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Monday, July 6, 2015

Moving.

My husband and I have now moved four times in the two and a half years we've been married. Every time we're about to move, I get really excited. It's fun to think about upgrading into a brand-new place that doesn't have all the annoying problems of our current place.

Somehow in my mind I just sort of skip over the actual moving part. Now I'm in this old, crummy apartment, and soon I'll be in a shiny, glittery new house with tons more space and much better flooring! (The last time we moved, "much better flooring" meant hardwood floors. Now that we have a baby, better flooring means carpet. My baby has celebrated by scooting around all over our new carpet.)


But this time, I decided to make our move as seamless as possible. I created a Master Plan. Unpacking this time would not be a drag--in fact, it would be unbelievably easy! Never again would I spend two hours unpacking a single box, running all over the house with various mismatched items that each belonged in a totally different place than the last. This time, packing would be logical and unpacking would be mindlessly simple. The Master Plan was foolproof.

Except, of course, that it wasn't.

Apparently, I'm not the genius that I thought I was.

I'm not exaggerating about my obsessive planning, as you can see from these labeled pictures of every single storage space in our house.


There were a few flaws in the Master Plan (surprise). For one thing, I severely overestimated the actual amount of space in each storage area. I assumed that merely wanting to put a million things in a closet would mean that they would all fit there. Like maybe the closet would sense my desires and would expand just a little bit to accommodate my stuff.

Like maybe instead of moving to a small town 20 minutes away, I was moving to Narnia.

(Hey, you never know.)

Another problem was that I now have no idea exactly what is in each box. I was so proud of myself for labeling each box simply with the code I came up with for the storage area where all the stuff belonged--but when I was packing, sometimes I would decide to label a box after I had filled it up, just in case I changed my mind about where the stuff belonged (which, by the way, I never did), and then I would forget to label it at all. So yeah, I got out of spending fifteen minutes writing all over a single box detailing its contents, but it also took me five days after we moved before I found my hair dryer. And my living room is filled with unmarked boxes.


However, I do take a little pride in the fact that the Master Plan worked like a charm in one room of the house: the kitchen. I was so detailed about where everything belonged that my brother-in-law actually did some unpacking for me without any supervision, and I was perfectly happy with where he had put everything.

So yeah, my Master Plan had a few kinks, but I've already figured out how to fix them for our next move. The next move really will be smooth and painless. Right?

Right.

4 comments:

  1. Wow, four moves in 2.5 years. I move a lot too, but I never have much stuff to move. You could even say that my master plan has been to just 'not have much stuff'. I regret it whenever there's something handy that I could already own but don't because it was never inside the target zone of what's necessary to own and doesn't take up much space!

    On the plus side, I was able to get almost everything from WI to OR in my car. Had to leave the bed, dresser, and desk though, which was very sad. [:`(

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    1. It's a lot easier to "not have much stuff" when you're single. I've tried to get my husband to get rid of stuff...but I guess I don't get to decide for him what has sentimental value and what doesn't. Hah.

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  2. When I moved from California to Oregon, I fit all my stuff in my little Toyota. Every move has become progressively more difficult. With our last move, we didn't finish unpacking for years! (Actually, I'm not totally sure that I'm finished unpacking now. A few of the boxes in our garage might never have been unpacked, but at least I looked into them and decided where to stash them.) But if my life goes perfectly according to plan (and all my family members decide to live in Oregon), I'll never have to move again!

    Your baby can scoot around? I want details! I guess I'll see her in a few days, so I can learn what she's up to then!

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    1. It's pretty darling! She actually doesn't scoot so much anymore because she's big into rolling now. She's so good at rolling that she might not see the need to learn to crawl anytime soon. She's very original, you know!

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