Moving In a few weeks - help!

AGINY

Fri, Jan 30 2009, 4:54 am

I am not sure this is the right forum but didn't knwo where else to post. I am IYH moving from an apartment to a new house in a few weeks. I am very very excited but at the same time quite overwhelmed at having to pack everything we own. I don't know how to pace myself. DH doesn't want to "live with boxes" for weeks before we move, but I think it will take me more than a few days to pack all the sforim, kitchen stuff, clothes etc.

We have been living in this apartment for the 9 years we have been married so I am new to this moving thing. For those of you who have done it, do you have any tips or ideas to help me out here? How long in advance should I start packing? What made it easier/harder for you?

Thanks!

NotInNJMommy

Fri, Jan 30 2009, 5:05 am

start by getting rid of everything you haven't used in the past year or 2. try to sell it, give it away, or just trash it. Give yourself 10 days to get it OUT ofyour house. Do not shlepp it. shlepping costs money, time, stress, and shalom bayis. I've never decluttered as well as I have when moving.

You can pack ahead without "living out of boxes". Ask dh to set aside some seforim to keep him busy for a few weeks, and pack the rest. Same with dishes. Use disposable so you aren't spending time cleaning up and you can get the kitchen packed up. Are there toiletries you really can survive with only for a few weeks? Pack everything else up. Same with linens. Just keep out what you need to get by for those few weeks (assuming you just keep washing the same set or 2).

Get babysitters if appropriate. Arrange for someone else to clean up after you leave, so you don't have that headache.

As you pack, label the boxes with their destination on the top and side and keep them together with their (new?) roommates....ie. the other boxes going to that room.

Then right before the move, you'll have 1-2 boxes per room of last minute things. ie. the bed linens you've been using, the toiletries, etc. the kitchen essentials, etc.

IMHO To tough it out for a few weeks with only 1 toothpaste, etc. is worth it!

Consider making crock pot or 1 pot dinners, or better yet, take out, or ready made frozen things to pop into oven. I'm not sure if you can, but try to go away that last shabbos, or at least not cook anything.

Maybe you can find sem girls to babysit, label boxes, easy packing, etc.?

ss321

Fri, Jan 30 2009, 5:24 am

Yea I think this is exactly the right forum!
First of all mazel tov on your move.
Now to answer your questions:

AGINY wrote:

For those of you who have done it, do you have any tips or ideas to help me out here?

Label EVERY box. Dont ever be in a rush and forget. Then when the movers bring everything, make sure it gets sent/taken to the right room (or at least put in organized piles in the middle of your living room) right away, that way its not a big mess!

Do seforim last. When we got married (and moved into an apt) they were a "priority" to DH. But with 2 kids in tow, clothes food and "essentials" came first, it took 3 weeks till the boxes of seforim got put on the bookshelves. But EVERYTHING else was put away.

Get a cleaning lady if you can! Try finding one on craigslist, there are people who actually do "move/in move out cleaning jobs!" you pay them like 50-100 dollars a day, and they will do dusting, help you fold stuff, mop the floors - they are not going to like do your laundry - they will be busy doing all the things essential for your unpacking. I have a full time housekeeper/babysitter, but I felt like it was too much to ask her to start slaving away like that, so I actually found a girl on luach.com, and it was great. 100 dollars for 2 days of helping unpack boxes.

Do you have family nearby? Having sisters and cousins and parents and friends help unpack can actually be a BLAST! I found that my youngest sister (a kid) was the BIGGEST help! she was very eager to do whatever we needed- carry this downstairs, go put these in the bedroom, organize the soaps in the bathroom, etc. all the little things no one else had the patience for!!

DONT PAY FOR BOXES. I dont know where you live. If you are in NY, this goes without saying. I mean, go to any supermarket, and they have piles and piles of folded up boxes outside on the street 2x or more per week for recycling pickup! So just collect them. They are like 10 dollars for 4 at staples. And if you dont live in NY, well I know they also have boxes....they might not leave them out on the street, but try going to places like Sams club, target, etc, and asking where they dispose of their used boxes. Hospitals always have tons of boxes too. NO reason to pay for them!!

Putting this at the end because it might be totally unapplicable:
If you are not moving to a new city (/state) - ie its somewhere within 1/2 hr -1 hr of your apartment, try to do some things beforehand! the big pieces of furniture you cant do before hand obviously, but like dishes in your kitchen cabinets. Can you put 6 boxes in your car one day and bring them over, and take care of all that beforehand? same thing w/ the food. Transferring my fridge contents (plus our extra freezer! omg!) was really annoying. I am glad we did that not on the actual "moving day."

AGINY wrote:

How long in advance should I start packing?

Uh, I started 4 months in advance. But that was because I was also studying for my boards and in my 3rd trimester. So things went very slowly, one box at a time. I think (but my estimations might be off), If DH and I had blocked of an entire week (meaning 6 whole days - say 7 hrs per day), we couldve done it in that amount of time - meaning cumulatively it probably took us something like 45 hrs, but we did it "here and there" and we didnt have blocks of time like that to do it all at once. It also depends on the size of your apt...and we werent there for 9 yrs...so I guess it also depends how much "stuff" you have, how many kids you have, etc.
To give you an idea, I think, not counting furniture, we had about 75 or 80 boxes. That is alot of stuff, I dont know how we accumulated most of it. Linens took up 10 boxes-between pillows, kids sheets, quilts, etc. Dishes (milchig and fleishig sets of 12, shabbos set of 16), glasses, and silverware (its heavy so was divided out, we put the kitchen towels in those boxes to take up space - 3 sets - 2 stainless flatware, one sterling), were another 10. Serving dishes- 2 more boxes. Kitchen tools (cuisinart blender etc) was 3 boxes, pots and pans was another 4 boxes. So that right there - is....close to 30 boxes. It really just adds up...

AGINY wrote:

What made it easier/harder for you?
Thanks!

Easier:
having parents nearby
having a babysitter for my kids (esp for my baby!) so that we could get more done but my kids were still right there
the day we moved, everything was "done" no last minute stuff needed, because we had been planning and organizing for so long
moving to somewhere closeby so that we could do stuff in advance, and also go back and double check make sure we took everything along

Harder:
things broke. Be aware. dont get upset. My favorite vase. A couple plates and a bowl from my (mega expensive) shabbos china. Its just part of it, anticipate it, and move on
being home our first shabbos lol! Obviously we couldve gone to my parents or DH's parents, but we wanted to spend shabbos at home in our first home with the kiddies Smile

. Our choice, but I definitely wont tell you it was easy to cook with boxes everywhere...not to mention....my brand new dishwasher flooded the kitchen thurs night (wasnt installed right) and my milchig sink was competely dysfunctional (first it just had cold water. Then it just stopped having water altogether). So just beware - not everything will be perfect, there will be problems. If you go in with that attitude, the problems will be alot easier to deal with, than if you are expecting everything to be perfect then you hit bumps in the road.

Well thats all I can think of !! good luck!!

poelmamosh

Fri, Jan 30 2009, 5:51 am

We just did the same (married 9 years, too but we had moved once before) but I am NOT a saver. So there wasn't much to throw out.

I made labels (3 per page) on the computer that I taped onto the boxes, which were color coded according to room, also with small stickers of the same color on (almost) every side. My dh has lots of sefarim, so we had over 200 boxes. I have this list on quark on my computer, you can PM if you want it. We got the boxes from Ebers, for the sefarim (they get rid of them Monday afternoons at 5:00) and the down-kingston hat store (borselino boxes, in two sizes were the best for almost everything else.)

ss321

Fri, Jan 30 2009, 6:03 am

poelmamosh wrote:

y dh has lots of sefarim, so we had over 200 boxes.

LOL

Since you mentioned this, I thought I would mention that as well -- -I said like 80 boxes. That does NOT include seforim! I think he had 136 in the end. Just of seforim. Books (like my school books, his school books, kids books, cook books, etc) - that was 8 boxes if I recall. Thought I should make a note of that too. Take that into account when ordering a moving truck (they have different sizes and will charge you much more if like they show up and its too small of a truck and they have to go back and get a diff one).

AGINY

Fri, Jan 30 2009, 6:13 am

Thank-you so much everyone! I am going to start on the sforim on motzei shabbos IYH!

I keep looking at the pack/unpack situation as gam ze ya'avor! I guess in a while it will be done and I will look back and feel very accomplished!

frosting

Mon, Oct 07 2013, 12:48 pm

If DH doesn't want to live with boxes then let HIM do the packing last minute. If you are doing the work you do it at your own pace. Dh knows that it's a one time thing- he can live with it. If not, you can always hire movers who can do it all in 1 day.
enjoy your new diggs.

doctorima

Mon, Oct 07 2013, 2:44 pm

Considering that the original post is more than 3 years old, I hope that they've sorted out the boxed and are enjoying their new place by now!