This makes me laugh, albeit slightly frenzied and franticly, but laugh nonetheless. When we moved we added up that our total household goods weighed just under 20,000 pounds. Now granted that does include tables, couches, grills, lawn equipment, beds, clothes, toys, etc… and we are a family of four, but still. The UK bus puts it into perspective. AND it all had to be UNPACKED.
UNPACKED.
We won’t talk about packing. I can’t. Not yet. It’s too fresh.
But unpacking. It all has to go somewhere, and the floor is not an option. Staying in the boxes doesn’t work. Sure the packers labelled the box “Garage”…and surely what was packed from the garage can’t be that crucial, until you open the box and realize there is only ONE thing in it from the actual garage and the remainder of it consists of your couch cushions from the living room. It’s all such a mess. Don’t even get me started on the toilet brush, plunger, and my children’s toothbrushes that were all packed together, as in touching, in a box labelled Master Bedroom. (I have to do this again in 10 more months.)
Remember the Nike ad…Just Do It? Purge it. Just do it. I know there are books and tv shows and people out there dedicated to this tricky business of helping people deal with their stuff. Let me just oversimplify the whole process.
Purge it.
Put like things together….everywhere. Go ahead, make a mess.
Purge again.
Then put the like items back in ONE place that makes sense. If you can’t fit them all into the space on the first try—You need to purge again. I know this sounds like a “Duh” statement but this is where I got into trouble. I am the master at utilizing vertical space. I fill empty space with shelves and then add those portable wire helper shelves. I swap containers for different shapes and sizes so they are more conducive to fitting into the puzzle I am putting together. I can pack a car like nobody’s business too. But here’s the thing, when it’s time to pull all those things out it is like disentangling 20 large clowns out of a Volkswagon beetle. So at the end of the day I was left staring at a whole lot of clowns disguised as one too many small appliances.
This post is not titled “How to Fill Small Spaces”–it’s a cautionary tale. It’s a story about how I was delusional about how much stuff we really had.
The only thing that saved me is the following. Before my shipment of stuff arrived from the moving company I went through every cupboard, closet, drawer and thought ahead to every storage item I owned to assign where all the “stuff” was going to go.
Linens. Crafts. Extra Batteries. Mop. Vacuum. Mixing Bowls. China. Books. Office Supplies. Shoes. Coats. Keys. Photo Albums. Christmas Decorations. Extra Toiletries. Seasonal Clothes. Toys. Wrapping Paper. Phone Book/Local Numbers/Local Area Things To Do.
Notice not one category includes decorative items—because who cares at this point. That’s the icing on the cake and first we need to make the cake.
I used post it notes and had a master list of every room with what “nuts and bolts” were going to go into it. AND this time when I unpacked and the the mugs didn’t fit into their designated space I purged AGAIN instead of getting another helper shelf and performing a circus act to make them fit.
We are moving again. This time maybe with a single level UK bus vs a double decker.
