Little boxes, little boxes, little boxes made of packing tape

[mangosteen]

I. Hate. Moving.

Well, actually, it's more like "I. Hate. Packing."

It isn't even the annoyance of taking books off of shelves and packing them. After all, not only are most of them reference and are therefore removed from the time-consuming scrutiny of having to be weeded out of the collection, it's just fitting rectilinear objects into larger rectilinear objects. It's all the small and large fiddly stuff that eventually gets thrown into boxes with creative labels like "CRAP" or "RANDOM CRAP" or "REALLY RANDOM CRAP I SHOULD THROW AWAY BUT HAVEN'T BECAUSE I JUST WANT TO BE DONE WITH PACKING OH PLEASE GHOD."

I. Hate. Moving.

Comments

[fes42.livejournal.com]

That is why this spring my boxes label "CRAP" are getting thrown out without opening them. If I haven't missed what's in there in the two years those boxes have been sealed, it's time for them to GO. And I probably have wondered where my blah went, but at this point went out and bought a new one because I couldn't find my old one. Eh, I'm an Amercian at her best.

Good luck with the packing.

[mangosteen]

If I haven't missed what's in there in the two years those boxes have been sealed, it's time for them to GO.

Regrettably, having lived in Manhattan for several years means that I can't bring myself to do that. Any one of those boxes may contain some personally-identifiable paper that will be found and will be used for purposes of fraud or identity theft. Ergo, all of them must be gone through individually, preferably with a large-capacity cross-cut paper shredder.

[fes42.livejournal.com]

Oh you are talking paper stuff. I am talking stuff stuff. It's all just got to go. But again I wish you luck with the moving.

[mangosteen]

Well, it's more like "somewhere in there, there may be a piece of paper that may have identifying information, so emptying the box entails going through every single atom in it to find things. In short, I'm lazy, and I'm paranoid. What a combo.

[ceo]

My goal in my last couple of moves has been to have no boxes labeled "cruft" or equivalent.

This goal is obviously unattainable, but it's helped me keep the number down to one or two each time. Of course, I have some other boxes labeled "xmas tree lights, file folders, random tchotchkes, half a baloney sandwich".

[42itous.livejournal.com]

hmmm, I solve that problem by not labelling boxes. I guess I don't own enough stuff that it's an issue yet. I spent enough years being an itinerant theatre techie that I can still pack, move, and unpack in one day, excluding the larger pieces of furniture I acquired last year, for which I need the aid of big strong men.

sorry. I realize that doesn't help any.

Are you hiring movers, or can you use help carrying boxes?

[lifecollage.livejournal.com]

Are you hiring movers, or can you use help carrying boxes?

In short, yes. We're going to have Big Sweaty Irishmen move all the heavy stuff (yes, that happened last year) and then ask friends to help up move the fiddly stuff and be properly bribed/rewarded. Time frame is one month from now.

[caulay.livejournal.com]

Remember to poke us about it when the time comes. After all, we have a pick-up truck. And a station wagon.

[fidgetmonster.livejournal.com]

I've you're hiring the irishmen for the big stuff, it can't be that much more money to get them to move the rest (assuming it's already in boxes and they have a big truck). The bliss of having it all done in one 4 hour time spam is so worth it.

[lifecollage.livejournal.com]

We did that when we moved in here. It took hours longer than necessary and cost us a small fortune. Big chunky things move quickly; the seeming-infinite number of small boxes of fragile things took forever. That's where hordes of friends who take care with each box are actually preferred.

Let the professionals who know how to move box springs and futon frames without straining their backs do that. My friends can carry my wine and glass figurines.

[dchenes.livejournal.com]

This is why, in spare moments, I try to find things I can get rid of. My entire life fit in a 10-foot truck on the way out here; it would be nice if it did the same on the way back.

[fidgetmonster.livejournal.com]

I hate packing too, but the hardest part of every single move I've ever done was "how do I settle in and make this place feel like home?". So I hope the fact that you're moving into brand-new-to-you houseage (ie, automatic home) will making the packing part seem less onerous.

[claerwen.livejournal.com]

Oh, hell yeah.

Every single thing we moved onto Roe got sifted through, in the certain knowledge that, given we were about to move into a 70ftx7ftx7ft box with plenty of space already occupied by fixed furniture, marine diesel engines and other trivia, there was no choice and no oh-sod-this-I'll-sort-it-out-when-we-get-there get-out clause. Nearly everything we put in the boxroom-sized storage unit that now contains all our furniture got similarly sifted through, because it was either that or dumping the excess on the pavement. This two months after taking delivery, from my loving parents, of 46 boxes containing everything I had ever owned up to the age of eighteen, including books, toys and school exercise books that my mother had packed away and kept when I was very small.

Unpacking, by comparison, is a cinch.

Good luck. Pack the whisky and the whisky glasses last.

[wolfkitn.livejournal.com]

when we packed and moved this past summer, i eventually got to the point of achronysms (sp): YARB (yet another random box).

i wrote a filk on little boxes to, uh, celebrate a move, several moves ago (if you're curious sometime). :)