I still have a couple of boxes I haven't unpacked from when I last moved (23 years ago).

It sounds like a LOT of work but also kind of like unwrapping a present as you create a new life for yourself.

Most of us start the packing process by being organized and logical. Somewhere, lack of time enters the picture and all efforts to do the job right fly out the window. That's when the coffee pot ends up in the bedroom box because it's the last thing you packed and there wasn't room in the kitchen box. And so it goes.

It will all get sorted out eventually.

I got rid of my packing boxes by finding someone who was moving and giving them away. They were so grateful because those things cost a small fortune and they were happy to pick them up.

Ronni, when you were packing, I didn't share my system because I was afraid we were bombarding you with too much "advice." However, this really works, is low-tech, and is not hard:

1) Get or draw a floor plan of the DESTINATION house. Make several copies. Assign each room in the DESTINATION house a color. ("Red" = kitchen, "green" = bedroom, etc.)

2) Buy a packet of colored dots and a small notebook at an office supply store. Stick the appropriate colored dots on the paper floor plans of the destination place...a red one on the kitchen, and so forth.

3) In the small notebook, also stick a dot to match the appropriate destination room colors every three or four pages. This will become your personal inventory and stays with you at all times.

4) When you finish packing a box, seal it, then immediately stick the destination color dot in two places--one on top and one on a random side. Write the same number on both dots. Your first bedroom box would be Green 1, for example. Then in your notebook, turn to the page with the green dot and write "1 - spare winter blankets."

5) Repeat 200-plus times as you pack up the whole house.

6) Make sure you keep the notebook AND the color-coded destination floor plans with you the entire move.

7) When you arrive at the destination house, post the color-coded floor plans at the entrance to each room.

8) When the movers arrive to unload, they will laugh out loud at this system for approximately 1 minute, then be blessing you for the next three hours. Your stuff will end up stacked in approximately the place it will be unpacked. They also don't have to keep asking you "where do you want this, lady?" which speeds things up considerably.

9) If you need a blanket, for example, consult your list, go the Green area, open box 1, and voila!

I have moved a 20,000 square foot factory and a 1,600 square foot office this way, as well as our household at least six times. Never fails to lower the stress and chaos levels.

I keep emphasizing the DESTINATION part because, alas, our old spaces exist only in memory once the packing starts. What matters is the future.

I'm sorry now I didn't write this lengthy post at the move's commencement, but I did think we (that includes me) were burying you in well-meant but overwhelming "help."

And look how well you've done! Now that you're in Lake Oswego, you are going to be staying put, so you don't especially need to know this anyway, but if any of the other readers are moving, try this system, and you'll be converted.

Incidentally, in our family, it's my workaholic husband who's the move-instigator, not me. Part of the reason I devised this system was to reduce the sharp pain of enormously draining moves I didn't want to make. And it worked. But it can also be construed as a really positive aspect of being single and making your own decisions. Just sayin'.

Take it easy. That is after you find the important stuff.

How about a nice cup of tea and a long walk by the lake.

Refresh your mind and spirit.

We no sooner moved in when our youngest son's fiancee came to stay for two weeks. After some days I did manage to find the frying pan but for days I haden't a clue. It was in a kitchen box and how I could bypass it was beyond me. Must have been all of a do-da with the move and having a house guest right off the bat. A memory now and I'm sure only I have it.

Come to think of it, I might still have a couple of unpacked boxes sitting in my basement, from some twelve years ago. I hardly go down there, except to get a suitcase before a trip.
I hated the packing much more than the unpacking, as unpacking means you're almost done.
Bon courage! And take it easy

ah well, no rush about it all. My boxes, seemingly eternally packed, do have room designations as well as general idea of items within. and yes, there are then those MISc boxes.

I can see you are more left brained than myself. i unpack onto shelves and into drawers any which way. just get it out of the boxes and into the open (in the appropriate room of course) and then later I go through and rearrange according to usage flow. For example, silverware in this drawer, hot mits in that to unpack. But later I may find it much more convenient to switch the drawers re: usage.

It sounds rather lovely to me any way you do it. you are creating your new storage container for the self as i now think of a living space. :D Very exciting. Met any of yr condo neighbors yet?

That definitely sounds like progress to me! And the photographs are lovely, it already looks *homey*. I hope you feel more settled soon!

eline, oakdale, is good, but elaine, oakdale is better.