Packing - - -

[Iggy]

We are moving to Oregon from Arizona around the first of November.

I drove to Oregon in August to find a home for us, found one, purchased it, and did a little prep to get it ready for us to move into. Hubby drove up in his PU with a small load of food storage, left the PU at the new house and we drove home together.

It is now the 21st of October and I have only packed up all but 4 sets of sheets, ALL of my socks/scarves/and handkerchiefs, all of my sweaters/dresses (save one)and two ladies blazers.

I have dreaded packing- I want out of AZ so dang bad- yet when it comes to packing up I am frozen to immobility!

Husband told me to go on line to U-Haul and hire someone to pack us up and load a rental truck. The cost is more than my 1/16th Scots blood will allow me to pay!!!! In perusing the U-Haul web site I found packaging for sale. There were only two items that piqued my interest. The garment box and the Space Bag. I would have to purchase a dozen or so box's to hold all of my hanging items. (I hang my jeans, slacks & capri's). So I researched more about the Space Bag.

The closest U-Haul store is 45 miles from here - so I went on line to Walmart and Target. They both carry - in store - the Space Bag products.

I read all of the reviews- about equal in like and dislike - decided to go ahead and purchase the 3 cube package and the regular flat package. If I didn't like them, then I could return them. Walmart only had the regular flat package of three. It was $6.00 more than what Target said they were asking. Went to Target, and they had the cubes, flat packaging, set of 6 assorted. I bought $49.00 worth -

Didn't try them out until the next day. Decided to pack up what I haven't touched for 6 years here in AZ, but will need and use daily in Oregon - my socks! I tossed about 1/8th of them - holes in the heels. NO I do NOT darn socks. With diabetic feet I am extremely careful of seams- darns will cause friction and sores on my heels.

I filled a small cube with my socks, scarves and handkerchiefs. Boy oh Boy - I am greatly impressed with the Space Bag. My vacuum cleaner is a relatively new Sears canister- it sucked out the air in less than a minute! That was sooooo much fun, I did the sheets- took a bit more time to get the sheets arranged right- but the result is most satisfying! Then I decided to tackle the hanging clothes. I used a flat bag and put my sweaters (which I never wore here in AZ- but wear ALL the time in OR)- those half filled the bag- so I did the two blazers and the three dresses.

What totally amazes me is the weight of these fabric items! They are heavy! I was like a child eager to show my parent the great work I had done when Hubby walked in the door from work. He was amazed too- These sucked up items would have gone into at least a dozen bankers boxes. My preferred moving box.

His only remark was a day later- he commented that since my 5 drawer dresser is now in a space bag- we will be moving empty drawers- will the space bags fit in the empty drawers?? NOPE- but we are not moving his HUGE - UGLY dresser. His garments, socks, etc. WILL fit in my 5 drawer dresser. The cubes will fit in the book cases. With out the shelves and laid on their sides, you can fit boxes and plastic totes in the cavities.

I also pack my books into plastic totes. We have a hand cart- so transporting those HEAVY totes is made easier. I don't toss books, nor do I give them away. Once I get them moved to Oregon, I just may hire a high school kid who aspires to be a librarian one day, to unpack my books.

Or I may entice Elphaba to come stay with us for a few months during the summer and she can help me to unpack my books and put them away properly -

I am debating how to pack my food storage cupboards. I am thinking just leave the food (dry goods) in the cupboards and tie the doors shut. OR pack the food into the smaller plastic totes I already have, remove the doors and the shelves and place the totes into the cavities.

Husband just told me that we are most definitely hiring a crew to load the U-haul. He and I can not lift and move his Oak computer desk, washer and dryer, small freezer, sofa and my cast iron parlor stove. It will be worth the $80.00 and hour for two men to do all that. They work for U-Haul so they know how to balance out the load.

We have saved the original boxes to each of our computers, the big screen, & monitors knowing we would be moving in less than a year. These have been stored in one of the extra rooms. I will have to take them outside and make sure there are no HUGE, FUZZY, FAT, BLACK spiders living in them. {{{shudder}}}

I really do not want to move the floor lamps. They only cost $9.99 new. They have been moved three times by me. I am tired of them - they are a pain in the - ahem - to move around in the house, let alone to a moving truck and then into a new home. I would rather purchase new all matching floor lamps in OR. We are not moving bed pillows either. I toss our pillows every three months - and purchase new $8.99 ones. Have done this all my adult life. We have new pillows waiting for us on our new King size bed!! I will purchase three new pillows for the Queen size guest bed once we get moved and preferrably just before we have guests.

Catching the cats and putting them into the carrier is going to be the hardest of all. We will have to trap them in the empty 'Office' and Hubby can tackle Ethyl and I can tackle Fred and then we can stuff them into the Med. size dog carrier. I have only moved these two cats three times. Each time it is harder to do, and each time I have dreaded doing it.

Oh, anybody living in Pinal or Maricopa county who would like to purchase a Northern Lights exercise gym, please go to craigs list-phoenix and check out my ad. When you respond use your lds.net name and I will reduce the price for you.

I need to shake off this immobility-depression and get PACKING!!

[NeuroTypical]

Yeah, we haven't moved in a decade. If we ever do, there will be three piles: The pile of stuff moving with us, the pile of stuff we're donating to Goodwill/giving away, and the pile of stuff to be thrown away.

I expect the piles will be of about equal size.

LM

[Guest mirancs8]

Can I come? lol!

Seriously do you need help packing? Just IM me and I can come donate a few hours. More hands the more you'll get done.

[Bini]

Packing for a trip is always fun but when you have to pack up your whole house, not so fun. I'm with LM. The next time we move, there's going to be three piles, keep - donate - toss.

[pam]

Sometimes it's worth paying someone to do all the work. Less stress.

[BenRaines]

I have moved 18 times in the last 35 years. The move before last it took me two Penske 32 foot truck loads to move all my stuff from Las Vegas to Idaho. The last move only took my pickup truck and a trailer. Have significantly downsized.

I have used the guys who contract with UHaul before. They are not UHaul employees. Both times I was very unhappy with the people they sent. I did better searching someone on Craigslist. That is just my experience.

Ben Raines

[dahlia]

Just a note about the space bags - I love when they work, but often the zipper comes undone or for some reason, the air comes in. I'd run duct tape around the zipper opening to keep the air out as a precaution.

I've moved all over. I'm one of those freaks who likes to pack (maybe it's the Air Force brat in me) and tend to pack well in advance. I love the organization of it all. : )

[Guest mirancs8]

I have moved 18 times in the last 35 years.

18 times in 35 years!!! Wow! I can't even imagine moving that many times... really, why unpack lol

[wondering23]

I've moved 12 times in 4years *dodgy share houses and landlords who would only rent for 6 months at a time.

The trick with packing I've discovered is to put some adrenaline pumping loud music on and get up and do it, no use over thinking it just start with one box and the rest will follow.

I also *reward* myself so say 5 boxes packed then I can watch a TV Show or watch a bit of a movie. It helps motivate me when I want to know whats happening on my favourite shows

[captmoroniRM]

I hate packing with a passion. That's why I let government funded movers pack up all my stuff now.

[Iggy]

The trick with packing I've discovered is to put some adrenaline pumping loud music on and get up and do it, no use over thinking it just start with one box and the rest will follow.

I also *reward* myself so say 5 boxes packed then I can watch a TV Show or watch a bit of a movie. It helps motivate me when I want to know whats happening on my favourite shows

I do the music thing when I clean house too - except when Husband is home, he doesn't like the noise. I reward myself with a cool down break for 30 minutes- then get back to the job at hand.

In cleaning out & packing up the clothes closet, I had to rearrange the toilet paper I stored there. On the floor under the clothes.

I noticed that the newer packages I bought are smaller than the packages I bought two years ago. When packages of 12 Double rolls went on sale for $4.99 compared to regular price of $10.49 I really stocked up.

Anyway, the newer rolls are nearly an inch shorter. So I checked out the differences. Sure enough the new is smaller. Each square is now 4 inches square compared to the old, 4.25 inch square.

Compared on the TP roll holder, there is nearly an inch more space. The price has gone up, the roll has gotten smaller.

Noticed this years ago with food products. Candy bars getting smaller, canned goods too. When I was in High School (1967-1970) a #303 can of vegetables actually held 28 oz of food, now it is 20 oz. A can of coffee used to be 3 lbs. Now it is 2 lbs 4 oz I think- or round about that much.

At least a gal of milk or juice is still 1 gal.

For the last year, I have not added to my non-food storage. I am down to 6 packages of TP instead of keeping it at 12. The bath soap is down to 4 extra bars instead of 40 or 60 bars. I have 6 of the smaller liquid laundry detergents (got them for $1.29 each) Did not refill my HUGE dispenser, that is soooooo heavy with it is full. I will empty it out and toss it. Buy a new one in Oregon- one that will fit in the cupboard above the washing machine.

Ben, 35 moves , wow - I don't think I could do that many without succumbing to debilitating depression. It has been said that the fourth move is likened to a catastrophe hitting you- the amount of items being lost. I find that to be true in my life. Every fourth move I lost nearly a third of my belongings.

In the move to AZ I had to leave behind almost half of my things. I still have boxes of things that I have not opened. These boxes got shoved into the extra room and then two plastic garbage cans full of lawn tools and other tools got shoved in front of them, then empty boxes, then more junk. The extra room is not Air Conditioned - so in the summer it is 120-140 degrees in there. I have yet to go in there and remove items to re-pack and toss. It is the home of the big fat fuzzy black spiders!!!

Everything in the extra room has to be taken outside, emptied, made sure no spiders or other insects are living in it, then either tossed/burned/ or repacked. I have lots of plastic totes to repack into, since I space bagged the towels, sheets, clothes.

I have five laundry baskets worth of towels/wash cloths/hand towels. Big laundry baskets - these all fit in a Jumbo Cube space bag. Then I added 6 sets of queen sheets and 24 pillow cases. I sucked the air out, let it sit for 24 hours and then decided to add two more sets of towels and 4 more sets of queen sheet sets so I opened the zipper, wanted to see if I would have enough room- see how much air went back into it. Not that much. I can add everything I want to. Now I have a small cube space bag for husbands & my jeans.

Ooohhh, I really love space bags. When we get unpacked in Oregon- I am space bagging all of our extra blankets, quilts. Think I just may do the queen sheets too. The queen bed will be our guest bed - I bought a new King for the Oregon home.

Time to do a bit more packing- even though it is Sunday and Husband is home. I'll do my books.