The First Step

Hello Everyone,

I wanted to take a minute to stop by and say Hi!  I feel that I have not been sharing very much lately.  I aplogize about that.  But if you bear with me I will get my scrap-on again....soon.

For those of you who are not aware, we are moving and the count down has begun.  This is when my life becomes super crazy, super unpredictable and at times super scheduled. The crazy is how much I jam pack into a day.  The unpredictable is when I pack a little more into my days, usually in the effort to squeeze one last visit in with friends, my friends and my kiddos friends.  The super scheduled is there are certain things that will not be put off course, so I have to get those things done regardless of who I want to visit with or what fun stuff we want to do.  I mean it is crazy time!


Making a move is a huge undertaking. Over the years, and what feels like a lifetime of moving, I have managed to create a four step process to prepare for our moves. I would like to mention that our moves are not little cross town moves, but big changing country moves. So, my process is key to making this whole thing come off successfully.


Step 1: Purge - any and everything that is no longer serving a purpose. All purged items are put into a yard sale. The golden rule for yard sale stuff .... if we put it in the yard sale pile we no longer have a need/purpose/use for it so it does not come back into the house. If an item does not sale then it goes into either the donation pile or straight to the tip.

Step 2: Sorting - this step is key. So to make sure we have a clear picture of what is going and what is being stored I clean out one entire room and that becomes the staging area for items that are shipped overseas and items that are mailed overseas. Whatever is in this room is what we will have for the designated amount of time for the tour. Whatever is not in this room is going into storage for the duration of our tour. By storage I mean packed into boxes, put into a crate and shipped to a warehouse storage.

Step 3: Necessities - these are the items that we will need immediately upon arrival in our new 'home.' These are the items that we can't carry in our luggage due to weight or size or practicality, but stuff that will help us make our new home more comfortable. This is also the stuff that we want before our air shipment arrives. This tends to be personal items like extra underwear and clothes. Other things that we usually will mail to ourselves are our Bose speaker so we can listen to our iPods, some games and, for me I usually send myself some scrapping supplies and my basic scrap kit. Oh, and books! We love to read so I usually mail myself and my kiddos plenty of books to read.

Step 4: Packing Out - this is where I just get to supervise and answer questions. At this point I have minimal control of the situation. I am usually emotionally numb during this stage. But, after the last box is loaded I usually just want a glass of wine and a nap.

So, this Saturday we take the first step. Then it is a snowball of events for the next 3 weeks, until it is finished. I will look forward to that glass of wine and will continue to dream about the nap.

T.