I Should Be Packing?

I move in ten days. It’s only a three minute drive to the new place, but it is still technically a move. The new cottage is furnished, so I will be storing most of my furniture and kitchen supplies, and bringing only my clothes, bed linens, small appliances, sofa, desk, and desk chair. The removal company will be taking all my furniture and delivering the above to the cottage, before taking the rest on to the storage facility for the winter (this new home is only a seasonal hire; I will be looking again (!) in the spring).

I haven’t done any real packing yet. For anyone who has moved, you know you need to get started early, and be disciplined enough to do some packing every day for weeks before the moving date. Now, I have done a little packing: all my summer clothes, the deepest of winter clothes (which I’m starting to think could have just stayed in Canada – I haven’t touched them since unpacking a year ago), and the guest room bed linens are all in my big suitcase. But that’s it. I haven’t packed anything else, and I won’t for another six or seven days.

It’s not laziness. Or even procrastination (for a change). Every time I stand up and think, “Right. Let’s get some packing done”, I realize: I can’t pack anything yet, I’m using it all.

My bedroom? It’s only made up of a bed and a dresser. I’ll empty the last of the clothes (which I am currently wearing on usual rotation) the day before and put them in the medium suitcase, and strip the bed the last morning. The bathroom? It’s only the towels that I’m using, plus all my toiletries, which will go in the small suitcase the day before. The kitchen? I’m cooking with those pots, and dining off those plates, and eating all that food – the pots, pans, dishes, and cutlery I will box up the day before (it should take about 30 minutes total), and the last of the food will be transported in grocery bags the day of the move.

So there is no point in starting to pack – everything that’s not already packed, I am using. What I have learned from this is that I am currently living day to day here in Scotland (quite comfortably) with what I would have considered emergency ‘last minute’ supplies back home. Not bad.

• Oh, one confession: I did pack most of my footwear and that required its own super-size packing box. Oops. Imelda much?