I made the mistake of

asking how far along J thought we were in the packing process the other day.

[I was thinking almost half-way. Boy was I way off!]

He said probably only 1/4 of the way done, and then chuckled stating that we hadn't even begun on the kitchen, master bath or bedroom (aside from clothing).



We started to tackle the kitchen yesterday afternoon. We're currently only packing items we will not need over the next 3 weeks until we move. My mixer was put into it's original box (thankfully we kept it flattened up in the attic), the rice steamer, mini food chopper, electric knife… which usually only comes out around Thanksgiving was also packed away. The next group of items will be dishes and glasses we can do without for now. I think leaving out only 4 to 8 coffee mugs would suffice. Perhaps the same with glasses, adding a couple plastic cups just for ease of use.

All the pitchers and vases we had above the cabinets for use/decoration were taken down and packed very well. Thank goodness for shredded paper and packing peanuts.

A few days before I had gone through my closet and dresser to pack clothes and shoes I didn't think I would need. That doesn't even include the purses/bags. I think at this next house I'll need a better "system" for hanging or storing my purses so I can use more of them more often. Now, you may think I have a lot of purses… I have enough. Some are small tiny like the camouflage purse that would only hold a lipstick, your ID, a couple credit/debit cards, and perhaps something else that could be crammed in. One is pretty funky. It's a fuzzy orange purse with silver threads mixed in with the orange. It's fun to use once in a while. No one would lose me if I had it on my arm, that's for sure. Others are more "traditional". One bigger black purse, one black medium sized purse and another small black handbag. You can't go wrong with black!

Okay, okay. I probably need to narrow them down. Who needs that many anyway right? I like them though, even if they're not important to me. Does it help that they don't take up much room? I've stored them in a round hat box at the top of my closet… like I'm going to use that space for anything else since I'm so tall and all.

[wink]

What else? Hmm, the garage needs to be cleaned up. J always laughs at all "my" stuff in the kitchen or bathroom. *Hello* True, I'm a woman but I think it goes both ways. He's got a lot of stuff in the garage and our spare bathroom. I'll need to remember that when he says something about my things. Hee hee!

The difficult thing right now is needing to keep certain things out so work and life can continue as "normal" as possible. My office has been cleaned out, except for my desk, computer, monitor, printers, paper, a few pens/pencils, and a couple folders with project information. All the boxes are behind me, just looming and waiting for the day to be put to use. I should correct what I said. My bookcase and storage cabinets are still in the room, but they're empty so the only items I am using are the necessities.

What are your tips or tricks for packing?

I've even done some research about cleaning our new wood cabinets and Corian counter tops once we move in. Kind of seems like I'm getting things out of order though. I better stick to packing and then we can "worry" about cleaning once we close on the house.

Do you have any words of wisdom for packing, moving, cleaning? Share them in the comments, I'd love to hear your ideas.