There is so much packaging involved with moving it is insane. Take this $2.00 Crate and Barrel glass for example. It and it alone was wrapped, actually double wrapped, in this huge piece of paper. Now think of that X your kitchen - X your house. That's a lot of paper. Even non breakables were wrapped. Each bottle of poster paint was wrapped like that. Each basket, wooden bowl, remote control. I understand it to a certain extent. Our stuff is traveling a long way. I'm sure it saves the moving company lots of money in replacing broken or damaged items. And, to their credit, nothing was broken or damaged. I wonder if a green moving company exists. If one does exist, I wonder if anyone can afford to actually use it.
Crate and Barrel glass
Paper left after unpacking ONE box of kitchenware (Do you feel the rise in global temperature?) You can't see it, but the paper trail goes on much further into our entry way.
Other than a large dose of environmental guilt our unpacking is going well. The girls have been entertained by the rediscovery of their things. We nearly have our living room and kitchen finished. I think we all found what we were looking for.
p.s. Thanks for the ideas on the box spring (and the humid cave.) I went and looked at our box spring again to try and picture what you all did. Threw the idea out to Bryce. He chuckled. We'll be buying a frame next week.
Crate and Barrel glass
Paper left after unpacking ONE box of kitchenware (Do you feel the rise in global temperature?) You can't see it, but the paper trail goes on much further into our entry way.Other than a large dose of environmental guilt our unpacking is going well. The girls have been entertained by the rediscovery of their things. We nearly have our living room and kitchen finished. I think we all found what we were looking for.
p.s. Thanks for the ideas on the box spring (and the humid cave.) I went and looked at our box spring again to try and picture what you all did. Threw the idea out to Bryce. He chuckled. We'll be buying a frame next week.
12 comments:
when we made our last biggish move it was at least within Australia, but with 2 kids this time we had dh's company arrange packers and a full-service move - so we too ended up with even plastic plates individually wrapped!
set aside a big stack of whichever paper stays intact when you unwrap items and you have an instant art supply stash. the girls got to paint and draw with markers to their heart's content while i unpacked!
Who needs Christmas when you get to unpack all your favorite things you have been without for 2 months???? Hope you have good recyclying there. I am sure I would be attempting to hoard it all for future craft projects!
Can you at least save some of the paper to use for art projects? When we moved, I was able to save several loads so my daughter could use them on her easel!
i completely understand, we just moved last week and i have been unpacking boxes non stop...some boxes have each item wrapped and others have everything just dumped in, like my bathroom drawers were.
Our life was in storage for 1.5 years! Each box was like a bit of Christmas for all of us! There were toys that Elizabeth has never even seen since she was only 3 months old when we moved & stored! (And we're bringing them out for Christmas - all I bought this year was stocking stuffers!)
And in that huge pile of paper I see art & craft projects! Wrapping paper, drawing paper, painting (if it's thick enough), protect the table with it while you do other crafts. Draw pictures on it to include in Christmas cards or just send home to Grandma. : )
That's a lot of art projects in packing material! Yikes!
You know, that is some GREAT paper for art projects!!!!! My kids could scribble on that stuff for DAYS! But still...a bit much, I agree.
We have that same doll house too. :)
Good luck with the unpacking! We move every three years. Our last big international move was to/from Japan and we are getting ready to move to Italy this summer. I agree with you about the excessive paper wrapping process...which there was a better way. One thing I learned from our early moves was to remove light bulbs from all of the lamps. When we unpacked we had a box full of individually wrapped, but broken light bulbs. And a friend discovered that her garbage can had been packed and shipped to Japan with a full load of garbage still in the can! Have "fun" unpacking and hope you don't have any unpleasant discoveries, just the joy of making your new place feel like home. I am enjoying glimpses of European life through your blog. I have been a long time lurker and always enjoyed your craft projects. Happy Holidays to you and your family.
Lucia
my friend also got to keep the paper they removalists didnt use.. so gifted to me a huge pile of butchers paper (that hadnt been scrunched) to us for art supplies.. that paper lasted a year or two and it was great!! and that paper is expensive in Australia!!
As long as someone else is doing the packing for me, I don't care how much paper they use. That's not entirely true...I do care about the environment, but I hate packing dishes with a passion. I do not look forward to moving again. Hopefully I'll never have to pack to move overseas. What an ordeal!
Perhaps you can recycle some of that paper? Use it for wrapping paper? Use it for crafts? Use it to ship things to the states?
We use paper like that for wrapping paper. Get out the dots or markers and voila - instant wrapping paper. At b-day parties you always know which prezzie is from Logan! Granted, we don't have that much - in fact I just ran out from when I had to buy 25 tea cups from Goodwill last year.
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