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Post by Lexica on Feb 26, 2024 22:56:38 GMT
And I am mainly interested in either single people or if you are coupled up,but your partner/spouse wasn’t around to help you.
I fully realize that I will take longer than the average due to two factors, my health and the fact that I didn’t downsize first. I can only work on the unpacking for a couple of hours before needing to stop because my back and neck are in agony and I need to lay flat. And everything needs to be washed before putting it away. I don’t know how dust got into the boxes inside the pods, but it did. The kitchen took forever since I had to run everything through the dishwasher or hand wash it first.
And anything fabric smells musty from being packed in cardboard for so many months so all clothing, towels, and sheets/blankets needed to be washed. I cannot stand the smell of cardboard! So I open a box, sort what I want to keep and put that in the right area for washing and then repack what will be put in a yard sale or donated, labeling the outside of the box so I know how to stack the boxes.
Oh and there is also the task of breaking down the boxes to put in the recycle bin. At first, I was stacking the boxes up neatly in a corner of the garage with plans to list them for free to someone moving. I figured they should at least get a couple of uses. Many of the boxes were the heavy duty type and are in perfect shape. But last night the stack of boxes slid over and knocked down an extremely sentimental glass vase. It didn’t break, but it made me just say screw it and I put that stack into the recycle bin and out to the curb. I will go ahead and get rid of the boxes until I have a spot in the garage to stack them.
So, if you moved by yourself or at least were totally responsible for unpacking, how long did it take you?
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Post by revirdsuba99 on Feb 26, 2024 23:01:34 GMT
I just unpacked two boxes that I had packed Feb of 2017. Granted it was a stop over in the way to this apartment in May 2018... So two moves in just over a year. But still, seven years!
I will say 5 weeks in the hospital April 2020 (early Covid) knocked the crap out of me. A few more to go, but now it is sort to give to family and the rest goes!!
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Post by Tearisci on Feb 26, 2024 23:19:18 GMT
It took me a couple of weeks as a single person. About the same amount of time it took for me to pack. I also need to take breaks but I hate having things in disarray so I buckled down and did it.
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Post by crazy4scraps on Feb 26, 2024 23:22:01 GMT
Um. I moved in 2012 and I still have boxes of stuff I haven’t completely unpacked. 😳 In fact, just last week I unpacked a box of linens and blankets out of the hall closet that was still taped up from when we moved. 90% of it went straight back into the box to get donated. There are some big Rubbermaid totes in the other hall closet that I’ve looked in but never unpacked. I would just donate a bunch of that too but now a lot of it would fit my DD and she’s kind of liking some of that “vintage” stuff, LOL.
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breetheflea
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,890 
Location: PNW
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Post by breetheflea on Feb 26, 2024 23:34:39 GMT
According to my back yard neighbors they still have unpacked boxes from 1977 in their garage. I think you're doing fine.
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Post by **GypsyGirl** on Feb 26, 2024 23:41:51 GMT
We were transferred 10 months after a move in 1999: There were still boxes I had not gotten unpacked that just went straight back into the shipment.
Since it is just you, have you considered hiring a teenager to help you get through it quicker?
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CeeScraps
Pearl Clutcher
~~occupied entertaining my brain~~
Posts: 3,825
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Post by CeeScraps on Feb 26, 2024 23:43:12 GMT
I kept at it consistently for about a week and a half. I'd get up about 6:00 a.m. and worked until about 6-7:00 p.m. Most of the move was my craft room. I knew if I wanted to craft I had to get it unpacked.
Dishes were washed in the dishwasher. I didn't take the time doing anything by hand. I unpacked them and stacked them on the counter. When the dishwasher was emptied I filled it up right away and ran it again.
When I got in the house I put signs outside each and every room. This and the labeled boxes made it easy for the movers. I had printed signs for each and every box as to where the movers were to place them. The boxes were marked on a short end and the left side from the short side. Keeping it consistent made it easy for the movers.
For my craft room (a long rectangular room) I labeled the boxes with craft room - close to the door OR craft room - far from the door. The movers honored that. By doing that I didn't have to move boxes twice. It helped a lot.
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Post by Lexica on Feb 26, 2024 23:50:50 GMT
You guys have no idea how much I needed to hear your posts today! I have been really feeling down on myself for moving so slowly.
Oh, and even though I labeled the boxes with K for kitchen, MB for master bedroom, O for office, etc, and told the guys unpacking the pods which room was which, I am still seeing box’s with labels in the garage. And I specifically purchased a roll of labels that are bright yellow with HEAVY on them and another roll with FRAGILE on them and do you want to know how many fragile boxes are on the floor with heavy boxes on top of them? And how many glass things I have discovered broken from being on the bottom?
And they didn’t bring in all of the furniture. I have a short bookcase that I use for all of my cookbooks and it is still buried in the garage somewhere while the cookbooks were stacked on the kitchen table until was about to go crazy and moved them into the office and put them on the shelves behind doors so that I didn’t get angry every time I saw them. And of course, that means the office stuff is on the floor in boxes because the shelves for that stuff are full of cookbooks.
I should have never stayed in one house for 44 years because I accumulated too much crap.
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Post by quinlove on Feb 27, 2024 0:04:38 GMT
Lexica, you are going at your own pace. Which, IMHO, is pretty darn remarkable. Look how much you have accomplished, all by yourself. You sold your house, after a lot of repairs, packed up everything, moved to another state and found the perfect house in a new state ! Now you are getting settled in. You are a Rock Star my dear. Never forget that. 🩷
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peabay
Prolific Pea
Posts: 9,598
Jun 25, 2014 19:50:41 GMT
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Post by peabay on Feb 27, 2024 0:06:01 GMT
Um. I moved in 2012 and I still have boxes of stuff I haven’t completely unpacked. 😳 In fact, just last week I unpacked a box of linens and blankets out of the hall closet that was still taped up from when we moved. 90% of it went straight back into the box to get donated. There are some big Rubbermaid totes in the other hall closet that I’ve looked in but never unpacked. I would just donate a bunch of that too but now a lot of it would fit my DD and she’s kind of liking some of that “vintage” stuff, LOL. 2001 and I know there are boxes in our basement that I haven't unpacked!!! |
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Post by hop2 on Feb 27, 2024 0:09:03 GMT
I have been here19 months and I still have 6 boxes not unpacked. I took some stuff out of them but the rest I probably should donate
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Post by freecharlie on Feb 27, 2024 0:17:13 GMT
6 years and counting...
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CeeScraps
Pearl Clutcher
~~occupied entertaining my brain~~
Posts: 3,825
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Post by CeeScraps on Feb 27, 2024 0:55:53 GMT
Take your time!
Larger items…can you hire maybe a couple of college kids to help you?
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Post by epeanymous on Feb 27, 2024 1:21:07 GMT
I have boxes in my shed I moved in 2015. TBH I have been slowly donating them because I figure I must not really want what is in them!
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milocat
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,421
Location: 55 degrees north in Alberta, Canada
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Post by milocat on Feb 27, 2024 1:33:07 GMT
According to my back yard neighbors they still have unpacked boxes from 1977 in their garage. I think you're doing fine. 😳 Must be really important stuff in there to keep all these years, lol. I've only moved twice since leaving my parents house and been in this house for 24 years. So I'm no help. We didn't have anything when we moved in, empty rooms. So probably only a day to do it myself. |
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Post by Zee on Feb 27, 2024 1:49:50 GMT
I've done two major moves in the last 10 years. I did pretty much everything myself. The kitchen and bathrooms were done right away because, you need that stuff.
Then my clothes and housewares/decor and extra dishes, etc.
Every house is different and causes new decorating decisions about what to keep and what not to keep.
Extra things I knew I wasn't going to need, but not going to part with, went to the basement or garage (seasonal decorations, dolls, extra dishes, things like that).
We had our basement finished a couple years ago. I had to make tough decisions. In my mind, if I hadn't looked at it in the past 3 years like most of that stuff, I no longer needed it. And I donated it.
I donated tons of stuff each time before moving, but still had too much stuff and getting rid of boxes of things I haven't touched in 3 years is pretty freeing.
So you might consider that if you haven't needed it since you moved there, and forgot about it, out it goes.
If you can put things at the curb with a FREE sign, that would probably solve a lot of your problems. You can make a FREE marketplace listing on FB too and put it all out, first come first serve. I've done that twice with stuff I didn't feel like dragging in to be donated.
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Post by twistedscissors on Feb 27, 2024 2:34:30 GMT
Hmmmm, We built this house in 1996, and there’s still boxes in the attic. I THINK that those boxes are all memory type stuff from my childhood/high school. But I could be wrong.
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Post by 950nancy on Feb 27, 2024 2:39:43 GMT
I did all but one room. This is a big house too. My husband was working about 30 hours a week. We moved in late October and I started a job 4 weeks after we moved, so I was on a mission. I had all of the rooms unpacked (except for my craft room) in a week. I worked 12+ hours a day though. It is just the two of us, so no kids to unpack. I did have help with the kitchen. My two DILs were so helpful there.
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kokomo37
Full Member
Posts: 121
Apr 17, 2022 21:03:36 GMT
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Post by kokomo37 on Feb 27, 2024 2:48:00 GMT
5 years and counting. There are about
20 boxes unpacked in the garage. This weekend I was trying to organize my scrap room . There was just too much stuff . I ended up packing up baskets and boxes so that I have room to sort what to keep and what to give away.I have way too much with no more room in the inn. My plan is that when I get everything that’s in the room away, I will bring one box in at a time to go through. I hope to get that done in the next month. Like you , I have back and leg pain from chronic sciatica. To get a good couple of hours in I need to take pain medication, wait till it kicks in, then I can get about 3 hrs worth of sorting before I need to call,it quits.
So I say take your time
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cakediva
Drama Llama
Making the world a sweeter place one cake at a time!
Posts: 7,421
Location: Fergus, Ontario
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Post by cakediva on Feb 27, 2024 2:52:54 GMT
Today marks 14 years since we moved into this house. There are still boxes in the basement we have not unpacked.
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Post by librarylady on Feb 27, 2024 2:55:10 GMT
If it has been in the box 5 years, just set the box on the curb...you don’t need it.
If you know it is sentimental stuff, put it in the attic and go on.
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Post by peano on Feb 27, 2024 2:59:48 GMT
I think there are boxes that still aren't unpacked since our move into our current house in 1998.  But I'm lazy. |
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Post by crazy4scraps on Feb 27, 2024 3:06:33 GMT
If you can put things at the curb with a FREE sign, that would probably solve a lot of your problems. You can make a FREE marketplace listing on FB too and put it all out, first come first serve. I've done that twice with stuff I didn't feel like dragging in to be donated. Another good option is to see if your city has a Buy Nothing group on Facebook. I love our group and have passed along so many things to other people in my immediate community who can use them. Just today I posted a bunch of stuff on our group and most of it is already gone! I like that I don’t even have to drag it all the way to the curb. |
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mich5481
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,546
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Post by mich5481 on Feb 27, 2024 3:22:49 GMT
I have boxes from moves in 2015 and 2020 that need to be unpacked.
For those saying just get rid of it, you are clearly more organized than I am, as I often resorted to "arm sweep" method of packing, where I just put a bunch of random stuff into a box at once. Things are all jumbled up, and so I need to sort through it all. It didn't help that my mom helped with my packing in 2020, and I realized once I started unpacking that she had jumbled up boxes that had been packed and included stuff I had set aside for donation. It's clear to me now that she was having some cognitive issues back then that have only steadily gotten worse.
I am slowly going through more of my boxes, but I will never be one of those people who has everything unpacked before you've even gotten your driver's license updated.
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Post by Zee on Feb 27, 2024 4:08:55 GMT
I have boxes from moves in 2015 and 2020 that need to be unpacked. For those saying just get rid of it, you are clearly more organized than I am, as I often resorted to "arm sweep" method of packing, where I just put a bunch of random stuff into a box at once. Things are all jumbled up, and so I need to sort through it all. It didn't help that my mom helped with my packing in 2020, and I realized once I started unpacking that she had jumbled up boxes that had been packed and included stuff I had set aside for donation. It's clear to me now that she was having some cognitive issues back then that have only steadily gotten worse. I am slowly going through more of my boxes, but I will never be one of those people who has everything unpacked before you've even gotten your driver's license updated. Well, like I said...if you haven't even looked at it since 2020, do you really need it? If you know you have valuables that you want to keep, wouldn't you pack those first and label them clearly? I can't say I'm the MOST organized person in the world, but if it's important to me, I treat it like it's important to me. All the rest is just stuff. And I know the "spark joy" thing is overdone, but I really do find it to be helpful. Does it give me joy to look at it, and I have a clear place for it? Keep it. If I haven't even thought about it or looked FOR it or AT it for over 3 years, I'm pretty sure I won't miss it in the long run. I just recently went through a closet and threw out/donated anything I hadn't touched in 2 years. It was very freeing. |
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Post by nlwilkins on Feb 27, 2024 7:32:31 GMT
Ten days - - we had to pay a deposit on the boxes to the movers - about 200 boxes and I was worried about not getting them all emptied. So I worked on getting things put away until it was done. Believe I am usually not that organized. It helped that we moved into a larger home with more storage so I did not have to worry about downsizing.
When my husband returned the boxes, the person he returned them to was very impressed and frankly so was I!
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mich5481
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,546
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Post by mich5481 on Feb 27, 2024 7:38:05 GMT
I have boxes from moves in 2015 and 2020 that need to be unpacked. For those saying just get rid of it, you are clearly more organized than I am, as I often resorted to "arm sweep" method of packing, where I just put a bunch of random stuff into a box at once. Things are all jumbled up, and so I need to sort through it all. It didn't help that my mom helped with my packing in 2020, and I realized once I started unpacking that she had jumbled up boxes that had been packed and included stuff I had set aside for donation. It's clear to me now that she was having some cognitive issues back then that have only steadily gotten worse. I am slowly going through more of my boxes, but I will never be one of those people who has everything unpacked before you've even gotten your driver's license updated. Well, like I said...if you haven't even looked at it since 2020, do you really need it? If you know you have valuables that you want to keep, wouldn't you pack those first and label them clearly? I can't say I'm the MOST organized person in the world, but if it's important to me, I treat it like it's important to me. All the rest is just stuff. And I know the "spark joy" thing is overdone, but I really do find it to be helpful. Does it give me joy to look at it, and I have a clear place for it? Keep it. If I haven't even thought about it or looked FOR it or AT it for over 3 years, I'm pretty sure I won't miss it in the long run. I just recently went through a closet and threw out/donated anything I hadn't touched in 2 years. It was very freeing. Some of the boxes that are still packed are from my 2200 square foot house and are things that cannot be replaced (either for sentimental, monetary, or they don't make it any more reasons). I moved into a house with my mom and simply cannot store all of the stuff from my house in my room. I've gotten rid of stuff over time, but I'm not going to dispatch things like Basic Grey scrapbook supplies or Le Creuset pots and pans in a discontinued colorway just because they are still in boxes. I'm gradually making my way through other boxes to see what all is in them, and I get rid of plenty of items. |
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Post by Zee on Feb 27, 2024 8:17:06 GMT
Well, like I said...if you haven't even looked at it since 2020, do you really need it? If you know you have valuables that you want to keep, wouldn't you pack those first and label them clearly? I can't say I'm the MOST organized person in the world, but if it's important to me, I treat it like it's important to me. All the rest is just stuff. And I know the "spark joy" thing is overdone, but I really do find it to be helpful. Does it give me joy to look at it, and I have a clear place for it? Keep it. If I haven't even thought about it or looked FOR it or AT it for over 3 years, I'm pretty sure I won't miss it in the long run. I just recently went through a closet and threw out/donated anything I hadn't touched in 2 years. It was very freeing. Some of the boxes that are still packed are from my 2200 square foot house and are things that cannot be replaced (either for sentimental, monetary, or they don't make it any more reasons). I moved into a house with my mom and simply cannot store all of the stuff from my house in my room. I've gotten rid of stuff over time, but I'm not going to dispatch things like Basic Grey scrapbook supplies or Le Creuset pots and pans in a discontinued colorway just because they are still in boxes. I'm gradually making my way through other boxes to see what all is in them, and I get rid of plenty of items. I think it's time to let go of the Basic Grey, much as it may pain you now...are you really going to use it? I held on to some of that until 2018 before I admitted to myself that I was never ever going to need it. Do you need Le Creuset that you haven't seen in 3-4 years just because of what color it is? Keep one or two and sell the rest, if you don't have room for all of it. Listen I get it, I have stuff no one here would justify having. But it's not sitting in a box years later waiting for a few more years before I even look at it. You can't take it with you is my philosophy, and if you're not enjoying it now, let someone else do so. And yes, I had most of the house unpacked before I got my DL updated, but that's because I can't function in disarray. It makes me anxious! I'll stop my intervention now lol and you of course are free to tell me to MMOB. I guess I just mostly reacted to the DL comment hahaha! |
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Post by lainey on Feb 27, 2024 9:34:21 GMT
About a week, I'm very much someone that has to have things unpacked and put in there place as soon as possible. Also moving is the best time to decide if you really need/want to keep things.
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Post by crazy4scraps on Feb 27, 2024 14:21:37 GMT
Well, like I said...if you haven't even looked at it since 2020, do you really need it? If you know you have valuables that you want to keep, wouldn't you pack those first and label them clearly? I can't say I'm the MOST organized person in the world, but if it's important to me, I treat it like it's important to me. All the rest is just stuff. And I know the "spark joy" thing is overdone, but I really do find it to be helpful. Does it give me joy to look at it, and I have a clear place for it? Keep it. If I haven't even thought about it or looked FOR it or AT it for over 3 years, I'm pretty sure I won't miss it in the long run. I just recently went through a closet and threw out/donated anything I hadn't touched in 2 years. It was very freeing. Some of the boxes that are still packed are from my 2200 square foot house and are things that cannot be replaced (either for sentimental, monetary, or they don't make it any more reasons). I moved into a house with my mom and simply cannot store all of the stuff from my house in my room. I've gotten rid of stuff over time, but I'm not going to dispatch things like Basic Grey scrapbook supplies or Le Creuset pots and pans in a discontinued colorway just because they are still in boxes. I'm gradually making my way through other boxes to see what all is in them, and I get rid of plenty of items. I’ll validate you. I started out packing up the most important stuff first and tried to get everything labeled as accurately as possible. BUT as time rolled on and crunch time came, other people were called in to help pack up the rest so we could get moved and I didn’t have any idea whatsoever of what went where or what was packed in with what. It was a mess and there were things that took years to locate even after going through all the remaining boxes multiple times. Plus, there were other things that I knew I wanted to keep and I knew exactly where they were, but didn’t need right away or didn’t have the storage I needed for it immediately, so it made sense to not unpack every single thing until I actually needed it and had a place to put it. |
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