The Unpacking Game

I love organization. And normally, I somewhat like unpacking. This round of unpacking however was not the most fun experience of my life...

We had been working on getting everything together for packing and moving for a couple of weeks. THEN, as soon as we had everything in our new house, we HAD to start unpacking. We didn't get a break or any down time. Going into the whole moving experience, I figured this would happen so I planned for it ahead of time. Here are some techniques that helped the process be less painful:

1. Because we had access to our new house, we were able to move stuff from our old place BEFORE moving day. In a normal situation where we weren't on time crunch, my first inclination that this would be more trouble than its worth. I mean, why not wait to move everything while you have more people to help on moving day. BUT, since we were working against the clock, we pre-moved several car loads of small boxes on the days leading up to the moving day. Any box that would fit in our cars (that was already packed) was moved ahead of time. Once these boxes arrived at our new house, we simply looked at the label and placed them in a pre-determined pile in each room. This created pathways for the "big stuff" to come in on moving day without creating more work.
2. Because the kitchen doesn't have much furniture in it, we completely unpacked our kitchen stuff before moving day. All of our dishes, cleaning supplies, appliances, and dry food was in the cabinets and out of the way!
3. When you empty a box, put the box in a pile of empty boxes in one spot of your house. This will clear some floor space and not only give you more room to walk and work, but also create momentum. When the pile starts to get unruly, break them down all at once. This is the most efficient method to save time with boxes.
4. During moving day, there may be some who cannot carry the large furniture. Examples would be myself and my mom. These people can start unpacking! If you have packed efficiently (read this post), it should be fairly easy to unpack and know what needs to go where! My mom and I unpacked several items while the men were still busy loading in the rest of the furniture.
5. The key to unpacking, is packing! You should pack things up together how you want them to be unpacked. Click here to learn how to pack like a champ!
6. If you are on a timeline, of course, unpack as much as you can. As the time starts dwindling, grab a large box from you empty box pile and just start filling it up with anything left over. If people know you have just moved, they are going to be amazed with all that you have done, NOT what you didn't do. Give yourself some grace; its ok if every single thing is not put away!

Like I said, this is what we did, and I truly do believe that these techniques made the process less stressful. However, they say that moving is one of the most stressful times in your life, and I'm not going to pretend that there was not any bossiness from me or frustration from Nathan. We are both glad that time has passed. ;)

<< Previous in the Move 'em Out series - Next in the Move 'em Out series >>

Other Great Moving Resources: