Some things I’ve observed about moving that I have probably already observed during many of the previous 24* times I’ve moved:

1.  Every single thing you own you should own because it has an actual useful place in your life NOT because you just hate throwing things out or giving them away.

2.  In spite of learning the above wisdom, I still have hundreds of pounds worth of stuff that I am simply unable to make decisions about right now so I’m moving it with me.  What can I say?  I’m a work in progress.

3.  Moving is expensive.  Just like going bankrupt is very expensive.  We can’t really afford this move but we can’t afford NOT to move.  Quite a snag.

4.  Try to arrange a move so that you’re not on the rag while you pack, plan, or execute the actual move.  Especially if your PMSing makes you semi-suicidal.

5.  Don’t have pets if you ever plan to move.  Or, at least, don’t have six of them.

6.  It turns out I’m a serious box snob.  Half of our boxes are new and half are used boxes we bought for cheap off of Craig’s list.  One person’s idea of “good condition” is another person’s idea of “derelict quality almost not worth using”.  I like brand new boxes with full integrity and no writing already on them.  This does NOT agree with my philosophy of re-using and recycling.

7.  I tape boxes better than my mom and Philip.  They will not likely agree with this.  I have a method I have been using since I was the shipping manager at Weston Wear.

8.  Moving is one of the best ways to test your family relationships.  (Second only to having babies with someone which is followed by traveling with someone.)

9.  Moving requires good friends.  This is why you must MUST help your friends move when they need you because eventually you will need them too.  One of life’s greatest opportunities for reciprocity and community bonding which is necessary for getting through things like hard winters or a zombie apocalypse.

10.  It used to be that books and clothes made up the vast majority of my belongings.  Now it’s kitchen and pantry stuff.  I have very few clothes over all but I have a minimum of 25 boxes of jars, tools, pots, peelers, strainers, and other things necessary for cooking and preserving food.  When I’m done I may well find I have closer to 40 boxes of this stuff.

11.  Moving while also working can make children into orphans.  My kid is awesome.  He’s so flipping awesome about the fact that I’m pretty much ignoring the crap out of him because I don’t have enough hours in the day to work, pack, breathe, and also hang with him.  Plus he’s awesome because he’s being patient with how snappish I’ve been.

12.  I need a bigger brain and a better nervous system if I’m ever going to go through this again.

13.  Moving is unhealthy.  The dust it kicks up into your lungs is awful (especially for people like Philip who have asthma).  It wears you out.  It strains your back.  It deteriorates your diet (if it was already unhealthy, it will become even less healthy) because you don’t have time to cook or plan for healthy meals.  You use up things you have in the cupboard and buy easy to make things like cheese sandwiches.

14.  I have found an inordinate amount of weird office supplies in my house that I’ve never used and can’t think why I thought I needed them in the first place.  Labels, mostly.  Not useful ones.  And reams of paper that are neither good for printing on or using.  Where did it come from?

15.  In general – I see a need for much more careful purchasing in my future.  Do I really need that face cleanser (mild soap has always worked just fine for my skin) or glue (we’ve found 3 bottles of Elmer’s glue and we barely have enough need to justify having 1 bottle of it) or picture framing hardware (most of our stuff is simply hung with nails) or tubes of weird toothpaste I know I’ll hate because there’s only one toothpaste I can stand to use… all over my house are purchases that turned out to be a waste and yet I can’t return them** or give them to the Good Will.  Everywhere I turn there are signs of wasted money and packaging and landfill crap.

That’s all for today.  I have to work and then I have to pack.  Same old same old.  There are exactly 7 days before the move.  7 DAYS.

*Actual number of times I’ve moved in my life.

**I am pathologically incapable of returning things to stores so I probably have a higher percentage of wasted purchases sitting around my house than the average person who has no trouble at all returning stuff they bought that they discovered they really didn’t need or want.