to hear your blinders-falling-off stepping-outside-the-box stories! (Even if they include horrible things like mixed metaphors.)

Birthday Garland

In addition to the new Maynard Family Happy Birthday Banner, I also made a Maynard Family Happy Birthday Garland. It is meant to replace crepe paper as a birthday decoration.

I cut out a bunch of felt circles in three different sizes.

[10 different colors!]

Then I sewed them all together in one long string.

[Do not be confused by pink-striped puffy thing. It's a hammer.]

I have a lot of felt.


I strung it across the dining room close to the ceiling, as one would do with crepe paper.

[Hi, friends!]

It turned out really nice! So colorful and fun. I'm looking forward to putting it back up for my own birthday in August, even thought there won't be a party or anything!

It is your birthday.

It's not anyone's birthday today. Well, not it my family anyway.

Last week I finished the brand new Maynard Family Happy Birthday Banner. It debuts next month at Lucy's first birthday party. The plan is to make a family tradition of putting it up for every birthday in the house.

I made an isosceles triangle pattern, and cut 13 triangles out of different bright colors of felt. I had them in rainbow order, but it looked funny, so I mixed them up.


Then I printed out HAPYBIRTHD in 2.5 inch letters using WordArt. I cut out the letters, traced them onto off-white felt, and cut them out. I pinned the felt letters to the felt triangles and stitched the letters down with a straight stitch.


I had a hard time deciding what to use for the top to string them all together. Then all of the sudden it hit me -- rick rack! What's more festive than rick rack?? Not a whole lot.


I'm really pleased with the way this turned out. It's almost nothing like what I originally envisioned (that was some printed cotton shabby chic thing), but I love it. I think it will serve us well for all ages, genders, and party themes.

I hear you out there saying, "Can't we see a picture of the finished product??" No, no you may not. You'll see it when you see pictures of/are at Lucy's party. Or I guess if you come to my house and ask nicely, I'll show it to you. I guess.

... Wedded To ...

[Norman's and mine, photographed on our wedding day]

There's a tradition in my extended family. My great-grandmother (we all called her Grams) made a wedding needlepoint sampler similar to the one above for her two daughters, and she made a pretty good run at making one for every one of her grandchildren. She was quite old and ill when my mom's youngest brother got married, but I remember my mom working on it for her.

When I was engaged, my mom asked if I wanted one, too. Of course I did! I grew up seeing my mom and dad's hanging in our house, and my grandma and grandpa's hanging in theirs. As you can see, the names, dates, and colors are all subject to change to fit the couple. The colors in my mom's are the colors she planned on having in her house. The colors in mine are my wedding colors.

[My mom and dad's]

I love this tradition. Love. Of course I do! It's crafty and nostalgic and a multi-generational tradition. I love multi-generational traditions.

Norman's and mine hangs above my dresser in our bedroom. The other day I was looking at it, and I suddenly got very, very sad. You see, my mom's youngest brother was recently divorced. That's the first time someone who had one of these... didn't need it anymore. Everyone else is either still together, or separated by death.

I started to wonder -- what had happened to it? I imagine most likely it was thrown away or donated to a thrift store. If it was really lucky, someone decided it was worth keeping and hiding away. If it was really unlucky, someone burned it in a fit of rage! (Unlikely, but totally possible.)

So, so sad. So here I'll offer a prayer that no one else who has one of these lovely things will stop needing theirs prematurely.

[Our one-minute-versary.]