Tuesday, May 1, 2012

moving! and how to do it effeciently


the BIG day is here! ok, not the BIG day as in the wedding day; the BIG day as in moving day. not nearly as fun and much more stressful for me than any of the wedding planning. i thought it would be helpful to share some of my moving tips to help anyone else that gets stressed at the thought of packing up their life.

-before you start packing, make sure everything is clean (there's no point in packing dust bunnies). also make sure you have two bags available: one for trash and one for donating. when you pack, you will come across things you realize you do not need.

-have supplies handy like boxes, packing + masking tape, bubble wrap, markers, scissors, colored stickers.

-mark all sides of the box. i know it seems redundant but you'll be so glad when you look in the back of the moving truck or at a stack of boxes and you don't have to figure out where the label went.

-assign a color to each room. i used those circle dot stickers that people use for garage sales because our new place only has four rooms. the bathroom became the green room, the kitchen the red room, the living room was yellow, and the bedroom blue. then i put up a piece of construction paper in each room to coordinate the colors. this makes it super easy on my family, who are so graciously helping, to put boxes in the appropriate rooms.

-since space planning is my life, i drew up a floorplan of the apartment with furniture labeled. i printed an 18" x 24" plan and taped it right inside the front door. that way they can easily see where to set my desk, the entertainment center, etc. and i don't have to be in the apartment the entire time.

-somethings i want to make sure i handle myself - like my makeup. it may sound silly but makeup is expensive and my rowdy cousins could care less about it. i made sure that i packed it carefully between old towels and marked the box with large black letters "COURTNEY TO TOUCH ONLY OR YOU WILL NOT GET LUNCH". i wouldn't really not give them lunch but for my little control freak mind, it puts me at ease.

-lastly make sure that you contact the utility companies about two weeks before to schedule hook up of electricity, water, sewage, gas, cable, phone, etc the day before you move in. you may also need to call a locksmith to have locks changed if necessary.

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