Purging, Cleaning and Organizing...the Key to a Smooth Move

We have begun, and will continue until the day the packers come, the purge, clean and organize process. As great as it sounds to have someone else pack your stuff, when you actually have it done, you quickly realize that if you are not purged and organized, it can be a total nightmare. I think whenever we move, whether it is down the street or across the country, we like to start fresh and rid ourselves of extra clutter. It really is the best time to do it. For the average person packing themselves, they purge and organize as they pack. In the military, we must be all purged and organized before the packing begins so in essence you are taking everything out of the closets, rearranging and tossing and putting it all back in. If you dont purge before you leave, you will have to deal with that stuff when you get to where you are going and chances are, it will end up back in a box in the back of your closet. The other issue is that you always risk not having the same amount of closet space in your new location and who wants to rent a storage space for old junk that you dont use anyway?

Ever hear the term "One man's trash is another man's treasure"? I believe that is the motto for packers (and very understandably so but sometimes seems to be taken a bit overboard). Packers pack everything unless you have it segregated or marked not to be packed. This may include but is certainly not limited to full trash cans and ash trays. This seems like a ridiculous notion but you never know what people save or whether they are using a trash can for storage or trash. As an example, when I worked at Verizon, someone got upset because their blue prints were missing. When they were asked where they were stored, the person said that they had been in his blue recycle bin. Well guess what, corporate policy was that recycle bins got emptied by the cleaning crew. In your house, there is no corporate policy so you can use bins inside of your house for whatever you would like. If you have a considerate packer who comes across something that clearly appears to be trash, they may ask but don't count on it. To make matters worse, if a packer finds an ashtray on your desk, he may use common sense and ask you about it, pack it in a ziploc bag or he may just drop the whole thing (wrapped in paper, of course) into the same box as the rest of your desk stuff. As you unpack and unwrap paper, you don't realize that it is an ashtray until...you know the rest. The short of it is, on the day before the packers come, do a final sweep for trash and save yourself the headache.

Organizing is crucial! Because you don't know where you will be living, you may have to go without your stuff (we call it Household Goods) for several weeks so you need to plan accordingly. You can't just plan for the days of your drive. You need to add to your drive time a week or so to find a place and a week or more until your goods are delivered. Your washer and dryer is in with your household goods so access to those types of appliances may be quite limited for awhile. The items that you are carrying yourself (DITY) must be completely separated away from the items that the packers will be dealing with or you risk something important getting packed. The other issue in organizing is doing the most to ensure that related items are packed together. If your cd tower is in the livingroom and you have 1 cd in your bedroom upstairs, that lone cd will be packed with the bedroom stuff. The packers will not take the time to figure that out. If you are not properly organized, you will never find what you need when your goods are finally delivered so do yourself a huge favor and deal with these things now.

**My intention is to do a daily PCS update with more info on the process as well as our progress. I will post deals and coupon info here and there but please bear with me as my coupon adventures will probably be slim as I am completely absorbed right now.