packing update!
Mar. 30th, 2021 05:39 amI knew at the start of the year that starting to pack in January for a 'sometime in 2021' move would be a journey. But not being ready for things stresses me out, and it made more sense to just start than to spend a lot of time worrying about it. I also maybe thought that having so much time would mean I could pack in a sensible way, but this has already been proven false.
*When I put things in a box, I *just* saw them, so labeling the box with something like 'Kitchen cupboard over stove - decorative' I'm sure made perfect sense at the time. Two months later, I have no idea what's in there. The kitchen cupboard over the stove is empty! WHO KNOWS WHAT USED TO BE THERE! My own belongings are a complete mystery to me now.
*It's never quite as simple as I imagine, which I did know even before I started, but I pretended it would be different this time. If the kitchen cupboard actually takes one and a half boxes, it seems silly to leave the second box half-empty, but what to put in it? Logically, it should be thematically similar items. But the thing about packing early is that there's a certain amount of 'whoops I need that again, let me go unpack it' that happens, and it turns out that 'this combination of things makes perfect sense' is a lot like 'I'm sure I could guess this password again; it's just logically the first thing that comes to mind.' As in, it sort of works, but nowhere near as often as I'd like.
*It turns out no matter how early I start packing, I'm always going to do a certain amount of 'just tuck that into any box it will fit in.' The allure of a fully-packed box outweighs the allure of a logical system for me. The good news is that at least packing early has proved to me that there's no rush to unpack quickly -- I'm living with it all in boxes *now,* I don't see why that would be a problem to continue in a different location.
*When I put things in a box, I *just* saw them, so labeling the box with something like 'Kitchen cupboard over stove - decorative' I'm sure made perfect sense at the time. Two months later, I have no idea what's in there. The kitchen cupboard over the stove is empty! WHO KNOWS WHAT USED TO BE THERE! My own belongings are a complete mystery to me now.
*It's never quite as simple as I imagine, which I did know even before I started, but I pretended it would be different this time. If the kitchen cupboard actually takes one and a half boxes, it seems silly to leave the second box half-empty, but what to put in it? Logically, it should be thematically similar items. But the thing about packing early is that there's a certain amount of 'whoops I need that again, let me go unpack it' that happens, and it turns out that 'this combination of things makes perfect sense' is a lot like 'I'm sure I could guess this password again; it's just logically the first thing that comes to mind.' As in, it sort of works, but nowhere near as often as I'd like.
*It turns out no matter how early I start packing, I'm always going to do a certain amount of 'just tuck that into any box it will fit in.' The allure of a fully-packed box outweighs the allure of a logical system for me. The good news is that at least packing early has proved to me that there's no rush to unpack quickly -- I'm living with it all in boxes *now,* I don't see why that would be a problem to continue in a different location.