Two Days of Packing

I was up before 7 the first morning of packing getting the house and the kids ready for the packers.  I packed my toiletries and loaded the car with the rest of the stuff we are bringing.  Then I went room to room and got it ready.  I zip tied alarm clock cords, took bedding off the beds, unloaded the dish washer, and emptied the trash.


Unfortunately we had to take the dog to get his shots.  I missed that he was overdue, and since he is going to be spending time with other dogs during our move I wanted to be sure he was all up do date.  So my husband took him to the groomer/vet and brought home breakfast while I finished getting the house ready.


Once the kids had eaten I took them to their friends for the morning.  The movers usually come in like a whirlwind on that first day so having the girls out of the house makes it easier to watch the movers, and it's more entertaining to them to go play anyway.  As it turned out the movers were a bit slower than I am used to.  They didn't even arrive until 10:30 am, there were only two of them instead of the typical three or four, and one was in training.  So they moved a little slow.  On the up side, it looked as though they took special care when packing our things.


So what is our job if the movers are packing us?  It sounds crazy, but we have to sit and watch them pack all of our belongings.  It's an odd thing to do, just sitting there and following them around from room to room.  But that is what we are required to do.  I have never had a problem with packers stealing or being careless.  They are usually very good at their jobs.  Even so, we sit and watch them pack for 8 hours a day, sometimes for two straight days.


After lunch I picked up the kids and brought them home for lunch, and then took them to another friends house to play for a couple more hours.  They would rather play and it keeps them out of the packers way.


So the packers worked until quitting time at 5 o'clock.  Our beds were still up so we stayed at our house that night.  I would like to say we got a ton of cleaning done, but we were actually really tired so we just plugged the TV back in since they hadn't packed that yet either, and watched the Olympics.


On day two I took the girls to a friends and only one of the guys came to finish the packing and inventory every box.  This time we did a lot more cleaning than watching.  We were able to get the kitchen cupboards clean including the outside fingerprints.  And we cleaned the oven, one entire bathroom, all the windows, sills, blinds and sliding glass door tracks.  We cleaned all the fans and light fixtures, and wiped fingerprints off of doors, jams, walls, and wall switch plates.


The packer left mid-afternoon and we quite cleaning at bedtime.  It was a long, productive day!