Yes, the much dreaded, often panic-inducing, breath-snatching BIG move. You know, the time when you must up and leave ‘home’, wherever home has been the last one year (if you are lucky) or more (if you are luckier). You know exactly what I am talking about. That place you came to, with a heavy, weeping heart and teary eyes. But then you settled and it became home and just like that, it was time to uproot and move again. Find a new place, plant new roots and make a new home.
Ah, the new home! The possibilities of new adventures and the making of new memories, the prospect of finding new friends and new hobbies, and between discovering new things around you as well as discovering new things about you, the much dreaded big move becomes a welcome change.
Like almost every other thing in life, moving from one city to next comes with its own detailed manual. It is not the printed kind you find tucked away between folds of packing material of your new gadget or electronic. It is the kind that you add one bullet point to time after time. It is never complete. It is always changing. Forever adding to and deleting from. This kind of manual comes from experience and that comes from- having moved!
While I have spent my entire childhood and girlhood moving from one station to next, the experience falls short when it comes to the REAL deal. Moving as a military spouse. Oh, what a headache! What a nuisance! But once over and done with, what a marvelous change!
Without further ado, a meager five nuggets from my ever replenishing wisdom pot of The Big Move!
1. Chuck it out!
Yep, you heard that right. Whatever you haven’t used in a year, chuck it out. Whatever you have not seen for 6 months, chuck it out. What you do not use is clutter and the thing about clutter is that when you don’t throw it out, it reproduces. Seriously, it will have little clutter-offspring in the dark and before you know it you’ll be knee-deep in clutter-ville with the husband shaking his head in disbelief (mind you, most of those clutter-babies belong to him anyway). So yeah, chuck it right out!
2. A Place for Everything
And everything in its place. That’s the most golden of all golden nuggets. Whenever you add a new item of decor or a trinket you fell in love with or that new dress during peace time (that’s what I call the pre-move settled days) make sure you mark where it goes when the time comes to pack up. Do that, and you won’t be surprised (read shocked) when the stuff has tripled in one year and there is no place for it to go.
3. Write it, Mark it, Snap it
For airheads like me, trust me when the time comes to open things up, you will NOT recall what went where. You think the crate you’re unpacking has the crockery but surprise, surprise that’s buckets and brooms (yes, I keep a crate for them too) and that means you will be having the next meal on paper plates, again! Number the tens of boxes, the dozens of crates and handful of petis. Make a diary (mine says SUPERMOM on the cover, ironically) and take an inventory. Snap what clothes go in which suitcase so you’d have a visual recalling later on. It might sound unnecessary right now and a hassle while at it, but trust this pro, it helps!
4. Packing material: your new best friend
Bubble wrap, plastic sheets, cellophane, old blankets (that’s a staple military packing material), old newspaper, dust sheets and styrofoam sheets will be your best friends for life. Literally. You will never move without these. You will hoard these throughout peace time (no, do not chuck these out!) and love yourself for doing so when it’s time to pack up.
5. Be prepared
Too often it has happened that the Move came as a surprise (read shock). I’d wake up one fine sunny morning and find out that we would be moving in exactly 3 days’ time (what horror!). Keep your wits about you. Make a checklist (I keep an emergency checklist taped to the backside of the bed, just in case). Cry a little if it makes you feel better (did with me!) and then get on with it. Repeat to self ‘it gets better, it will be fine, I will be fine’. And you will be fine.
Always remember dearies, no matter how daunting the task, it gets done! It will pass and you’ll be happy again, love.
Rants of a Desi Military Wife 