Day 785 | Packing

Chris and I promised a year ago that we were going to hire movers to pack our house up if we actually ended up deciding to move back to Wisconsin. We've tackled that challenge five times in 10 years and decided we were done. Twelve months later and about 40 boxes in, that decision was thrown out the window. Why, you might ask? I decided I wanted to save the money to splurge on nice patio furniture for our new, amazing three-season room. That's a fair trade-off, right?!? And, you know what dawned on me, I don't actually mind packing. And here's why:

Top five reasons I don't mind packing:

1. There's nothing more satisfying that the perfectly packed box. Man, I've had some really impressive ones this time around. If only photos could do them justice, maybe I'd create some sort of calendar out of all my favorites.
2. It makes the move seem real. I didn't like the idea of living a totally normal life right up to the day before our move. I don't think it would have been great for my emotional state and definitely would have been harder for the boys to understand. Now, they see the boxes every day and me packing every day and we're talking about the move nearly constantly.
3. The money saved. This one is obvious, I know, but have you ever received a quote to have boxes packed? It's no joke. To satisfy your curiosity, in DC it's about $12 to pack a normal box (clothes, books, etc.) and then the price jumps to about $40 per box for fragile items (i.e. your entire kitchen). Of course there are some in between prices as well. That's no joke. We figure it'll save us about $2000 to pack everything. You're all going to love the patio furniture so much more now!
4. The purging. If someone else packs your stuff, how do you go through everything so that you're not packing an old basketball jersey from high school (ok, to be fair, that one actually did make the cut, but I threw a lot of other stuff...). I don't want to bring all my old junk to my beautiful new house. 
5. Ease in unpacking. I'm fully aware that the unpacking process is no picnic either. But, if I pack my own boxes and have a general idea of where stuff is and how much I still need to find homes for, I'm confident I'll be in a better place after the movers unload the truck.

Keep in mind, we're still hiring professionals to load and unload the truck and drive everything cross country. That, we will pay the crazy expensive fee for. Neither Chris nor I have the friends willing to help us move (we're not 20 anymore) or the stamina for a 16+ hour trek in a Uhaul. Bring on the movers!