Tag Archives: moving

Ikea to the rescue!

With the help of Ikea, we’ve gotten all of our stuff into two 10×10 bedrooms and a bathroom.

We bought six these DVD/CD shelves (in white) – though we’ve only mounted four – and they work brilliantly. They aren’t very heavy, they were easy to mount, they aren’t very deep so I don’t really worry about banging my head on them (as they’re mounted at eye level), and the white looks nice with the pale yellow walls of the bedroom. Plus, the price was great at only $5.99 each – with a capacity of 32 standard DVDs – we were able to find a place for 132 of our DVDs for only $24. Since floor space is so limited in our rooms, this was a LIFE SAVER.

 

 

Next we bought two of these bookcases, which I’m also very pleased with. I bought them in the white color, in order to save $25 on each, and I’m glad I did because they go well with the DVD/CD shelves and the pale yellow walls. They are light enough to move easily and have a very functional cutout in the back on the bottom to allow you to have it flush against walls with a base board (or you can route cables behind!). They’re also not very deep and so the space is well utilized.

 

 

Due to the tight space on either side of our bed, we needed to replace our bedside tables as well. I was glad, because these have drawers (while before, we were just using small tables without any additional shelves or drawers) and so now were able to keep the tops clear so the baby doesn’t get into our stuff when she’s sitting on our bed. Its really frustrating to keep saying “No” and “Don’t touch that” because she wants to check out everything. We need to be able to put our phones, books, glasses and other such things by our bed though. These fit JUST PERFECTLY. Seriously, if they’d been centimeters wider it wouldn’t have worked. Ikea saved us again!

 

 

We had to replace the laundry hamper we used to hold our dirty bath towels because of space, and I was ecstatic to find this cheap, functional number at Ikea. I think that’s what I love the most about Ikea – they have options that are nothing fancy, but get the job done.

We still have very little room in our bedroom, but it works and that’s all that matters.

Been QUITE a few days…

I haven’t posted much in the last few days because when I wasn’t working at the house, working at work, sick in bed, or cleaning up after a sick child – I’ve been stressing out. No one wants to read about that – least of all me. I thought to get it all down though, as I do like to look back – even on the bad stuff - so check out some brief details below if you’re interested.

We moved on Saturday. It was a so-so operation in the sense that while we had our failures – we had our successes as well. One friend bailed out on helping to move, three others replaced him. Had two toddlers instead of one to take care of, but with the extra help I was able to leave with them and keep them entertained. It was raining, but just a drizzle when moving out and a break entirely when moving in and THEN the big storm came. We’ve had to make multiple trips to the rental house since, but we’re surviving and Thursday is the absolute last day we’ll have to deal with it all. The animal situation is not that great; with I half-feral cat in the backyard, having Junior & Ripley join the pack is hard – not to mention the big Akita that found a rotting board in the fence and has been visiting until his owners can get it fixed.

I left work early on Monday – my allergies (or whatever it is I’m dealing with) were killing me and I was useless at work as I was loosing my voice as well. Stayed home on Tuesday as well, so I feel pretty good today (plus, I got another refill on my allergy medication). However, last night I crept into Evy’s room after she went to bed to get my phone to hear her puking. This was the first time Evy has ever gotten sick (stomach wise) so it was all a learning experience. Luckily, that kid is mighty resilient! After we cleaned her up and took her into our bed – preparing for a night of vomit by covering the bed with towels – she was fine! Elmo made it all better and by midnight she was jumping on the bed. I popped her into her crib then, I was exhausted, and she slept through the night.

Today the rental house is being cleaned, then the carpets are being cleaned, and tomorrow we’re handing the keys over! I’m so excited to be done with this – then next week I’m on vacation :D

I accept the possibility that I’ve gone overboard.

Perhaps there’s such a thing as TOO much planning.

Is there? Have I reached that point? I just created this in order to help the many people who are helping us move this weekend. Would this help you? The arrows pointing to the left are where the furniture is coming from – the arrows to the right indicate where the furniture is going. I made sure to put the items going into storage at the end, so they’ll end up at the front of the Uhaul as we’ll be dropping that off first.

The Plan!

Thanks Google!

Today has been a wildly productive day, which is why I’m still up at nearly midnight and happy about it no less.

We moved into the storage unit, and with the help of my father’s large truck and the removable third row of seats in our van, we were able to do it in one trip without renting any more equipment. The garage is now much cleaner, though our trash & recycling bins are full again – trash isn’t until Thursday and recycling not until next Thursday. We’ve still got a good amount of space left in the unit, which is good because we don’t have our round patio table, patio chairs, kitchen table or washer & dryer in there yet. Let’s hope it’ll all fit. I take comfort in knowing that we can stack pretty high and that’ll free up some space.

Had dinner with my family to celebrate my sister’s completion of a locally organized “biggest loser” challenge. It was 13 weeks and she lost over 20 lbs! She was so much more committed than I ever could be; cooking every meal, keeping it low in salt, attending weekly nutritional meetings & group workouts and still working out every night at the gym. Her commitment shames me! I’m thinking of joining the competition the next time around – let’s hope I have as much success as her.

I got the measurements of the room Paul & I will be moving into – its smaller than our current, and since I feel our current is a bit cramped I was anxious to figure out an appropriate furniture configuration BEFORE the big move as to lower the confusion. I kept trying to use just simple graph sheets to sketch out the furniture in relation to the size of the room, but it just wasn’t working. Then I remembered that Google has an application called SketchUp 8 which allows people to create 3D models of just about anything. It was hard to work with at first because I’ve never worked with a 3D modeling software before, but soon I got the hang of it. Then I stumbled across the software’s “3D Warehouse” which is basically a community of users who have created 3D structures and made them available to the public. I was THRILLED to see that every Ikea piece I searched for, I found. I was able to import our bed, dresser, future bookcases & night tables! Everything was to scale so I was able to build the room and fill it for a real perspective of how everything would work. I rearranged the furniture three times before I settled on this configuration – plus with placing our TV on the dresser at the foot of the bed we no longer have to mount it on the wall. It might have taken awhile, but it was worth it to be able to try out multiple options without straining our backs.

One day, soon.

This weekend was a bust – in regards to productivity.

We were supposed to move into the storage center on Saturday – I had the whole day planned out to where we’d show the house, eat lunch, rent the storage unit, pack up, move in, grab dinner & then work on Paul’s office (baby proofing). Well, after we paid rent for the month it ends up we simply didn’t have enough money to rent the storage unit. I tried to call the location to see if they had one of those deals where you only pay a dollar for the first month, but they have an answering service and I was kept on hold for too long (I got a kid, who is REALLY interested in phones, my call times are limited).

Sunday we were supposed to clean out my brother’s old room (after 8 years, it really needs to be done – especially because the room wasn’t set up for him to stay in so it was just piles of unpacked personal items) so that we could use it for all the computer & craft equipment when we move in. That didn’t really happen as we planned though. Originally my sister and I were going to do it, then my dad decided he and my brother-in-law were going to do it. But only after my sister, brother-in-law, two nephews and myself & Evy drove down there. My sister & I ended up hitting up the outlet stores with the youngest two kids and when we got back everyone was ready to call it quits. I’m not sure how far they got, all I know is that it’s not done and that puts us even further behind in our schedule.

The only positive thing is that Paul was able to clean & baby proof his office so he’s now ready for Evy – sans pack-in-play – on Thursday.

Oh! One other positive thing… We’ve made our last rent payment for a few years!!! I’m not exactly “excited” about moving in with my parents, but I’m excited about having less payments for awhile.

 

Gathered.

My thoughts have been gathered… kind of.

I’ve been feeling really out of sorts recently, and I think it has a lot to do with the stress of the holidays, moving, & money. I’ve in reality started about five blog posts that greatly detail all that’s floating around in my head but after I get to the end I think, “No one wants to read this! Least of all me.” So I just delete it. Therapeutic, if nothing else.

  • First, the holiday. Thanksgiving went really well, and it’s become something real and warm again at my parents house. Eight years since my brother has passed away and each holiday is it’s own struggle. The food was hot and flavorful, if but a bit later than expected, and everyone ate a ton. I look forward to Christmas!
  • Second (though this actually happened before Thanksgiving), Las Vegas. Paul surprised me with a night at the Monte Carlo, as he got an awesome rate on the room, and we had a great time. My previous trips to Las Vegas were not with Paul and I’ve vowed to never do that again as I realize that town is made for love :D It was really nice to dine in our hotel too, because I didn’t anticipate the cold, cold weather that Las Vegas had that night and brought only a light dress and slip on shoes. But, since we were only walking down to the casino – it was prefect! I wish I had some pictures, but I forgot the camera at home. I’ll edit this post with pictures later.
  • Third, moving. We’ve been kicking the packing of the garage into high gear and making some progress – which is lowering my stress level a bit. If we stick to my schedule, we’ll be moving all of the stuff into storage this weekend, non-essentials to my parents NEXT weekend and then the third weekend will be large furniture that requires the moving truck.  We’ve only got my brother-in-law for 4.5 hours on Saturday and I’m prepared to make them count by being prepared. We bought more containers last night, on sale luckily, and have filled a total of 7 so far. I’m praying that the remaining ten we have will be enough as I can’t possibly buy more.

I’ll be so happy once January is here. Moving will be done. The holidays will be over. Our money situation will be turning around. I’ll even be starting my 8/90′s at work and will have every other Friday off :D

Inventory: Started

Yesterday we actually got working in the garage like we wanted to. We decided, instead of trying to categorize our stuff and then pack the containers, we were just going to fill them with whatever would fit. While it would be best to have the boxes have similar items, it would take too long to unpack everything – organize it – and then pack the containers. Plus, as long as we identify which box each item is in, it wont really matter if the items are oddly organized. We were only able to fill 1 1/2 of the 66 qt containers that we bought, but we got rid of four boxes (tossed a lot of stuff in the trash that had been ruined by the elements) so that’s encouraging. I was concerned, after labeling all the containers we bought, that we’d need a lot more. They aren’t exactly cheap – so I was worried. But I think we’ll do all right.

I was going to buy an app for my iPhone that would help with the inventorying (<– is that a word? It looks odd… Off to the dictionary!) but then I realized that I’d rather just use an application I already had. I found that SpringPad worked best – though I tried Evernote as well. With Evernote, it didn’t seem quick or easy to snap a picture, title it & label the box and then move on without a million steps and lots of loading. With SpringPad – though it wasn’t “quick” it was “quicker”. Plus SpringPad has a web interface, so that’ll be easier to use than having to download a desktop application if I want to browse my inventory.

Right now, when I have free time, I’m going through our inventory so far and tagging everything. I’m hoping to make this a really dynamic and useful tool. We’ve already found more than a few things we had been looking for at one time or another since moving into the rental house. I don’t want to keep buying duplicates because I have no idea what we have. How very wasteful. Plus, we’ve found some stuff we forgot we even had! I found this awesome messenger bag with Zim on it that I know I was either given or bought with a lot of anticipation and I’ve never used it. Likely never will, as my style has changed, so that’ll go up on eBay. Again – what a waste.

Keep your finger crossed that this keeps going with as much success!

Mind is made up!

We’re getting the Ikea couches. Over the last two weeks I’ve been to Ikea twice, and three other furniture stores, and I know that the Ikea couches are the best choice for us right now. Not too expensive, versatile for our situation, but still stylist and something I would be happy to keep for a long time. Also, the darker color – gray brown – is a great color :) I was able to see the light color I originally wanted and was relieved to see that the texture of the fabric is all wrong for me as well. Going with the darker color was just meant to be!

We’re going to pick them up the weekend before we move in (I think) along with a few other pieces we’re getting to improve storage for our smaller living spaces and organization. Ikea is really amazing when it comes to storage and organization. Walking through their showroom is a testament to fully utilizing your space, and organizing it efficiently and realistically.

We also bought a bunch of large, stackable, plastic containers from Target – I’m hoping to get started on the garage tomorrow. We’re on a schedule to start moving everything into storage the first weekend in December and that’s two weeks away. With the short days, it’s pretty impossible to work on the garage after work so we really only have the two weekends available. Considering I have the really ambitious goal of fully inventorying everything that goes into storage – two weekends are likely going to be cutting it close. I don’t want to compromise on my goal I have to be the driving force!