Chani Meyer's Fabulous Top 10 Packing Tips

Tip #1: Don't move. 

Tip #2: If that's not an option, start preparing and planning early.

Tip #3: Save all different sizes of boxes, recruit friends to start collections for you. Check local free sites (such as Craigslist, or FreeCycle), if you need more, before buying any!

Tip #4: Work room by room, don't overwhelm yourself. It's not worth the headaches or panic attacks! (Ask my husband, he had to deal with said attacks. Usually at crazy hours too!) I prefer to have a Dry-Erase board handy, keeping track of all the important notes I need to know about each room I'm in!

Tip #5: Another thing to collect are old magazines. I prefer that to newspaper, the thicker paper usually does a better job cushioning things. We like to ball each page up and use as filler, too. Who wants to deal with those packing peanuts! Only thing is, be careful when unpacking that you check everything, make sure you're not throwing out some small, delicate chochke!

Tip #6: Label your boxes well. It will make unpacking SO much easier!

Tip #7: Use Space Bag 12 Storage Combo Packs. But these things are really great! They have so many uses. Baby clothing stores better when the air is sucked out, otherwise oxidization causes all the stains that we worked so hard to remove just come right back up! Linens pack into much less containers when they're squeezed tight into these bags! Seasonal clothing being packed away until needed will survive much better in these as well!

Tip #8: TVs and radios should be the last thing on the truck. Bopping along to music makes packing so much more enjoyable. The TV is for those few minutes you steal between boxes to keep up with your shows. Priorities!

Tip #9: Wear a roll of packing tape as a bracelet and keep a Sharpie Permanent Marker in your pocket at all times. If you can figure out a way to safely hang a razor off your belt, do that too!

Tip #10: Don't forget how stressful packing and moving can be. On everyone. Keep that in mind when you're about to snap at your two year old for emptying out your just-packed boxes. Or your spouse for putting something in the wrong place. It's not worth it. Take a deep breath and think hard about how your reaction compares to the situation. Chances are, it's not that bad!

All in all, moving can be a great thing. You will find everything you've been looking for since moving into your house, and then some! You will be able to organize all of your things, get rid of unneeded clothing and toys. If you're lucky, you might be able to score some nice, new swag too!

Don't sweat it!

So Many Things!

We got our new computer today :) Yay us!

Just a quick update of what's happened in the past few weeks. Electronically speaking, things have not gone well. First, my almost dead laptop died. Final blue screen and it was done. Kaput. Then Shuky's phone received the kiss of death. Bought a cheapo replacement for now. Mine's been on the fritz for a while but I'm not even going to think about what will happen when it has to go to the 'phone farm'!

But wait, we're not done! With two weeks left until our move, the heating element in my dryer decided to go on vacation, laundry downstairs is no more. And of course I was waiting until the last minute to wash everything going into storage. Cost us $20 to get rid of the dead machine. Next, Shuky's laptop went haywire...the screen just internally combusted on us! Sitting on the computer one day and Shuky hears a loud POP! and there are suddenly millions of colorful horizontal lines instead of whatever he was looking at! So we kept his laptop attached to our TV and watched Hulu on that screen, put on Benny's videos from the hard-drive - it worked for us.

Then, last night, our TV crapped out on us. Started going dark on the top and just shut off. Did some research and, unfortunately, found that this was pretty common with the specific model TV we have. Or had. And of course, it was only fixed by electricians. Everyone else had to dump it. And there's a $20 charge to dump a TV as well. Kick us while we're down.

So, officially, we were going to wait until after the move, get some loan money, get a new computer. Save what little cash we have now for the first few weeks of Ames-ness. But we found an amazing deal and decided to take a leap. And you can thank our insanity for this blog post at 1:40 am. When I should be sleeping.

But, alas, here I am. Let's talk! Being that there is less than two weeks until The Big Day, there are tons of projects going on in the house, aside from packing and keeping our sanity! We have tenants coming into the house four days after we leave so the house has to be ready for them right away. So of course, we waited until the last minute to get things done. Today, our handyman was stripping wallpaper in two of the bedrooms. Tomorrow, the flooring in the kitchen and upstairs bathroom will be redone. Three bedrooms will be repainted. The small nursery/storage room upstairs will get carpet. I still have to get someone to deal with the mold in the basement. It's been a very wet past couple of months!

We have already taken some of the furniture out to our 'Storage Unit', aka my father's large garage and basement. We have many boxes ready to go and all of Benny's baby things will be going there too. I bought enormous garbage bags (like 30/40 gallons enormous!) to cover all the toys (rocking horse, jumperoo, highchair, etc.) and am praying it all remains pure!

My kitchen is probably halfway packed. My table is no longer visible. We have a boxspring leaning up against a bookshelf in the living room and our fridge is in the dining room. The stove will be joining it tomorrow morning. I still have to clear out the storage room for the new carpet and then I will go veg in my father's lovely air-conditioned home for the day.

Did I mention our current house does not have central air? We have a window unit in our room and we put one in the room Zalmy (Shuky's younger brother - he's been here since the 1st) has been staying in. But he has been relocated, for the next few days anyway, to Shuky's office. His room is one of the ones being de-wallpapered and painted. And Benny's bed is in our room as his room is on the same to-do list.

Wish us luck! Hope everyone is enjoying their summers so far!

And, on a fun note, just wanted to share an awesome wall storage unit I found an older link to :) I want these all over my house!!