Packing: a love/hate relationship

[psychic friend]

So I'm moving next week. I hate packing. (who loves it?).

Good news: FOUND my passport! YES! don't have to renew until 2010 and man I looked good in that picture. Why did I hate it?, found lots of pictures I had forgotten about, found my diary from when i was a weeeee teen. (i know the exact date of my loss of virginity). oh joy my autographed ride/slowdive 7", my many oasis set lists, misc. items i just can't throw away.

eh: threw out tons of stuff I have not looked at even once since when I moved into this shit hole 4 years ago. I have purged greatly.. I feel lighter, more free. I curse knickknacks. I have trimmed mine so much and yet I still keep some. I call them dust collectors. I need a shelf and I should get cash back on what I have thrown away. DONT GIVE YOUR FRIENDS DUST COLLECTORS NO MATTER HOW COOL YOU THINK THEY ARE. I say that for everyone.

blah: realized just how much I lost in "the fire". so many cd's & vinyl. I will miss you, always. thank god for mp3s and that one thing that takes forever but does heal..............TIME.. OH "time" how I hate you and love you simultaneously.

I moved from a 2 bedroom to a single 4 years ago and thought I had thrown out a lot. I threw out so much crap over the last couple days it's insane. It's funny the stuff we keep/kept. I wonder how much of what I am saving this time will make it through my next move whenever that happens. I feel I have drastically trimmed down, then again I felt that way 4 years ago.

Share your moving stories. What have you learned?

[captncrzy]

The last time I moved, I learned-from the movers-that some people don't even bother to pack. They said that they'll show up at peoples houses and NOTHING is done; and the movers have to pack their shit for them. I guess it costs a fortune but some people must think it's worth it because it happens all the time.

So...if you're gonna hire movers, book them to show up first thing in the a.m. so they'll show up on time, just in case the people that are booked before you decide not to pack their shit and the movers have to spend hours extra packing it for them. Also, tip the movers really well so they don't break your stuff.

[psychic friend]

ya mine are supposed to come at 10am. and they only have to move the big stuff (bed/tv/couch/etc). most everything else I will have moved already if it fits in my car or my friends car.

[captncrzy]

Hiring movers rules; you get to stand there and drink Diet Coke and tell them where to put stuff. Best $300 + tips I ever spent.

[psychic friend]

i found the 2001 coachella program/booklet thingy. wooooooooo

[ewiggy]

i'm only moving what will fit in a scion xB. i'm pretty sure that's only going to be my clothing, shoes + necessities + some of my art.

the rest is getting sold or i'm giving it to goodwill.

it feels liberating. i'm going from a house full of stuff to a small room full of stuff.

[wmgaretjax]

i just moved all my shit into storage because I'm spending 3 months away from seattle. i got rid of probably 1/3 of my stuff. it was nice.

[bmack86]

I recently moved one block. I've got next to nothing with me. it still sucked, in a big way.

[matsuolost]

it must feel awesome not having all that useless stuff anymore, even if we pretend its not useless and we might need it sometime, we know it is, and we know we wont

[RotationSlimWang]

Moving is possibly my least favorite thing to do in the entire world, as it combines all the aspects of cleaning/packing/lifting/carrying and then the reversals thereof.

I intentionally moved out to LA with no more than could fit in my car--computer shit, a medium-sized TV, clothes, and unnecessarily large box packed to the brim with every book I owned and either liked or had planned to read (ever since I've been finding ways to pawn off the works that revealed themselves as not worth carrying on other people), a coffee pot, and several pieces of luggage/backpacks/garbage bags of miscellaneous crap.

I've made it a point in the two years I've been here to never acquire anything that I wouldn't be able to transport in my smallish sedans, several times refusing offers of fine large things like king-size beds or big corner desks. That's how much I hate moving. Oh, and I've been sleeping on air mattresses (a total of three) since October out of poorness and resistance to go to the trouble of having to tie something to the roof of my car. Hate moving.

But Danielle, where are you travelling to now? I too remember when you lost your virginity... oh, how young we were then. I still get a tingle of electricity every time our skins touch, though, all these years later.

We'll always have the golf cart, Danielle. Always.

[thinnerair]

I moved from a bedroom in a large brownstone to a 2 bedroom apartment.
I remember moving into that place, only having to take 2 trips in my pickup truck in order to bring my furniture and clothing/books/etc.

Now that I live here and had to furnish a whole living room/kitchen/etc, im sorta both looking forward to and NOT looking forward to moving in January 2008. I don't really mind packing and I am sure that my 'stuff' will not take up too many boxes, but I am sorta lookng forward to throwing away a ton of crap. I do know that I have three boxes of crap in my closet that I just won't throw out for whatever reason (broken clocks, old VHS tapes, textbooks that I ll never sell, random crap) and a desk full of junk that I ll never get around to using...but if I have to get rid of it, I can somehow make myself just chuck it. I say that now, but those boxes in my closet were in my closet in my old apartment, so we'll see if this really happens.

When I moved out of my old place, I just left my desk and dresser and bed there, so it was easy. I just brought my mattress with me.

Of course, if I didn't have a pickup truck, I would probably not as mellow about moving.

I m going to be moving into a bigger apartment and am looking forward to furnishing it with new stuff now that I can afford a little bit of better stuff. It'll be cool to furnish an apartment the way you want it rather than having to only rely on what is free on Craigslist.

[joppy-slow]

eh: threw out tons of stuff I have not looked at even once since when I moved into this shit hole 4 years ago. I have purged greatly.. I feel lighter, more free. I curse knickknacks. I have trimmed mine so much and yet I still keep some. I call them dust collectors. I need a shelf and I should get cash back on what I have thrown away. DONT GIVE YOUR FRIENDS DUST COLLECTORS NO MATTER HOW COOL YOU THINK THEY ARE. I say that for everyone.

yep.. it's all about throwing shit away that collects dust.. i completely agree. i'm starting to think about throwing away my mass collection of cd's, because 1) I don't listen to Low Fidelity Allstars & Temple of the Dog anymore and 2) they collect dust and take up space.. good luck with the move, and make sure to carve your name into the back of an old cupboard.. "PF was here 2003 - 2007"

[roberto73]

When I moved from the desert to Santa Barbara a year ago, I found the hardest thing was transporting all my boxes of music, movies, and books: packing them up in a space-efficient manner, dragging them to the U-Haul, loading up the truck, then doing it all over again in reverse several hours later. If it weren't for those things, the move would have been downright pleasant. The price we pay for our obsessions.

[dinosaurateme]

moving sucks. Especially the driving part. I drove all the way from las vegas to chicago. I got stopped by a cop in Oklahoma for speeding, he told me a plane caught me. geez. But he didnt give me a ticket, so thats good.

So the drive sucks... You get to see how boring America really is. But i got a laugh out of the dead armadillos on the side of the road in Arkansas. Who would have thought.

And i also still haven't unpacked boxes and it's been like a month. I just really dont feel like doing it.

also miss some of the people in las vegas, but i like meeting new people. And the weather (in the summer at least) is wayyyyy better in chicago. It'd take 90 degrees over 120 anyday.

[disgustipated]

[ewiggy]

I m going to be moving into a bigger apartment and am looking forward to furnishing it with new stuff now that I can afford a little bit of better stuff. It'll be cool to furnish an apartment the way you want it rather than having to only rely on what is free on Craigslist.

this is kind of where i'm at now. i moved out of my apartment in 2003 that i shared with a boyfriend, and didn't take any furniture with me. since then, i've been slowly collecting good furniture as i could afford it.

i moved into this house with the intention of staying here for a long time. that didn't end up being the plan. now i have to get rid of all of this stuff and it makes me sad.

[psychic friend]

oh, how young we were then.

um, ya, you were probably about 4.

[vinylmartyr]

snap

[full on idle]

Wow Dani, I hope Henri Bendel candles aren't dust collectors, my apologies if so.

Your new place is awesome and perfect for the kids. You're going to be so much happier there and no fucking construction noise! I seriously don't understand how you have lived with that noise for two years. I'm looking forward to seeing it when you have it all dandied up and ready to entertain.

Since I moved out of my parents house at 18, I've lived in 10 different places, not counting the dorms at school, counting where I live here now. My philosophy has always been to move every couple years in order to keep possessions limited and reasonable, and to stay swift. I packed the trunk and 2/3 of the backseat of my Civic when I moved out here and I dig on living with sparse possessions. I'm sure I'll tire of sitting on my foldup camping chair at some point, but if I had a day to pack my car and get out of town, I could do it.

[RotationSlimWang]

um, ya, you were probably about 4.

And I'll never stop appreciating you making me the only non-virgin in my pre-school.

Seriously though, that was fucked up. I was four years old, Dani. I mean I know I was pretty hot for a four year old, but what the hell... do you know the kind of psychological damage that did to me? Mostly because I had to go another 12 years without seeing so much as a stitch. Pure brutal.

[miscorrections]

moving into my current apartment was a pain in the ass. it's amazing how much you accumulate in the space of a year.
and hauling furniture officially sucks. the day after moving i was so bruised it looked like i had an abusive boyfriend or something.

[Courtney]

I just moved out of my apartment at the end of June, so I can sympathize. Moving sucks and is something that I find totally traumatic. Although it's good for you in the long run. I am determined to learn from my mistakes and not accumulate lots of junk this time, but then again that's something that I say every time I move and somehow it never happens. At least this time I bothered to label all the boxes well for easy identification.

Also I am bitter about how places try to sell boxes for like $3 each. That's ridiculous -- it's just cardboard.

[menikmati]

poor trees

[Mr.Nipples]

[TomAz]

And I'll never stop appreciating you making me the only non-virgin in my pre-school.

Seriously though, that was fucked up. I was four years old, Dani. I mean I know I was pretty hot for a four year old, but what the hell... do you know the kind of psychological damage that did to me? Mostly because I had to go another 12 years without seeing so much as a stitch. Pure brutal.

I love how Randall is trying to turn this thread about packing and moving into him having sex at age 4. 'love' meaning amused at the absurdity. 'amused' meaning, damn, are you really that desperate boy?

packing and moving sucks. I hope I never have to ever again.

[Ill_Eagle]

I still have 2-3 boxes in my closet from moving 2 years ago, i know they're trash but i just cant get myself to throw them away haha.

[captncrzy]

I bought a house so I wouldn't have to move again, but if there is another housing boom in '08, I'm probably going to cave in and sell it. I don't mind packing, but I'll never move stuff on my own again. I'd much rather hire movers to carry my furniture down my stairs than try to do it myself.

[roberto73]

I should also mention that I'm never using U-Haul again. In the move I wrote about earlier, I drove four hours on the 10 and the 101 without brake lights or turn signals. I was the most popular guy on the freeway.

[fatbastard]

The wife and I will be moving within the next 6 months. We currently have at least 80 office boxes, 5 clear plastic boxes, and 8 large Rubbermaid tubs. This isn’t counting the big items like bed, fridge, and couches. These boxes have been condensed from various boxes over the last year. It seems like a lot but it really has been reduced. Just to give you an idea.

12 boxes of educational books and papers
7 boxes of CDs
6 boxes of VHS tape
6 boxes of Christmas stuff
5 boxes of cookbooks
4 Rubbermaid tubs of pictures
4 boxes of wedding memorabilia
3 boxes of paperback books
2 boxes of baseball cards, lunch pails, McDonalds memorabilia
2 boxes of old text books
2 boxes of albums
2 boxes of museum books
2 boxes of Martha Stewart magazines
1 box of software CDs
1 box of Bukowski books
1 box of Legos
1 box of train sets
1 boxed wedding dress
Wedding gifts

I eliminated 12 boxes by using the copier at work to convert documents from paper form into PDF form. The 4 tubs of pictures have been scanned into an external hard drive, and I just completed uploading our CD collection onto an external hard drive last week.

The packing process has been challenging and difficult for both of us. We agreed on some of the remaining stuff and some stuff we haven’t. I feel fortunate to still have so much stuff going back to grade school.

I’m going to be looking for temperature sensitive storage space in the next month. We’ll move a few boxes every few days until everything has been moved out. We will do the same thing when we find a new place.

[RotationSlimWang]

I love how Randall is trying to turn this thread about packing and moving into him having sex at age 4. 'love' meaning amused at the absurdity. 'amused' meaning, damn, are you really that desperate boy?

packing and moving sucks. I hope I never have to ever again.

Sorry to distract from the fascinating subject of packing.