Moving is generally a stressful situation, unless, you have enough money to have people do your packing and moving. It’s also exhausting. Under the circumstances we faced (See A Tree Falls in Fox Crossing, YouTube), moving had to be done quickly. It was also a time of a lot of activity at Maria’s job.
You would think since is the fourth move we’ve made in four years, we would have winnowed out most of the crap from our moving van. But no, the stuff breeds in those unopened boxes and creeps out at night to feed on the forgotten things around it. all of this goes unseen until it’s time to pack.
The trip to Lowe’s for boxes, tape, stretch wrap, wrapping paper, and bubble wrap takes but a few minutes. It’s not that we haven’t done this before. We even know where to start.
Books. We have cut the inventory down, but we will never be without some of our books. Maria and I both have our favorite fiction. Then there are her decorating and gardens texts. Books are packed one-half a carton at a time. They are filled with something light. Otherwise, the carton will be too heavy to lift.
China comes next. Since we were only moving across town, it wasn’t as secure a wrap as if we were going from, oh let’s say, Louisiana to Wisconsin. Simply putting a sheet of wrapping paper in between the plates and paper wrapping the glasses and cups is sufficient. No need to bubble wrap flatware.
Clothing. Box it right on the hangers. Pack T’s and undergarments in a suitcase. It saves on boxes. By the way, tape the bottoms of boxes, but cross close the top flaps. It saves on tape. It’s secure enough for a cross-town move and your boxes are more salable. Oh yes, you can resell good boxes on Craig's list.
Empty drawers of their contents. This time I took two drawers that contained all kinds of office stuff; stapler, pencils, paper punch, blank CD’s, ruler, etc... I just stretch wrapped the drawer so nothing would fall out. It worked.
With more time we would have had less food to transfer, but again, since it was just across town the refrigerated and frozen stuff wasn’t out of the cold long enough to make a difference. Except for an entire tray of frozen meat that someone took out of the freezer in the garage and forgot to take to the new house. We noticed, twenty-four hours later. I’m still sleeping in the master bedroom, but I’m on probation. Yahoo!
Moving is a special time. It’s a time when you find all of that stuff you lost two years ago and have already replaced. DO NOT start paging through photo albums. You will never get the move done. It’s also kind of discouraging. We all looked better when we were young.
Two major facts about moving.
- Anything you throw away because it’s not worth moving, you will be out buying within two weeks.
- Anything that is heavy, will have to be lugged up a long flight of stairs. (Sometimes, it’s two flights of stairs.)
We have most of our things at the new house. Tomorrow it will be two weeks since the tree invaded our home. I’m not sure when we will finally get settled here, but it damn well better be for more than a year.
From Camp Jeff high above Badger St. in beautiful, near-downtown Appleton, WI. This is Poppa Jeff offering Greetings and Salutations.
About Appleton: If you don’t think you're good enough to live here, all you have to do is remember Senator Joe McCarthy used to drink here and you'll feel empowered.
Gypsies
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