Linda Hill has us working with a new prompt this fine Saturday morning. After a few days of crazy weather, I am up for the challenge. Let’s see what she has for us today, shall we?
Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “(un)pack.” Use “pack” or its opposite in your post. Have fun!
As frequent readers know, we have been considering buying a new house. Well, it’s not new, just new to us. It’s always fun to consider a new place, but moving has a dark underbelly. It’s called packing.
Now this move will not be a long distance move but a move just the same. That means finding packing boxes, then actually packing them and eventually the unpacking. Ugh. None of that sounds fun. Especially since we still have a few boxes we have yet to unpack from our move 4 years ago.
I prefer bankers boxes to moving boxes. They are smaller and easier to assemble and do not require all that taping. Of course, they are easier if we are doing the move ourselves. The downside to bankers boxes is they are costly. Just thinking about all that cardboard makes me crazy.
The upside to moving is it is a great time to downsize a little. We have downsized and shed a lot of things in our last two moves. This would be our fourth home in five years if we make the move and we have shed a lot of things in those moves.
The nice thing about donating gently used items is not only do people need those things, we would not need to pack them well. Just put them in boxes and cart them over to the donation drop off. Now, both hubby and I have packrat tendencies although the things we hang onto are quite different in nature. He loves tools and wood and gadgets. With me, it is more art supplies and sentimental things like family memorabilia and photographs. (Speaking of packrats — my friend in Arizona had real packrats living in her A/C compressor. They were such an annoyance to her!)
There does come a time, though when everything is moved and settled. You can breathe and breathe a sigh of relief — until you must find a way to recycle all those packing boxes!
Stream of Consciousness Saturday is brought to us each week by the very busy and very talented Linda Hill. If you are interested in joining in, check out her blog and make sure you check out the comments to read how other bloggers handled the prompt.
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Isn’t that the truth? My husband an I have moved like 10 times in our thirty four years together, that packing is the worst part. Starting in a new place is the best though! 😊
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New spaces are fun to settle into.
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The last two times we moved, it was with plastic totes. They made everything much easier and no one got cardboard cuts!
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We have a few of those, but they can get heavy very quickly! Great for storing things, though.
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I once moved four times in five years and I swore I’d never do that again. Maybe that’s why I keep working to improve this place – it’s a different kind of packing/unpacking/mess. It’s good to see that you think of donation before discarding.
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We try to discard very little, Dan.
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Banker’s boxes are good because you can unfold them and store them flat, then just refold them if you use them again. There’s no taping involved.
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Agreed. I donated them after the last move swearing I would never move again. The jury is still out.
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I doubt I will ever move again, before I die and ‘move’ to the crematorium. But if I do, I will be sure to save some money aside for paying a professional moving company to pack it all for me. It costs a whole lot more than them just transporting boxes I have packed, but imagine how stress free it is. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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We will have a team of movers pack some things, for sure. I am too old for worrying about all that!
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I am past that thank goodness. I remember all the moving and the help moving in the early years of our marriage. One thing stands out, how easy it is to pack books in a box and not realizing no one would ever be able to lift it.
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Don, I have made that mistake before. That’s why the movers sell ‘book boxes’. They are nice and small.
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I haven’t moved much, but the last consolidation was a very useful paring down process. We were fortunate to be able to do so over a longer period, while being able to visualize what we did and didn’t have room for, and choosing what to swap up (couch) what to bring (our favorite Southern pine vintages pieces, etc.), and what to give away (LOTS).
We were so delighted to buy our cottage here essentially turnkey; we basically just needed to do a bit of upgrading and a good bit of decluttering (easy when it isn’t your stuff!)
Our move to Asheville was definitely taxing on a lot of levels, but it worked out well, thankfully — another unusual serendipitous decision to buy a second house turned into a wonderful place to end up in “retirement.” We’d never meant to leave our great house and garden in Clemson. But Asheville proved so much more appealing that Clemson as a place to live that we were glad to have the nudge (even though the thought of leaving our old house in Clemson had me in tears for years…but I had 7 years to come to terms with that. And have never looked back.
That positive experience was probably what gave us the courage to follow another serendipitous journey to spend time here in Quebec!
We have been very fortunate in our houses; I’m totally grateful for that.
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Lisa,it is amazing how quickly we can become attached to our places. I keep thinking about quickly the dogwoods and the redbuds will start blooming. I have become very attached to the natural environment. I think about the lightening bugs and my walks to discover wildflowers. It is not an easy decision for sure.
You are my inspiration, though.
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Growing up navy gave me a strong background in packing. We’ve never lost anything in a move…until this last one. We unexpectedly decided to put our house on the market right after Christmas 2018 and the kids helped pack up decorations that year so we could clear out the house quickly. I opened bins to put things out this year and found a few things had broken in transit — so sad!! Good luck with whatever you decide.
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When we moved from Florida to North Carolina, one wooden sculpture we had broke. Just a tiny piece on the edge.
My sister had a few things disappear when the Air Force moved them the last time, but they were things of value so I do not think they were lost.
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