Moving-Soon-Mamas-Tribe!

[MamaFern]

I know that there are at least a few of us getting ready for a move.

I thought that i had until the end of october to sort and pack and get all organised, but now its June 29th! We are moving quite a ways away..9 hours or so, across a huge lake (ferry) and up a mountain range or 3..

So now im really just living decluttering & organising, but my challenge is that we still have a month to live here, and i do daycare, so i can't pack everything up just yet.

Im starting with going through every basket, bin, box, drawer.. & i have many.. i TRY to be organised but things get messy fast in my house..

So far i have organised all of my knitting/felting/beading/sewing supplies.. majorly decluttered & downsized it all and then organised it into clear bins.

The small ones with click lids and handles are for things like beads/embroidery floss/hand sewing supplies/knitting gear/buttons.. Ect.

Then i have half size & large Clear bins with blue snap lids for all of my wool sorted into colour categories (reds,oranges,yellows in one..Greens,blues,purples in one, Black browns greys, natural in the last)
I have a clear large bin for all of my fabricn( i dont have very much..yet!)
I still need another smaller one for my roving & felting wool.

My plan is to have it all in clear bins so that when i need something i can see it right away. i will have a craft room that is also a guest bedroom ,so everything needs to be VERY tidy and organised. luckily the room has a massive closet, so that should be fairly easy.:

I have gone through all of the kids books once and decluttered ones that we dont LOVE. i want to go through them agagin in a few weeks to see if there are more that we can donate to the thrift shop.

I have gone through the hall closet, decluttered jackets, hats, scarves, gloves and all of the other winter clothes that we had out...packed up the ones we will use next year & put the rest into a bag for the thrift shop.

I have gone through my catch all basket that i have only added things to since christmas. 1/2 of what was in there went out to the garbage/thrift store, the rest went where it belongs..craft stuff in their places, lighting ect in a box for the move..ect.

I have gone through all of our games & puzzles..decluttered all of the ones that the kids have done lots and that aren't very nice. i love the ravensburger puzzles and games, so those i kept (most were thrift shop finds & gifts) we have a few other nice waldofry games, those we kept.

im really trying to keep only things that i love & that i think are beautiful. its challenging but it feels amazing!

I went through all of the toys in the livingroom playspace, decluttered soft toys like stuffies down to 5 for each of my kids. decluttered the play kitchen area, got rif of everything plastic except for their cash register. eventually i want to replace it with a wooden one, but they love it, so it stays for now.
The wooden toys have also been decluttered, harder to get rid of but i did pear down to the most beloved, nicest ones..donated the rest to the thrift shop.
Dressups have been decluttered, but i want to go through them again in a few weeks. i know that we can always find new ones, and make them too, so im only going to keep the really special ones, playsilks and such.

Movies..DVDs and videos have been decluttered, but again i plan to further declutter them. i got rid of a ton of videos a few months ago and honestly the kids didnt even notice and im so glad to have so much plastic out of my house.

Im going to do the same with DVDs(almost all kids) and just put the discs we want to keep into a book and ditch the cases, but im worried about all of that garbage. im not sure that they would be able to be recycled..

I went through all of my magazines, decluttered ones that i dont love.. i have kept the others but feel like moving a lot of magazines is a bad idea..so im planning to get some binders and clip out things that i want to keep and recycle the rest. For my knitting magazines (i dont have many) and motehring & living crafts ect i will keep them. they are organised into white paper magazine boxes.


my biggest challenge facing me is now clothes. we have a LOT, especially my kids, because of thrift stores, grama gifts, passed down stuff.. its accumulated, but its all, or mostly, so nice that i have a hard time getting rid of them..

I want to decide on a size of bin or box that we can each keep for clothes and only keep that many. I know that wherever we go we will find, be given more.. its just an attachment that i have.

Then i have the Kitchen, bathrooms & bedrooms to do...

oh, and the under the stairs storage space, outside stuff...ak.

SO much STUFF! and we dont even have that much in comparison to most people.

[soccermama]

Ooooo, me, me! I'd like to join. We aren't moving just yet. We just put our house on the market today and are getting pics taken as I type this! : So, in a sense, we'll be moving soon. We've been cleaning and preparing for this for months. We're having a garage sale next weekend to really get rid of a lot of stuff. I can't wait!!

[counterGOPI]

count me in!!! we move the bgining of august CROSS COUNTRY! eek!! from virginia to oregon and we are driving with the kids,dogs and cats!! eeek!!
its a military move. we pack up and move what we REALLy don't want the mto destroy and they move the rest. i havent started packing yet. we just found put about the move....

[MamaFern]

that is quite the move!

we have a dog and cat as well as 3 kids.. so i hear you on the eeek!

at least you have moving help. that would really make my life easier. we have a van and then we will need a moving truck, so we need to find someone who want to driveone of the two there, then somehow get back home. i don't drive yet (learning) so its going to be tricky. my mom offered but she lives 6 hours away from where we are now, so it would mean her coming up here, then driving for 9 hours to the new house, then going home, which from there is probably closer to 11 hours. she would stay a few days to help with the kids while i unpack, but still. its a lot to ask and i hate to.

[cece]

Well, I'm hoping to join your ranks, although it would just be up the street. We found a duplex a block and a half away with a yard! The only hard part is that there's off street parking available to us 1/2 the time (every other week) so we're not sure if we'll go for it.

I really love this place, so I hope so!

I'm decluttering (as always) but with the intention that we can move! I love this place.

[Danidama]

Originally Posted by counterGOPI

count me in!!! we move the bgining of august CROSS COUNTRY! eek!! from virginia to oregon and we are driving..

Whoa, us too! We are planning on moving to Portland by the end of august. We are in Arlington now. We are driving our rav-4 and only bringing what fits in that and a Thule pack we'll get for the roof. We were going to move to Seattle (where I grew up; my family's there), but we really don't actually -want- to live there. The job situation would be easier, but we love Portland (really, anywhere in Oregon), and we don't like big cities. My dream has always been to live in either Portland or Corvallis (or Ashland or sandy or.. :-p), so this is all fantastic for me. :-D all I want to bring of my own things are kitchen stuff, clothes, my sewing machine and guitar. I'll get back on this thread to talk about this more soon. Thanks for starting a great thread, OP! :-)

[serenekitten]

: I'm hoping to be moving in the next couple months, at least into my own apartment. I have a lot of bins and boxes of old "stuff" from my childhood. I hate to drag them around with me (it makes me feel like my mother), but I don't have the patience or room to dig them out and go through them.

I'm doing some packing here and there, so if I have to leave in a hurry before or after the baby arrives I won't have too much left to take care of. Also, it's helping to clear space for the baby and all the new stuff that will inevitably accompany him. :

[MamaFern]

Originally Posted by serenekitten

: I'm hoping to be moving in the next couple months, at least into my own apartment. I have a lot of bins and boxes of old "stuff" from my childhood. I hate to drag them around with me (it makes me feel like my mother), but I don't have the patience or room to dig them out and go through them.

I'm doing some packing here and there, so if I have to leave in a hurry before or after the baby arrives I won't have too much left to take care of. Also, it's helping to clear space for the baby and all the new stuff that will inevitably accompany him. :

i had a lot of stuff from y growing up that i only just recently let go of, went though ect. i wish i had done it sooner. its a huge weight off your shoulders.

[Danidama]

Originally Posted by MamaFern

i had a lot of stuff from y growing up that i only just recently let go of, went though ect. i wish i had done it sooner. its a huge weight off your shoulders.

YES! I got rid of all my childhood Stuff a couple years ago, and I don't miss any of it. The only thing I kept, because it was the only thing that I loved and that made me truly happy is the book A Childrens Book of Verse that my grandpa gave me when I was little. He wrote in it, "To Danielle, with love, Grandpa - Christmas 1989." he passed away 2 months ago in Canoga Park, after living 86 years. :-) My dd and I Love this book. It's really great.

Well, anyway, if you've got one childhood memento that means a lot to you, keep it! But anything else that makes you nostalgic and whatnot, but that you know you don't need or love-- take a picture of it and then donate it. But I'm the kind of person that feels happiest and most peaceful (not to mention more mindful) when I only have very few possessions. Too much stuff makes me wiggy. One of my friends keeps everything. Everything. She is thrilled when she uses up a condiment so she can wash it out and use it for their "store". I'm crafty, but not That kind of crafty! I can't go to her house because I have issues with it (crap everwhere and dirty and stinky :-(). She doesn't know how I feel about her home, and I don't have the heart to say anything. She doesn't like her home this way, and she's asked for help from me (ruthless purger of crap; master organizer :-p). I've tried twice to help her separate her feelings from her stuff and help her understand how freeing and liberating it is to just have a couple things in a cupboard, to know exactly what you own and where it is, etc, but nothing worked. She can't get past seeing every thing she has (down to pages from mags and cardboard toilet paper rolls) as something she must keep because she'll use it for (insert excuse here). She has Everything she has ever owned. A million dirty 30 year old stuffed animals and clothes that her 2 dd's must have... It's a little hopeless for me, heh. I told her that if this is how she wants to keep on living forever, then don't listen to me and keep on doing what she's always done. I just wish she could wake up because I see how much it all stresses her out, and she can never find anything, and her daughters (25 months and 2 months) are living in an environment that is very unsafe and dirty. It all gets to me because I'm the complete opposite of her! :-p Thanks for letting me vent about this on here. I just haven't talked to anyone about it yet....

Topic? Hooray for moving! :-p Thats all I've got, heh.

[autumnfairy76]

Yay! I'm in too! We are FINALLY moving out of the in-laws after a year and a Half with them : !!!
Hooray! We will probably be out of here sometime July or August.
I got lots of stuff to go through... we have quite a few boxes that have stayed packed this entire year and a half and I haven't missed much of it, so I would love to do some downsizing!
Danidama, we used to live in Corvallis before we moved to Europe and it's my dream to go back to live there someday. I like it better than Paris even!

[Siennaflower]

We have been getting ready to move for a while now. I'm pg and dealing with exhaustion and so it's been very overwhelming for me. Dh helped a lot especially in putting the heavy stuff into the garage where hopefully people will come pick them up as I list them on Craigslist or Freecycle. We're moving from TX to VA and downsizing from a 3 bedroom to most likely a 2 bedroom townhouse so I'm consolidating stuff with that in mind. It is a huge task and I'm now on my own since dh had to go ahead of us to VA. Luckily the Navy will pack and move us, but I still have to declutter and clean to get the house on the market. I have decided to take it room by room, starting with our spare room which is mostly bare but the closet is packed Gotta love that collection of Care Bears that I swore dd would play with someday. Ebay here they come .

[mama_mojo]

We're moving, and I keep wanting to get rid of things that I would have to replace. So, I have to pack all my canning jars (this is not a cross country move). I look at our outdoor bin, and I cannot quite get rid of the soccer ball; DS is not interested, but one of the DDs might be. Same with a few (2 or 3) other things. It's hard for me to strike a balance, as I am MUCH more likely to get rid of something and realize mere months later that it was a mistake. I'm trying to learn to not make that mistake without becoming a packrat. So, when you look at your things, and you're deciding to get rid of stuff because of moving, where do you draw the line?

For clothes- I keep one heavy winter coat, two lighter ones, one fleece, two pairs of gloves, three warm hats, snow boots, snow pants, woolies, three pairs of pants, three pairs of shorts, approx. five shirts, 6-7 pairs of undies, 5-6 pairs of socks, sandals, rain boots, one pair of nice shoes, one raincoat. When you multiply that by 5, that's a ton of clothes.

Then, there are towels and wash cloths and sheets and napkins for 5 people. I look at my stash, and it looks huge, but we only have two sets of sheets per bed, 6 towels, and I have to wash napkins twice a week. I don't want to pack all of this, but it seems like I have to.

I have tried a little mental game where I think, "What if we were moving into a tent?" But, if we lived in a tent, we wouldn't have "normal" beds, many expectations would be different. I wouldn't be canning.

I don't know. I just wonder if I'm not radical enough; I can't find anyone IRL able to help me push this envelope, as I'm much more lean on stuff than other people I know. But, I cannot believe we actually need all this.

[hottmama]

We're moving out June 15th, putting our stuff in a POD for the summer, and moving into our new, much smaller (800 sq. ft) apartment in September. So I have this game of what do we need for 2 mos. that will fit in our volvo wagon? Also, we're going to need to fit in the small apt. in the fall, so we're ditching some furniture-- the TV stand is going on craigslist, the TV will go on a dresser instead (which is currently in the kids' room).
We'll have a futon, train table, big bookshelf, small bookshelf, and dresser in the new living room.
The kids will have their bunk bed, 1 dresser, dollhouse, and easel. We might have to buy a new 4x2 expedit bookshelf for them to put baskets in, since they're losing their walk-in closet.
We'll have our king bed (which I *hope* will fit in the smaller of two bedrooms) and dresser. The kitchen will have our table and chairs. That's not a whole lot, right?
I'm not sure what to do with the toy kitchen-- if they get the big BR, it can go in there, but if we have to take the big room, it'll have to go in the kitchen or living room. Eek.

I packed the first 2 boxes yesterday-- kids' clothes that are too big, and our winter coats. Today I'm going to try to pack everything in the kids' closet that they won't take with us for the summer, and maybe everyone's shoes that we won't take. Which will be hard to narrow down in the first place! I'm not a radical declutterer, I like to have a variety of clothes, shoes, we have plenty of dishes and towels, etc... I just like to have everything out away and surfaces clear. I might have to become more radical with half as much space!

[MamaFern]

i knew that there were others around these parts! yay. its always easier getting things done when i can talk about if after and feel like i really accomplished something.

yesterday i did quite a lot.
i took everything out of my basement under the stairs storage and sorted and purged it. what i have left is...

half a box of books a garbage bag of felting wool(will go into a clear bin when i get one), a bag of too small kids clothes that i want to keep (i got rid of more than half) a bag of too big kids clothes ( i got rid of a lot of these as well) a camping chair, summer blow up toys for the river (4 things that rolled up fit nicely into a small box) an old tv that needs to go back to my mom, or to the thrift store, the bassinet attachment for my old-school baby buggy, a hammock, Christmas, Easter, Halloween decorations (all heavily purged and simplified down to most favorite things) a bag of wool sweaters for sewing clothes and woolies with (will get a clear bin to organise these into for my new craft room) my camping backpack sstuffed with sleeping bags, a bag of winter clothes that will still fit next year, 3 pairs of snowshoes (mine & two kids pairs..new ones from LL bean)

a ton of stuff went right into my dp's van to get dropped off at the thrift shop after work : i think 3/4 of the stuff in there is gone, out of the house & my life.

how is everyone doing this sunny sunday?

[PenelopeJune]

Add me! Our house is just going on the market, but I figure we'll be moving out by the end of summer at the latest, depending on what happens. We don't know where we are going, but it will probably be in the same town. We haven't decided yet.

Since our house is up for sale, I have to keep it show-ready at all times. So I've already done some MASSIVE, massive decluttering. I keep all laundry done at all times. I honestly think it won't be hard at all to pack and move once we come to it, since we have so little junk.

When packing for a move, I always go ahead and pack all non-essentials first: knick-knacks, pictures, books that I don't plan to read in the next few weeks, photo albums, off-season clothing, etc.

The main problem is packing can be really ugly, and when selling a house I don't want ugly boxes stacked around, so I haven't started at all. But soon! I have lists and lists of what to do made so it's all planned out ahead of time.

[kimiij]

I'll be moving on August 1st!! So excited. I'm only moving myself and my stuff that's in a 1-bedroom so not as complicated as the rest of you ladies. But, I'm finding myself overwhelmed with the decision of HOW to move. I am doing an interstate move and I only want to make one trip. I don't know if I should just get some friends or if I should hire movers. I hate bothering people and I don't trust others to drive my car and so I'm leading towards movers. BUT, the potential expense is blowing my mind.

I also need to do some more decluttering. I started several months ago but I need to get back into it. I have so many knick-knacks. I'm drowning in them and it's so hard for me to make the decision to throw them away b/c I think I might regret it.

[smeisnotapirate]

We're moving 6 mi south of where we are now. Easy move.

That is, if the house will EVER be ready. We bought a crap-shack farmhouse on 1.25 acres, and it needs serious rehabbing. We've finally brought electricity into the home (yay!) and now we need to wait for our Home Equity LOC to get the kitchen and bathroom done. THEN we can move into the house and rehab the rest of the rooms. We'll be living in a demo zone.

Luckily, we can afford our 2 mortgages indefinitely, so yay. No rush on it. Meanwhile, since I can't be putting up walls by myself with a baby on my back while DH is at work, I'm decluttering massively. We're moving into a bigger house, but we are NOT taking all this crap.

[Tradd]

Originally Posted by kimiij

I'll be moving on August 1st!! So excited. I'm only moving myself and my stuff that's in a 1-bedroom so not as complicated as the rest of you ladies. But, I'm finding myself overwhelmed with the decision of HOW to move. I am doing an interstate move and I only want to make one trip. I don't know if I should just get some friends or if I should hire movers. I hate bothering people and I don't trust others to drive my car and so I'm leading towards movers. BUT, the potential expense is blowing my mind.

I also need to do some more decluttering. I started several months ago but I need to get back into it. I have so many knick-knacks. I'm drowning in them and it's so hard for me to make the decision to throw them away b/c I think I might regret it.

Kimi, I'm like you - just myself and my stuff in a 1BR. I moved in September. This is the first move that I really paid for movers, and let me tell you it was worth EVERY penny. Cost me about $450, plus $20 each tip for the two movers. Total distance was about 20 miles. I moved from a second floor apartment, to a first floor unit. Two guys and a truck for 3 hours, and it only took about 2-2.5. They had wardrobe boxes I could rent for $1 for the day of moving. The guys brought it up, helped me put my clothes in it, and moved it out to the truck. I have a large, nicely framed picture, and they also rented me a mirror box for $1 for the day of the move. Paying the $10 (or so) for the mattress bag (or however much it is) is a good idea.

The friends who used to help me move have either moved out of town, or have back issues! Also, I had to move in the middle of the week, so there was no way I could expect people to take off work to help me move, even if there had been people to help me.

Call several movers in your area. Ask friends/coworkers who have recently moved for recommendations. I'm in the same area as Amys1st on MDC and I got a WONDERFUL movers recommendation from her. They were excellent! The movers will come out and do a visual estimate. I was at the minimum. The more time in advance to get your move scheduled, the better. I got my visual estimate about a month before I moved. When I got the apartment and preliminary move in date set, then I called the movers to schedule.

I'm a minimalist, but I still had stuff to get rid of before I moved. Those 18 gallon Rubbermaid tubs are GREAT to move with! I had lots of them. Important thing to remember with movers is that you're paying by the hour. I was up very early the morning of the move, and was totally ready when the movers came. The only thing they had to do (other than clothes into wardrobe box and picture into mirror box) was to take apart my heavy wooden bed (no tools required, but it's VERY heavy - no way I could do it alone).

My movers told me that sometimes they arrive to move someone and the people are still packing - and the folks ask them if they brought boxes! Talk about unprepared.

The only things that went into my car were my laptop bag, 2 Rubbermaid tubs with important papers and some precious personal items.

Declutter as much as you can before you move, particularly when it comes to papers and that sort of thing. Be as ruthless as you can and it will make your move so much easier. I was unpacked the same day - a woman from my church offered to come over and help. She helped me get the bathroom and kitchen set up.

I'm not into the knick-knacky stuff, though, as you said you have a lot. I don't like to dust them!

[jessjgh1]

Originally Posted by serenekitten

I have a lot of bins and boxes of old "stuff" from my childhood. I hate to drag them around with me (it makes me feel like my mother), but I don't have the patience or room to dig them out and go through them.

As for all the old childhood stuff, I took my digital camera and took pictures of some of my things, even including old t-shirts I had held onto and didn't want to let go of. I'm planning on doing some digi-scrap pages with them, but even though I havne't scrapped the pages yet, I feel a huge relief to have done something with them. I had some old awards, trophys, nicknackes, etc. I also sent a bunch of old photos to ScanCafe and paid for them to scan them... I wanted to get our wedding stuff on digital so I can finally make an album now that i digi-scrap, so it was worthwhile to put a bigger order together. So now all that is on my computer instead of in boxes. Sorry that went a little off topic.

As for our move, we have the house on the market and might move, if it sells, so I can't do much, but have to keep the house up for potential showings (not that there have been any, except for the open house) Uugh.

I kinda don't know if I want to try to declutter and organize now or wait till we know more. I feel like if I know what I'm moving too, I'll be able to do a better job, but its always good to simplify and declutter(-;
Jessica

[Siennaflower]

Updating in order to keep myself on track!

Dd and I had a nasty cold for the past 5 days and I was really taking it easy with everything but now I'm back up and running. I have so far knocked out most of the kitchen pantry and the counter tops. I took a good deal of food down to a food pantry and ended up dumping a lot of expired stuff (really, you don't want to know how much...). I'm feeling good about how empty everything looks. Oh, and I hit the junk drawers too and I was ruthless. I moved all the tools that were in the drawers to the garage and I plan on sitting down and making an actual tool kit once I have them all in one location. I know there's a bunch more lurking around the house.

For the rest of today I will be emptying out the rest of the cupboards and organizing my cookware and mixing bowls and all that good stuff. I will probably let go of 1/3 of it since I know I have multiples of some items. Then I plan on giving the inside of the fridge a good once over and cleaning the stove top and that wonderful area underneath it. I'll let the oven self clean tomorrow while I'm at dd's award ceremony and then I will be officially done in the kitchen which is the hardest room I have. I can do it, I can do it, I can do it!!!