Packing 101

We sold our house back in August, and officially closed on September 10th. God has been very good to us in that we have been able just to rent the house from the new owners until our new house is finished in January. Last night we found out that we are actually going to have to move much sooner than anticipated - in 12 days.

As it turns out, the new owners were denied insurance coverage because they're not actually living in the house yet, and the mortgage company sees not being insured as a breech of the mortgage contract they're under. Oops. So, the insurance company has given them until the 19th to be in the house, which means we have to be OUT of the house by the 18th.

So... I started packing last night, and spent all day today packing. God has also been so good to us in that my mom has been planning to come for a visit and arrives late tomorrow night - and will be here until the 16th. Have I mentioned that my mom is the master packer?? Yes, God is good!

I am happy to say that I got Leif's office all packed up today (with the exception of the computer, desk, and its contents, since he'll still need those in the next 10 days) so that he can work uninterrupted in there while mom and I pack up the rest of the house. It's weird to have bare walls and empty bookcases. We've lived here for 8+ years, so we've gotten pretty settled in. =D I am hoping that the cleaned out office will help Leif focus as he prepares to defend his Master's project in a week. That's the other reason I started with his office.

SO..... Packing 101: Label your boxes clearly.

I label all of our boxes with our name, the room the box goes in, and a general description of the box contents, like so:

WICKLAND
LIBRARY

(Latin and Classical Education Books)

I have done that with every move we've made, and it has served me well. Of course, the more moves you have, the more writing you have on your boxes and the more confusing it is for others who might be helping you move to figure out which writing is for this particular move. SO... with the help of avery.com, I augmented my labeling system with *gasp!* actual labels. =D I maybe wouldn't have thought to do this, except that we will have to distinguish which boxes we will need to open at the temporary housing, and which can remain packed until we move into the NEW house in January or so. Because we have to do that, each box has a label with its final destination on it:

I'm a big fan of both words AND pictures, being a visual person myself, so I was pretty happy to find that Avery's Design and Print online had a ton of label templates with pictures on them. I just think it is easier for our brains to sort information when we get both words and pictures, so it should make the box moving process a little easier on those helping us move. Here are some of the labels I printed and put on the boxes...

It took just seconds (literally!) to make new labels and print them out. Every box, in addition to the hand-written content labeling (which is just for my own reference, anyway) has two labels - one in the center with the final destination, and a second in the upper right corner telling which room in the new house to deliver the box to. It looks something like this:

Not bad, huh? I'm hoping the clearly labeled boxes will make the move(s) easier. I guess we'll find out in 12 days!