Moving Tips: Stay Organized Between Homes

Moving Tips: Stay Organized Between Homes:

Before packing even started, I knew it was a big possibility that we would be between homes for a week or more. Background: We sold our house and were in a lease-back (you lease your house from the people who bought it) for only 30 days, and didn’t have a closing date on our new house yet. I don’t get stressed easily, but this could be the pinnacle of stress, being homeless with 2 kids and I’m 7 months pregnant. Ahhhhhh, I didn’t even want to think about it! But I had no choice, I had to think about it, and I had to come up with a way to keep my family functioning the best way possible. It worked wonders for us! Really! This is how you will stay organized between homes. 

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Packing and moving is stressful, (reduce stress while packing by doing this), even more stressful… having a period of time after you’ve moved out of your old house before you can move into your new house. It brings fear, anxiety, sadness, and stress. I know because I felt all of these things. My only saving grace came in the form of organization.

While living in a strange place, with strange furniture (it was weird, especially the dining room table, white leather chairs… yeah), it didn’t even remotely feel like home. We were so displaced. Actually, I think the kids thought it was fun due to the fact the apartment had stairs. An “indoor playground” in their eyes, a trip to the emergency room in mine. Anywho, back on topic, you need a way to help your family stay sane and function as normally as possible.

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This is how you will stay organized between homes.

You won’t know how long you’ll be without all your stuff. Unless you’re magical and twitch your nose and poof UNPACKED. You don’t want to live out of suitcases for weeks, having you and your family feeling lost and displaced.

Here’s the solution! I found these portable plastic drawers and immediately thought, dressers! Buy one for each person in your family (except the dog, haha). Fill the drawers with just a few of the essentials (socks, underwear, tops, bottoms, bottoms, pjs), then pack up the rest in boxes. Moving from home to apartment, then apartment to new house, we just picked them up an went. So convenient. Then after getting into the new house, put them in the closets. Again, a little organization while trying to get unpacked goes a long way.

Think more about day-to-day life.  You clean, do laundry, cook, and even maybe mail a letter every once in a while. How will you do this if everything is packed? You can’t eat pizza for every meal… Solution, don’t pack everything up.  Keep a few essentials out. Get these 30 gallon totes, and buy one for each room. For all intensive purposes, you will still have a kitchen, office, pantry, bathroom, cleaning closet, laundry room, and playroom (if you have kids). Label them with masking tape so you can know what’s inside without opening. It would drive me bonkers to be opening several totes to find one thing!

What did I put in my totes?

• Kitchen Tote: sauce pan, skillet, casserole dish, a couple of wooden spoons, spatula, can opener, measuring spoons, paper plates, plastic utensils, 2 paper towel rolls, foil, press-n-seal, a few of my favorite spices, kids straw cups.
• Pantry tote: canned foods, cereal, oatmeal, cooking spray, bread, different snack foods the kids love, dried noodles, and cookies (duh…).
• Laundry Tote: detergent, stain spray, laundry bags (one for kids, one for parents), dryer sheets. This tote had some extra room so I stashed sunscreen, bug spray, bubbles, and other outside play items.
  Office/Pet Tote: envelopes, stamps, rubber bands, pens, pencils, scratch paper, craft items for kids (crayons, paints, coloring books), dog’s heart worm pills, dog leash, dog bowls, dog shampoo/brush.
• Bathroom Tote: toilet paper, shampoo/conditioner, bar soap, liquid soap, loofa, kids bath toys, towels/washcloths. (All toiletries went in our suitcases)
• Baby Tote (I was 7 months pregnant at the time): baby blankets, breast pump, breast milk storage, baby wearing wrap, baby toys, bottles, other various random baby items.
• Kids Tote: puddle jumpers, pool towels (it was summer at the time), extra sheets, bath toys, diapers, wipes, school backpacks, lunch boxes, humidifier, white noise machine.
• Toy Tote: KIDS TOYS! I picked a few of their favorites and packed the rest in boxes.

WARNING! When planning what to keep out, keep in mind unpacking sometimes takes longer than anticipated. Notice the kids tote above. It contained pool stuff because it was summer, but didn’t want to stress finding backpacks and lunch boxes come August if I wasn’t unpacked.

ANDDDDD, it’s almost a year later and we haven’t started construction yet, therefore all our boxes are still packed in the garage…. soooooo. Never saw that one coming!