Packing Organization

I decided to try to be organized by putting white labels on the boxes as I pack and writing on the label absolutely every item that I put into the box. A label could include: red spatula, box of staples, 2 heart design wine glasses and Eva’s Little People Farm set… for example. I just knew that I would move in and need a particular item like my red spatula and if I had to look at several boxes just labeled “kitchen”, that would not help. This also required me to look at every single item before packing and decide if I wanted to keep it or donate it. I also put boxes in one area of the room that need to be moved first and include necessary things, like kitchen items, and then boxes in another part of the room that can be moved later, like books and photo albums and random decorative items. That way, we can take the “most important” boxes when we move in and perhaps set up the kitchen and our rooms, then figure out what shelves or other furniture we need to buy, then we can come back and bring those other boxes to the new place. My parents kindly agreed to let us keep some items here until we can fully set up house, so that is great and should help make it an easier transition. I’m using whatever boxes I have lying around and several plastic containers. The blue plastic bins I’ve had since college, but I recently bought the clear plastic containers with the green lids and I really like them. I like being able to see through the container, which helps me see where in the box a particular item is. The only possible downside is that I will have to find a place to store those re-usable plastic containers at our new place unlike cardboard boxes that I can get rid of. At least I can stack them all together when not in use and perhaps I’ll need them for Eva’s clothes as she grows out of things.

How Should I Organize my Files?

I’m living surrounded by boxes lately, since our condo has been delayed again until November, maybe December. I’m also trying to organize things as I pack them to be ready to move, whenever that might be. I can’t figure out what to do with these files. This is the old large filing cabinet of my dad’s above that I’ve been using the last few years and I won’t be taking it with me. I’m only using one drawer for files. I had other office supplies stored in the other drawers but I have packed those things away.

I bought these file boxes at Ikea to try:

…but I don’t know if I like them because I can’t see anything. I thought it would be fine for something like taxes that I probably will only look at once a year, but anything else, like medical files, I’d have to take the whole box down, and basically take everything out in order to find the one piece of paperwork I might need. They might look nice on a shelf and then I thought I could eliminate a filing cabinet piece of furniture, but it doesn’t seem easy to use, so I might need to find something else.

The rectangle boxes might be alright, like I put all my electronic wires and adapters in a box labeled electronics, which would be fine, but if I have other boxes stacked on top that makes it hard to get to, and I don’t like things that are hard to get to so I’m back at the beginning with trying to find something that looks nice but also is easy to use.

I might go back to a filing cabinet idea and then use these file boxes for refill paper or labels that I only need to access when I need to restock my printer or something. If I go back to a filing cabinet, I’ll need to find a small one that perhaps can roll away into a closet or under a desk.