Boxes

About a week ago I realized that just purging the house of things we don't really use or need was not going to be enough. I need to completely pack up the first floor of our house as if we were planning to move out. Because for several months we really will not be able to use the living room, dining room, and kitchen in the manner that we do now.

Luckily, I can get those fantastically solid and consistently shaped Hammermill paper boxes from work. I've been doing a loop through the office every afternoon around 3:30 to see if there are any empties or near-empties that I can snag and take home with me. My goal is to pack roughly two boxes per night. That is, boxes of things we plan on keeping. Purging is still a whole other job until itself.

Thank goodness I get the weekend Inquirer. I have no time to read it, but I pull out the coupon flyers and stack the papers by the fireplace. All winter long they made for good kindling; now they're being put to use as packing material.

My first plan of attack involves the china cabinet since, let's be honest, a family with two kids under 6 years of age does not use china. Next will be the living room bookcase. The bottom shelf of kids' books will have to be incorporated into the bookshelf in the boys' shared bedroom. The rest will be summarily purged or packed as necessary. If you've been dying to find a 2001 Writer's Market or Kaplan's 2003 GMAT study guide (with CD-ROM!), I've got you covered.

Where we'll put the boxes once they're packed is really up to Ken. My thought process ends when a given box is sealed. Attic? Garage? Who knows? I'm thinking of starting an over/under pool on how many boxes we end up having after all of this. I think we're gonna give the Great Wall of China a run for its money.