The last time I packed up and moved was October 2004. Back then, I left my one bedroom apartment on Connecticut Ave in Cleveland Park with my husband, a pick up truck and our biggest concern was making sure we reserved the elevator space so we could move out that day.
Fast forward to July 2012, 2 kids and a house later…..it’s a dramatically different scenario. Packing up your house to move forces you to take a hard look at yourself..and your habits…and how you accumulate stuff.
Frankly, this process exposes the bowels of your soul to yourself. Here are 10 things I’ve learned about moi in the past few weeks:
Exhibit A: A stacked pile of baskets...along with random Easter duck & Hermie from Rudolph clearly not stored with seasonal items.
1. I love baskets for storing things…anything…you name it….big baskets with shoes, big baskets with stuffed animals, small baskets with hand towels. I have a problem.
2. I don’t know how to fold sheets…if I did….I’d realize I have way more sets of sheets in the linen closet than I ever believed possible.
3. My children have too many clothes.
4. Stuffed animals are the devil.
5. I might be a hoarder.
6. I can’t part with a purse even if it’s been 5 years since I last used it….it could come back to style (see #5).
7. Apparently I believe all of life’s moments deserve to be captured by the camera and then put into a picture frame. This is great. Until all the picture frames need to be wrapped and packed. (see #5).
8. I will never admit to the volume of things in my closet. This could be used against me by Mr. Wired Momma. So let’s remember again, my children have too many clothes. (see #5).
9. I clearly don’t think one junk drawer is enough. The question is – will I purge the junk drawer here or will I toss it in a box and then let my future self (you know, myself in exactly one week) determine whether to purge at new house or just toss into a new junk drawer? #MyFutureSelfFindsTodayMeAnnoying (see #5)
10. In my head, I’m super organized and I carefully put away the kids winter clothes, rotate out the ones that don’t fit them and put them in storage and keep all holiday related decorations stowed away in carefully labeled storage bins. In reality, not so much. I’m the queen of 3/4 done. This is highly annoying when moving and everything needs to belong somewhere. #WhereDoTheRandomsGo? (see #5).
And finally….moving sucks. But unpacking is awesome. Could someone project me to Friday? If you want to keep up with the WM fun between my move and when there’s time to write again, “Like” the WM Facebook page. There’s always time to post links and fun comments there.
I would like to be named the princess of 3/4…I do this all the time!!!
So, I’m gonna guess the last time you unpacked was 2004, also with no kids? I used to love unpacking too. However, unpacking does NOT rock with two small kids. Maybe yours are much older than mine and maybe you have full-time child care and no job? With a 1 & 4 year old, nothing gets done and you have to sit around and stare at things that are still packed or try to quickly rearrange a hastily unpacked closet or shelf during naptimes that are suddenly shorter than ever. It’s the most frustrating experience I can ever remember.
Danielle – good perspective for me. I have never unpacked with kids but I did spend the last 3 weeks packing my entire house with no childcare and a 3 and 6 year old home all day – so I figure at least with unpacking – there is no deadline beyond my own threshold for tolerating the chaos of life among boxes!
Congrats on the move!! Unpacking in the new house will be awesome. You get the chance to be the Monica in your head with everything in its place. And if there is a box of crap you don’t need you can just toss the whole darn thing. When we moved three years ago I just pretended I was Niecy Nash on Clean House. Ummph!!