166. the art of moving

The art of moving

In my 25 years of living I've maybe moved a handful of times, but somehow I have the act of moving a bedroom down to an art. It's simple when you're moving from one bedroom to another, but as we grow older or our thrift store addiction becomes greater, we seem to accumulate much more stuff, and that can make moving much more complicated. So, for the small space potential moving gent or gal I have compiled a list of my favorite "packing and moving tips" to hopefully make someone’s journey from apartment to apartment/home/condo a little easier.

1. Clothing is probably the quickest and most joyous to pack up and move. My theory is to make it as time efficient as possible, because we all have better things to do right? How? Laundry bags and laundry baskets my friends. Usually what I do is take clothes out of my closet in large piles and either shove them into a laundry bag (or hell, a garbage bag, my clothes aren't dry-clean only) or drape them over a laundry basket...then all you have to do when you get to the new location is hang them up. So easy! You can do the same with most shoes, too!

Another easy tip in the clothing category would be the moving of the dresser. I take the drawers out and move them separately, then I move the actual dresser. Now I'm sure most have adopted this as well, but I keep the clothing in the drawers as I pile them in my backseat. They're not THAT heavy, except maybe the multitude of jeans, but that can be worked around (garbage bag). Then you can just place them neatly back in the dresser after the move is complete. High five!

I also think there is something magical about hanging up clothing in a new space. It's much more fun than doing it in your old, tired room. So, if you have any unfolded clothing lying around, just shove them in a laundry basket and save the hanging up for when you're in the new, inviting area.

2. I rarely clean, so why should I clean my old room BEFORE I pack? Easy, I don't. I may be cluttered but I know where my clutter goes and what is in my clutter. That being said, it is easier for me to pick up a pile of said clutter and load it into a box, because then I can just take it out and put it in a simliar location once I'm moved. Then, if I feel so inclined, I can clean (which consists of brushing off dust from only the visible spaces in the pile). As with the clothing, I would much rather tidy up a new room than an old one.

These theories (all two of them) are harder to apply if you're moving a whole house/apartment, so when I get to that point I will probably have to change my ways, but this has seemed to work for me, and so why not share my wisdom with the next generation?