Unpacking from Moving: A Guide

I Don’t Want to Boast: But I Do. My New House Looks Fabulous.

Unpacking is probably as daunting as packing. It’s still a lot of hard work and there are more decisions to be made. Depending on your personality type, this is good and bad. Organics and Smarts need inspiration to keep them going. Classics and Funs need to channel their inner practicality to keep it going. Classics and Organic Structures and Smart Structures need to rely on their ever present To Do lists to keep going when the going gets rough. And it will.

Channel Your Inner Dreamer

I think unpacking is much easier for dreamer types like Organic Freedoms and Smart Freedoms like myself. Organic Structures and Smart Structures are also dreamers, but they’re more practical and will be buoyed by their To Do Lists as well as frustrated by the process. Funs are also a bit more forgiving about the mess that can be very daunting to ALL types.

I’m very proud and bragging a bit to say that my whole first floor is completely done after two weeks. We’re talking boxes unpacked and organized in the garage, furniture arranged, AND pictures hanging. Yes, let me lean back and dust my jacket for a minute. During the last move I realized that finishing the vertical space before the horizontal inspired me because I could see where to put furniture and the new view kept me going when the amount of boxes was getting me down. This will be harder for more practical Organic Structures and Smart Structures to do but I swear it will pay them back dividends in inspiration!

Now onto the nitty gritty.

A Step By Step Guide to Unpacking

1. Kitchen, as always, first. It’s usually easiest because it’s got built in storage. Remember to put the dishes and glasses near the dishwasher. Food near the stove!
2. Clothes. Get these out of boxes as soon as you can, and you will find that tons of the height of the boxes will come down quickly. Remember, you need to install closets before you can put away clothes.So,  I had someone install all my closets the day after the move and then assembled the closets myself. I was amazed at how quickly I was able to assemble Elfa closets from The Container Store. I used existing stuff I had from closets I designed over four years ago. I’ve become quite the expert!
3. Sort the bathroom. I waited on this and I’m not sure why really. Probably because the only bad thing about the new master bath — is its … PEDESTAL SINK. Argh! Also the medicine cabinet is big and opens to the left and then kind of swings back on you. So it doesn’t make it very easy to get to the things behind it which makes putting on makeup awkward and annoying. So I had to figure out WHERE I was going to get ready for the outside world. Luckily I realized that the walk-in closet, which has a lovely window, would be perfect. There was space for a shelf and chair in there and I set up a makeshift vanity in there using some extra Elfa stuff. That inspired me to get the rest of the crap in the deep storage closet in the bathroom.
4. Get those books onto bookshelves. The built in organization is what makes it easy. I had to wait to unpack my bedroom books as I used built-ins in the last house and had to figure out what I could use in the new place. Finally, I realized a narrow cabinet that we hadn’t really used in Sam’s last room would work.
5. The dining-room dishes and breakables. This again is an easy one because you’ve got the built-in storage, and there’s somewhere for it to go. I staged the tchotchkes on the dining-room table until enough of the dust had cleared and then I arranged them artfully which helped to spur me onto the finish.
6. Get that TV connected. I don’t know about you, but it’s lovely to have a spot to watch TV when you need a break. I put our very ugly yet very comfortable low arm chair and ottoman in the new room in our lives: the den. Even though I wasn’t sure where I would put a TV in this room, the chair inspired me. I took out one of the built-in shelves and all of a sudden I had a media center. A week later, someone on Facebook was getting rid of a sofa. Woohoo! Voila, by last week, I had a new sofa and a new family seating and TV watching area.
7. Hang hooks. Before I let the guys leave my home I had them install hooks everywhere. In the closet, on the backs of doors, and in the hallway next to the side door as a make shift mud room. My brood is incredibly lazy, and sometimes I can be as well, so having hooks to hang my coat is a wonderful way to keep this new and lovely home tidy.
8. Finish with the front hall closet. Early in the second week I set a goal to finish the first floor by Easter. And I have almost accomplished this goal. I put the coats away neatly yesterday and just have to tidy up the kitchen and I will have reached my goal!

Now I can sit back in my comfortable chair — now covered with an old duvet cover — and look at this beautiful view every day. I’m in heaven! Tired, but satisfied.