Wednesday, January 26, 2011

OCD? Meet moving time.

Patrick can tell you. I'm an organizer. A compulsive organizer. We've lived in our Binghamton house for four years, and I've over-hauled our kitchen ten times. I don't mean re-decorated. I mean, dragged everything out of its appointed place and appointed it a new place. Patrick has put up with this. For a long time, whenever he reached for something in its familiar place, it'd been mysteriously moved.

It's taken me four long years to finally get it down. Everything is in a place that makes sense, and that's just the way my crazy, borderline obsessive-compulsive self likes it.

And now that I've got it perfected, we're moving.

Last night I got out the graph paper. I drew our old kitchen. I drew our new kitchen. I labeled everything in the old kitchen. I transferred all the labels to the new kitchen. Crazy? Yes.

But now, see, there's a place in the new kitchen for my rolling pin, my waffle maker, and my eleven cookie sheets. That fact is a life raft in this increasingly chaotic surge of moving.

Anyone with some good moving advice for me? What's the best way to pack? How do I make the transition as easy as possible? Has anyone ever labeled all their cabinets and drawers in preparation for a move? No? Okay, then, I really am nuts.

4 comments:

chasing keegan said...

I really had to laugh at this post, as you and I must be related in some way. I do the exact samething that you do. I reorganize rooms all the time, my family thinks that I am slightly OCD, I personally think that sometimes, change is just needed.

It drives my husband nuts, but in a good way and in the end he loves me...so all is good.

As for moving, tons of advice as I am a military wife and we move almost every 4 years. I plan my moves like a strategic invasion. I have measurements of all our large pieces of furniture so that when we are buying a new house, I know right away if the rooms are going to work for our furniture.

Other things that I do, are rooms are packed and labeled according to what room they are going to be put in when we arrive at the new house and each room is labeled accordingly at the new house (we have movers that move the furniture, this makes my job of unpacking much easier, plus the military pays for it).

Since I am usually moving across vast distances, every item is (for the most part) is wrapped and packed into boxes which also have a buffer of paper on the bottom and the top. Large rubbermaid containers (which, I have a a lot of) are taped shut for their journey.

All furniture is wrapped in moving blankets, and because of distances, most furniture that can be disassembled is.

Another thing that I do is I take pictures of all the storage spaces that the new house has and I start to compare the space to the one I am currently living in to see if any of the current setup will transfer over and try and plan it that way, similar to your drawing.

Mind you, things often change once there, as each house seems to have it's own flow.

Hope some of this might help, but you seem like you are already well ont he way to having a seemless move. The hiccups that might, and usually do occur are what make the memories.

Becky said...

When I have had the luxury of a long move I found it helpful to move one room at a time - more or less. Setting up each room was sooooo much easier.

My kids used to make really bad Helen Keller jokes about my OCD furniture re-arranging. I can relate!

Remantics said...

I am not at all OCD (I don't think!) but I think it is great to be organised (I rarely am) and I don't think you should worry about it.... just do whatever works for you. All the best for your move. I think moving is a real challenge. Karen

Magickwyrds said...

Oh no- that's not crazy- that's self-preservation! I re-organize my kitchen at least twice a year! My hubby has the same problem- where does this go again?? lol. It's just the facts of life babe, and having a too-small kitchen to work in. So you go right ahead and label things before you even get to the new one, 'cause that way you can find 'em when you need 'em, right?

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