An organized moving day

As I sit here typing this I'm surrounded by a disaster.
A house that is being packed up.
Boxes shoved into every corner, and random new house stuff scattered throughout our dining room.

Don't we all have a new vanity and four new toilets sitting in our dining room?
Don't we???

Right now we have 4 beautifully ugly bathrooms, straight out of the 80's, waiting for us at our new house--but once we get our hands on them...I'm picturing marble, granite, sparkly lights, beautiful tile. In the meantime though, I'm unfortunately so used to our new vanity and toilets staring at me in our dining room that it somehow feels normal to me. It's normal that Carter's highchair is tucked up against the side of a ginormous double sink vanity box and it's normal for me to sit down to eat dinner and kick empty cardboard boxes out of the way as I sit all cozy up against four huge boxes of new toilets.

It's now normal for me to go digging through our Tupperware cardboard box for whatever container I need and it's normal for me to go downstairs and grab pasta out of our cardboard food boxes that we've been eating out of since we packed up our pantry and cupboards the other day.  

Because the move is a comin'.
And it feels like we're just barely surviving it.

From packing an entire house with a 1 and 3 year old underfoot, to planning renovations that are happening the day after we move in, to picking out hardwood flooring, organizing home visits, negotiating prices, getting permits (thanks mom and dad!), picking out trim and baseboards and paint colours and lighting, to reading a 3 page document on how to take care of a pool (because Lord knows we have no idea!)--we're a bit overwhelmed.

Oh, and if anyone is super excited about helping us pull up carpet the second weekend of August and/or put together the kids playset and gazebo outside, please let me know--we need help!

I must have looked a little weathered the other day, because Terry came up to me as I was pulling things out of my closet and throwing things into boxes.

"You okay?" he said.

"Okay? Yea." I said. "My mind is just spinning. Actually spinning. My closet is a disaster, I have too many clothes..I can't find anything that I need because everything is stacked into a pile of boxes somewhere, our house is a disaster, my health card is about to expire, I don't know if I took a shower today and I was up all night trying to plan out the exact shade of white paint that is going to go on our new baseboards...and have you checked the calendar? 'Cause don't forget we're trying to make a baby along with all of this!"

He paused for a moment--as he always does when I'm being a little too dramatic.
"Come give me a hug", he said with a little laugh. "We'll be fine. We're all organized, the house just looks chaotic because guess what?..we're moving in 2 weeks. Everything will come together, don't worry".

And so...

he's probably right.

But in the meantime, I knew that I wanted to bring a little organization to what could be a very chaotic, disorganized experience. So hence, the sticky note solution.

If you're moving and want a quick and easy way to stay organized especially on the actual day of your move, this might just be your ticket to success.

All you need is a ton of different coloured sticky notes (or pieces of paper), a marker and some tape. We had tons kicking around which we used, but you can always buy different colours at the dollarstore.

Anyways, the system is simple...but (I think) it will be incredibly effective on moving day.

All you do is give each room in your house a different colour. So Mya's room gets the pink sticky notes, the kitchen gets dark blue, the dining room gets white, the kids playroom gets yellow, the basement gets light blue, the garage gets red..etc etc.

Write it all out on a piece of paper so you know which room gets which colour (so you can reference it when you're packing up different things)...and then on the moving day, stick the appropriate coloured sticky notes on the doors (or walls) of each room. So on Mya's new bedroom door I'll have a pink sticky note that says Mya's bedroom and on the main wall in the playroom I'll have a yellow sticky note taped up saying playroom. This way, the movers (and others who are helping) don't have to take extra time finding and reading what each box says--they just have to follow the colours. And Terry and I know which room in the house is going to be Mya's room or Carter's room--but the movers don't...so having the rooms labeled once we get to the new house will hopefully speed up the process as well and avoid everyone asking us which room belongs to who or which room we'll be using as the living room, playroom, etc.

And when it comes to clothes? Well, we opted out of the expense of renting or buying those fancy boxes with the clothes hanger on them (since we've already spent a fortune on buying other big boxes), and we're going back to my University moving days of poking a little hole through the end of a garbage bag and feeding a few hangers through it...with each labelled of course, just with masking tape. This way the clothes stay clean during the move and you can easily pick them up and throw them in a car, then directly into a closet at the new house, with very little fuss.

Our plan is to move our clothes ourselves the night before the movers come...so I'm hoping that my tried-and-true cheap University days garbage bag moving system will still hold up.

 So with that said...empty boxes are staring at me right now, which means that I need to get off of this computer.

Wish me luck...I think we're going to need it.

Erica xo