Tackle It Tuesday – I Tackled Moving!

August 25, 2009

Oh, how I wish my camera had not gotten packed first!! If you could only have seen the transformation from chaotic piles of boxes to peaceful “livable-ness”, you’d be proud of what I tackled!

This move was so exciting for me – we now have a homeschool ROOM instead of a homeschool closet where we cram everything the kids need for learning until the door just about explodes from the hinges!

We have much more room in this new home – room to breathe. So many items now have an official “place” as opposed to a spot to shove it until I figure out a better spot.

For instance, my linens. The poor things have been split up into every single room in our old house for lack of a linen closet. Now, they are all happily reunited sheet-families that lay snuggly together in their own special closet.

All our books, all our pens and pencils, all our art supplies, all our games, all the learning toys are now in one neatly organized location – the homeschool room!

My bath towels even have a decent home! Up until now, they have been hiding out in the cabinet under the china hutch which was in the living room. At long last, they are all in the bathroom again, in a closet just for towels! Whenever I gave the kiddos a bath, I would almost always forget to grab a towel from the china hutch first. So, I would have to yell out to hubby to please grab one for me. And, if he wasn’t home … well, I had lots of drenched shirts!

And, did I mention my homeschool room?

Honestly though, while we are in “official” learning mode, I spend most of my day teaching the kids and it is so nice to have it all in one room right at my finger tips.

Life is easier when things are in their place and when there is a place for everything!

Maybe you are moving soon? Maybe you are wondering how to tackle the packing and the unpacking?

Here is what I did and it worked out really well for me – I hope it helps you, too!

Planning Ahead

Each room will get taken down in phases. I was hoping to complete each room in a start-to-finish fashion. But I ended up having to tackle each room in layers or phases. Plan out the areas of the house or, better yet, the parts of each room that can get packed first so you’ll be ready ahead of time.
Think about whether or not you will be homeschooling AND moving. Since we moved in the summer, we did not have to do both. You will certainly be operating differently if you need to homeschool while uprooting your home!
Plan for at least two weeks of meals on the run. We ended up eating out way too much and it added quite a bit to our budget. Freeze some meals. Write out a meal plan. You’ll want lots of easy-to-assemble meals to choose from when you are tired from packing and everyone is hungry.
If at all possible, find one source for boxes so you can obtain all the same size boxes. It was so much easier to stack boxes that were all the same size and shape instead of trying to put together a jigsaw puzzle of boxes.
I printed out a calendar from my homeschool planner and wrote out what I planned to take care of each day for the whole month of July. It helped me feel organized. Then, when I just could not figure out what to do next, I could look at my calendar and see what needed to be done and it put my brain back in gear.
Set up sitters for the kids. Even just a younger teenager to play with them in the backyard or with the few remaining toys. If you plan this ahead of time, you will actually have sitters to choose from and they will have time to plan out some fun things to do with the kids.
If you can have access to your new place for the month before you have to be out of the old place, take advantage of the situation. I know this isn’t always possible and this was definitely a first for me. Our gracious landlord, seeing as the previous tenants had been out for a few months already, said that we could start moving in a full month before our last lease was up! My saving grace was being able to take a load to the new place everyday and unpack it. I spent the morning packing up enough boxes to load up the van. We would eat lunch and the kids would take a short nap and then I would spend the rest of the afternoon unpacking what I just loaded up.
If you can’t get in a month early - dedicate a room or portion of a room for boxes. Clear out the area early on in the process. Then, you have a spot to put the boxes once they are loaded.

During The Move

Label the boxes. Scratch out the old labels from the last move if necessary and relabel accurately.
For my big cross-country move, I bought a new notebook and used a number method. Each box got a number. In the notebook, I would write down the number and just about every item in the box, especially those final miscellaneous boxes when you are just throwing all those odds and ends into the closest box so you can be DONE moving already! This really helped us when we needed to find something in a box we had packed two weeks prior.
Use color coded stickers on the boxes. I found plain round stickers in lots of different colors. Each room had a color designated. Every box for the girl’s room got a pink sticker, boys boxes got a blue sticker, the bathroom was a yellow sticker, etc. This is especially helpful if you have people helping you unload or a moving crew taking your boxes away. Post a legend on the front door of the new house (Stick on a pink sticker and write Girls Room next to it, and so on.) Then, post a piece of paper with the right sticker on the door of each room so they’ll know which one of the rooms is the boys room.
Lots of people want to help but no one else can really pack your boxes for you – it’s just one of those things you have to do yourself. But, if anyone asks to help, you can still take them up on the offer!! They can make meals, help clean, bring boxes, run errands, grocery shop, etc. Don’t ever turn away willing hands!
Speaking of help, your kids can help, too. Depending on age and strength, they can take boxes to a central location in the house as you pack them. My son loved taping up the boxes for me – and once I trained him on the finer art of box-taping, they didn’t open when I picked them up! Little ones can put easy things into boxes, bring you things, and clean up some areas for you.

After The Move

Invite someone over for dinner! I know, you think I am crazy – but it worked for us! There was a new family that joined our church about a week or so after our big move and my husband really wanted to invite them over for dinner on Sunday afternoon. Most of the easy stuff was already unpacked and I had tons of help from my husband in getting everything else in order. The kids pitched in quite a lot as well because they were excited to have new friends over for dinner. We got at least two weeks worth of work (if done by myself) done in one day!!

Happy Moving!! I can’t wait to hear about how you “Tackled” your big move!