Sending Ourselves Packing

Our packing is underway!  It didn't take long to realize that there's a pretty substantial list of must-haves to carry from room to room to 'support' your packing project.  Here are the things we've found useful to include in our kit:

• boxes (we ordered ours online from movingboxes.ca - they were great to deal with - review to come)
• packing paper / unprinted newsprint
• bubble wrap
• packing tape and a tape-gun
• paper for labelling your boxes (we're just using printer paper - leaving us with less of it to pack in another box) - more on this soon
• a couple of Sharpies
• Ziplocs in a few sizes - for corralling furniture / picture / mirror hardware
• masking tape - for taping Ziplocs of furniture hardware right onto the furniture.  We've also been attaching paper labels to each piece of furniture with their 'new house room' locations.
• duct tape - for anything...but you already knew that ;)
• bubble wrap - for breakables
• shrink wrap - for keeping drawers closed / wrapping the couch / protecting furniture tops and legs
• hammer - for removing nails after taking down pictures etc.
• a multi-screwdriver - for removing screws after taking down mirrors etc. (we're using the Retract-a-Bit - Adam has the original black and yellow model - I have the pink one and I'm in tool-love!)
• scissors
• a portable vacuum to clean as you go - so much easier!
• elastic bands - for corralling lamp cords etc.
• garbage bags - for being ruthless and tossing stuff we don't want to pack / we haven't used in years /  we can donate or upcycle
• upbeat music - we created a 'Packing Playlist' with about 12 hours worth of our shuffled favourites
• beer...mmm
• a camera (for 'before' photos as well as 'during the chaos' photos - and to remind us of how the room / closet / drawer is set up for when we unpack in the new house) - and for being able to capture our puppy doing ridiculous things while trying to help pack
• patience
• a Tetris mind

We'll be back soon to share more tidbits on our packing 'process' - some tricks and shortcuts we've come up with that have made this pack-up smoother than the last 5 or 6 (we've each moved a number of times - during university and together, etc.)   

From 'inside the boxes', here is some packing humour to close off for tonight (we couldn't decide on just one to use):

(cartoons all from here)

Bookshelf update coming tomorrow - I've deviated from the shelf a little, so have more to update than planned ;)