Packing, Oh Joy

So, for the past couple of days I've been packing up my apartment. I never really much like this process, because it means transforming my cozy home into a bunch of piles of random crap surrounding a cluster of boxes.

It's somewhat interesting this time to be doing this with entirely new, unused moving boxes. Not only is it easy to label them clearly (no competing info), but they are also conveniently labeled with their dimensions and cubic volume. (They even have little bars and half-bars on the side to indicate whether they are 1.5, 3, or 4.5 foot volumes.)

What's mildly aggravating, though, is that the "small" or "book" boxes are in actuality much larger than the boxes I've used for books in the past. Not only does this mean that these purportedly small boxes weigh a ton when filled (though, since we're paying people to move them for us, is less of a worry than it might be). It also means that it takes many, many more objects, whether books or otherwise, to fill up one of these containers. Since I like to keep the contents as homogenous as possible (yoga books; office supplies; paperback fiction) it's driving me a wee bit nuts to collect together all of my books on a topic, place them carefully in the box, and then discover that there's room for three times as many. Moreover, there's always this odd nugget of space that nothing can fit into except socks -- and I'm running out of spare socks!

I'm also worrying about the implications for packing breakable or small items; I suppose what I'm going to end up doing is putting them inside other, smaller boxes, filled with padding, and then packing those. Seems a bit awkward to me, but then, I'm not the one who has to organize a moving truck full of cartons, and I want the movers to be happy as they can be while handling our stuff. (Truly breakable items will go in the cars with us, but there's a lot of oddiments like framed pictures and lamps that I don't really want to haul along if I don't have to.)

The most annoying thing about the process is the aforementioned piles o' crap. It's like there must always spontaneously generate a huge clump of stuff that can't be categorized except as "Random Crap" and which at the same time can't just be tossed in a box if you want any sort of order to result. (I may, however, as time grows short, do just that. It'd be like a 1.5 cubic foot equivalent of a junk drawer -- oh joy.)

Moving. Gotta love it. /sarcasm

Comments

[anonymous mover]

having moved six (more?) times in the last six years, I can assure you that you're doing the right thing by packing breakables in two boxes separated by packing peanuts. for the small spaces, newsprint (from the same source as the boxes you bought) is cheap and good--my professional movers used a TON of it. finally, if you have movers move your stuff, it is relatively unlikely that things in boxes will be broken. UPS (spells "oops!" for a reason) is a different matter... don't do it! good luck.

A random lurker

PS I see that you are probably an academic--that's me too, and why I moved so bloody many times... just to add a shred of credibility to my comment.

Random lurker

[Rana]

Hey, lurker/mover, welcome. It's good to know about the movers' care; all my previous moves (except the ones when I was a kid) were handled by yours truly and various family members. (I can say with utter truthfulness that there is nothing in my current apartment that was not physically brought into it by myself, except maybe a few newspapers brought over by D.)

I also like the idea of a box within a box surrounded by padding. I'd not thought about the padding part; I was thinking in terms of more clothes wadded around the breakables. ('cause I hate to waste the space, ya know? But clothes can sometimes compress in ways peanuts (yeck) don't.)

[jo(e)]

I've always found it difficult to try to sort my whole life into square boxes.

I think I'd end up with lots of Random Crap that didn't fit into boxes at all.

[russianviolets]

Hey, Rana, I feel your pain. Little by little, I feel less like I live in an apartment and more like a I live in a fort. The kitties, however, love this. For the "random crap" box, be sure to label it as LOB -- last on board. This then becomes the first box you open, and you can put all the absolutely necessary stuff here to tide you over until you can do the unpacking. I learned this when Ex's company moved us when he got transferred. It's a good trick. Oh, and call if you want to bitch about moving. I'm so looking for a partner in crime as I pack-n-bitch.

[New Kid on the Hallway]

Oh dear - the vast majority of my moving boxes end up as Random Crap! I can never keep things nicely organized.

[Rana]

jo(e), trust you to find a way to put a philosophical spin on this. :)

RV -- The LOB box is a great idea! We're kinda doing that already, in that things that will be vital to our survival while waiting for the mover are going in the cars with us. But it's an excellent thought for things that can wait until then.

It won't be the random crap box, though; I am not kidding about the randomness. It will, for instance, likely include some scraps of paper that didn't get packed elsewhere, some toys, old key rings, a ribbon, a bunch of change, some rubber bands...

It IS good knowing that someone else is also suffering through this!

NK -- there are two reasons for the organizing. First, I am an anal retentive slob (yeah, I know that sounds like a contradiction). More importantly, I have been through so many moves in my life that I know I'm going to have to open a box at least once to retrieve something that shouldn't have been packed. The more organized I am, the less likely that is to happen, and, when it does happen, the fewer boxes I have to open to find it.

Hmm... how many times have I moved in my life?

15, to date. Yar!

[halloweenlover]

Ugh, I can so sympathize. I think we have moved every single year for the past 9 years. Every. single. year. It is torture. Part of the appeal of buying a house was to finally imagine we wouldn't have to move. Good luck! We have found that packing breakables with comforters and pillows works great too.

[Scrivener]

Rana, you're certainly not the only one with the random boxes. I have moved more times than I'd care to count--when I was about 21 I calculated that I'd moved 22 times in my life, and I've moved a lot since then. I actually like moving because it's a good opportunity to reorganize and reevaluate all my stuff.

Another reason to be as organized as you can about the packing up front is so that you can actually get rid of as much junk as possible. At some point, time will run short and you'll end up just throwing stuff in boxes, but the more time you can spend now being organized, the better off you'll be moving into the new place.

[Rana]

Yup. But knowing that and wanting to do that, especially when time is quite short, are two different things.

(Seriously -- I have a total of 6 days to pack the apartment, repack the stuff in storage, and clean. There is going to be flinging at some point; there is no doubt about that.)

[BrightStar (B*)]

My sister packed up all of her stuff one year by tossing everything, and I do mean EVERYTHING, into a bunch of wardrobe boxes and labeled each box with unhelpful names such as "smurfs and rotten apples." The IDEA of this was funny (it made me laugh so hard that I cried, actually...), but I'm sure it was a mess to unpack.

All of that was to say I'm sure you'll be happier with your careful packing job once it's time to unpack. You'll find things easier, and they won't be broken.

I hate packing, though.

Best wishes to you with the move, etc.

[Chris Clarke]

I hate moving.

I also hate you moving. I've been trying not to say so. But I felt like it was possible we might decide to meet up some long weekend being in the same time zone - not that we ever worked on that - and now it's even less likely.

[pericat]

Argh. Moving. We are doing that also. Must be something about July. I am so tired, the only reason I'm up right now is because I'm working.

Eighteen bleeding bookshelf units, and we're doing it all in liquour store boxes. Some have been across the country already. Twice. They're a little sad. But if we used shiney new moving store smalls, I'd never be able to carry them down the stairs. Over and over and over and...

Bubble wrap is your friend, when you need to pad a box of breakables. Wrap the breakables themselves in that dense foam stuff.

The hour just chimed. I can go to sleep now. G'night.

[Rana]

Oh, Chris, I'm sorry. But never say never. I _do_ still have relatives on the West Coast, after all.

Pericat, if I could, I'd give you a bunch of my carefully saved but now useless boxes! I sympathize with having to tote books up and down stairs; my dad still hasn't quite forgiven me for choosing a third-floor walk-up apartment, and then moving in the depths of humid summer. It about killed all of us!

[Chris Clarke]

Don't be too sorry, R. I'm just sulking while my friend makes a positive change in her life, is all.