Yesterday we moved from Seattle to Portland. It was amazingly simple. We just packed up our belongings into the car, left the apartment keys under the door mat, and drove off. We are now in the 3rd city of the 12 Cities, 1 Year adventure. So, although we’re still early in our quest, we’ve got moving down to a bit of a routine, and that’s what I want to tell you about today.
Getting ready to move out of Broomfield took about 6 months. Getting ready to move out of Beth’s sister’s house in Kansas City took about 3 days. Getting ready to move out of Missoula took 2 days. And getting ready to move out of Seattle took about 1/2 day.
On the day before leaving Seattle, here’s what we did.
- Eat everything – Whatever’s in the fridge or pantry at the end of the day has to be either packed or thrown away. Since we hate throwing away food, we have to eat it. So for lunch we ate all the random crap left in the fridge and cupboard. We’re getting a little better at not buying food that will be tough to use. This time, all that was left in the fridge was:
- The remaining 1/2 bag of ice cubes
- A cheap frozen dinner of stir fry rice and vegetables
- Remains of a bottle of milk
- Remains of a jar of mayo
- Some cheddar cheese, and some flavored feta
- Celery, only one stalk of which I deemed edible
- Half an onion
- Butter
- Two apples
- Some marginal hummus, probably a bit past its “best by” date
- Laundry – Who wants to have to do laundry first thing when they move into a new place? We don’t. So we try to wash everything so we can pack only clean clothes.
- Give stuff away – Inevitably, we’ve got more stuff at the end of the month than we want. So at least the first two months, we’ve made a habit of going to Goodwill on the way out of town. This time, for example, we had an extra backpack, a Thera Cane (Beth is dealing with her back issues using a pair of tennis balls now), a power strip, clothes, bedsheets, a black briefcase, and a plastic file box. I may have already mentioned that when we buy something new, we’re trying hard to eliminate something of the same size or bigger. This way, we never have the problem of accumulating stuff. I want us to only de-accumulate stuff (is “de-accumulate” a word?).
- Pack – The day before we leave, we pack up stuff into the bags and other containers they go in. Then the morning of moving day, we (mainly Beth) carefully put all that stuff into the back of the Prius. This time, I accumulated an extra bag over the month – a backpack specially made for carrying a video camera and accessories. But Beth somehow got things assembled so we could still see out the back window a little; that makes me a much less nervous driver.
And that’s pretty much our routine the day before we move.
I’m confused about the things you accumulated and then need to de-accumulate. Were those things that you only needed in Seattle? Or are those things that you started with and have now eliminated the need for?
All the stuff we give away each time are things we started with in Broomfield and decided along the way we don’t really need. Or in some cases it’s stuff that’s been replaced with something smaller/better. Like the tennis balls. They’re easier to pack AND more versatile than the Thera Cane. Eventually we will optimize our way down to a smart phone, a water bottle, and a really good Leatherman multi-tool. 🙂
The day before, Todd used some of our leftovers to make the wild rice into a really tasty dish.