Moving Tips: We Did This Right!

I have just over a month until I move to Concord! How time flies, right?!

One thing I've started to think about again is packing and moving. I don't know if I'm just weird about this, but I love to move - I love new possibilities! 

When J and I moved to J's mom's house at the end of April, this was my first time really moving out of anywhere besides my house in Johnston. Moving in was weird enough - I realized I had no essentials, like a toilet plunger, but I'll get to that another day, haha.

J and I did a great job moving out, but it was hard. In preparation for this next move, I've decided to put together a list of a few things we did did right!

#1 - Use up the food you have!
Apparently J and I like to eat the same kinds of things over and over again. Angel hair pasta with a spicy tomato sauce is a staple, after all! A month before we had to move out, I decided to clean out our pantry so we could get rid of all the things that were expired or that we didn't need.

I ended up throwing a lot of expired food out (in our defense, my parents were moving when I moved in, so I got a lot of their disowned pantry items), but I also ended up finding a ton of great food that I didn't know we had! Among the goodies were steel-cut oats, some great canned goods, tons of Kraft mac n' cheese, and a mountain of discarded Tupperware!

J and I usually went to the grocery store every two weeks, give or take. We both decided to try and use everything we could from the fridge, freezer and pantry before making another trip - we didn't see the point in having any leftover food when we moved. 

It was an interesting but very good month. I started bringing the oats to work with me for breakfast. We started experimenting with dinners, using the pilaf we had found and trying out the frozen salmon patties. Not everything was delicious, but we certainly made that month work. I even ended up boiling the remains of our rotisserie chicken to make chicken stock for a homemade soup!

I won't have to do this for this next move since J and his mom aren't moving with me, but I definitely think it was one of the most helpful things we did!

#2 - Pack before you have to!
Since I'm so excited about packing, this was something I really pushed for. We didn't do a perfect job at this - I was a little too relaxed at packing for the first half of the month, and it stressed J out. The hardest parts of packing up your house or apartment? You're still living in it!

It's hard to figure out what can be packed beforehand or not, but (like with the food) it can also be easier than you'd think. For example, after I cleaned out the pantry, I decided to pack away half of my cooking supplies. I had a few different cooking pans, baking sheets, mixing bowls and utensils - instead of keeping them until the last minute, I packed them away a month before! Plus side? FEWER DISHES TO DO.

I would definitely be more consistent about this next time and try to do the bulk of the packing in just a few days. While it was nice to have the extra time to leisurely pack, it was sometimes stressful to figure out what could be packed when. I feel like things would have been a lot easier if we had just gotten 50% or more of it done and dealt with having less stuff for the rest of the month. Do you really need all those dishes for the rest of the month? How about a whole closet full of clothes? All of those DVDs and books? No, I didn't think so.

#3 - LABEL. EVERYTHING.
We had it especially hard because we had THREE different types of boxes: Boxes that were "our" stuff, going to our new room; boxes that were "ours" but didn't need to be used immediately; and boxes of my stuff that I wouldn't need until law school. We quickly realized just how much stuff we had, especially stuff that we didn't need. Because of this, J and I started a "donate" box pile, which brought our "three" box labels up to "four." It was still so worth it!

When you label, there are a few rules to follow:
1) Make the writing clear, easy to read, and in a convenient location (preferably a consistent location with all the boxes)
2) Mark where the contents of the box came from (i.e. "From Bathroom")
3) Along with that, it is helpful to list the general items in box (i.e. "Hair dryer / face stuff / under the sink stuff")
4) Mark where you want to box to end up at the new location (i.e. "To J Room" or "To Bathroom")

Even if you just have "your" stuff going to one place, labeling what's in what box and where it goes can be a nightmare. When we started unpacking at J's mom's house, it seemed very simple - after all, I had labeled every box by these rules... Except sometimes I didn't. Sometimes I didn't label what was inside of the boxes. By the end of packing, I was literally just throwing everything that didn't have a place yet into boxes and labelling, "Random." This was not a good idea. Next time, I am going to be much better about following my own advice. 

Thankfully, half of my things are already packed away! Everything that was for "Law School" hasn't been touched. I will still have to pack up my clothes and track down all my movies and bathroom stuff, but the packing should be a LOT less intense than last time.

Be prepared for another blog post about "This Time We Should," where I go over things I wish we would have done last time we moved (and which I will be doing this time or in the future)!

Do you think these are good moving tips? What would you add? How do you deal with the stress of moving?