Organizing the move

When I started planning for our move I knew that I wanted to color code the rooms rather than just writing the rooms on the boxes... I wanted it to be easier for anyone who helps us move into our new place. Plus, you know me, I have to have a system for everything. I got a binder going and started thinking of ideas and then went to Pinterest where I found this on Bowl Full of Lemons and this on Find Joy in the Journey.

The first link had a great moving binder and was color coded so I took lots of inspiration from that. The biggest thing I got from her blog was the idea to have matching cardstock to put up on the rooms of the new place to help people know where to go. Also, she recommended Lowe's boxes because of their price and the fact that they are uniform in size. 

From Shannon Brown (the second link) I printed off her worksheets to use when keeping track of what went in the boxes- so much better than if I had just written it on lined paper like I was planning. 

So here it is:

My moving binder with legend for each section and room. As you can see I needed a lot of colors so I used big blank stickers and then smiley face ones as well. So if it has a yellow smiley face sticker it contains bathroom stuff. If it has a big yellow sticker it contains books (library).

Here are the matching cardstock pages I have in the back of the binder. I put a matching sticker on each one. So, when we get to the new place I will tape these up in each room and anyone that is helping us need only look at the sticker on the box they are carrying and then take it to the room with the matching color/sticker.

This shows the worksheet for the "library". I also have a few more pages behind this one. As you can see, I didn't list all the titles for Children's books because they are smaller and it would have taken forever but I did list all of my books so it is easy to find them. This is how each section is. That way if we needed anything during this time we can go look in the binder and know exactly which box it is in. The numbers at the left are written on each box's label. 

So for example the Harry Potter books are in Library #1.

This is what the labels on each box look like:

This has been awesome. Packing was organized. Unpacking will be easy and organized. I hope this helps any of you who may be moving in the future the way it helped me.

Staging our house

Around the time I found out we would be moving I found a blog called Goodbye, house. Hello, Home! It is an amazing blog and she had just done a series called 31 days to a staged home.

She talked about how she would go in to a house that had been on the market for months and "stage" it and then it would be sold within weeks, days, or even hours. 

I read the entire series, asked some questions on the last day, shared what I learned with Doug, and then we decided on the things we could actually do.

We didn't do everything she suggested because budget wise we just couldn't. For example: we put all the boxes I had packed already and the extra furniture in the basement rather than getting a storage unit.

Basically the idea behind staging is to remove everything that is personal to your family and arrange things/ add things that make your home seem like a time share ready for them to move in. She said she goes for a Pottery barn/ time share feel. Really, you want someone to come into your home and feel like if they had their bags with them they could unpack and live there. 

So, I picked up some stuff on black friday, we got staging items from both sets of parents for Christmas, and we set to it.  As most of you know, our house sold to the first person that came through it on the first day it was listed so I really think there is something to this staging business!

Here is our staged home....

Master bath: I took down curtains, added white towels and rugs, new toilet seat, a basket of white wash cloths on the counter, and a potted (fake) plant....

Master bedroom: 

We removed all of the book shelves and books except one full of only hardback (mostly classics), added some cute decorative items to the shelves to fill them up, added a pillow and throw to the green couch and made this corner of our room into a reading nook....

We removed all curtains, added blinds, our bedding was already white but we added a big white pillow and a beige/white throw. We added the tray with nice dishes and a fake cupcake. 

We removed all unneeded furniture and knick knacks. 

Master closet:

We removed most of the extra things in here (like my craft supplies) and used Roy G. Biv on the clothes that we left. 

oops ... this one is out of order but this is looking down the hallway to where we put my little desk with a painting and the new tree my parents gave us to create a little spot on the landing....

We put my hope chest in the closet to hold things we wanted to put away quick (extra quilts, etc.)

The girls room:

We moved the girls into Abi's room together and packed 90% of their toys. We removed the curtains. 

Maddy's room:

We turned Maddy's room into an office. It wasn't impressive but I wanted somewhere to still have the treadmill until we move so we thought we would make this room seem like a bonus room. We hid all my workout items in the red basket in the closet and all my computer items in the black basket on the shelf.

The girls bathroom:

We added white towels, white rug, and white shower curtain. I took out the shelf I kept diapers on and added a basket of white washcloths and a sponge to the top of the toilet. We also got a new toilet seat.

The laundry room is pretty much exactly the same but we took down curtains and added blinds...

going down the stairs...

Our front room was the same except we took down the curtains and added blinds. I also added some greenery to the vase with the red flowers. 

We don't have much of an entryway so we added a little black table from Hobby Lobby with a vase and greenery under the mirror. 

looking through the low wall into the other rooms of the downstairs....

In the living room I added a little bowl of decorative balls and some magazines to the table and some throw pillows to the couch. We took down the curtains and added blinds. 

In the kitchen we added some cute things like a milk jug and fake cupcakes and a basket of fake bread cheese, and grapes but mostly just got rid of extra personal things. 

looking over into the dining nook- we took down curtains except on the doors, added blinds, got rid of Doug's huge computer desk, put the computer in the black cabinet, added greenery to the top of that, and added a little towel runner to the table with a plant...

looking back to the front...

So, this is what the basement looks like: definitely not staged but at least it is clean and we have a place for all of our stuff while we are still here...

A sunbeam

Madeline is now a sunbeam at church! She was very excited at first. Now she is kind of wanting to be back in nursery so she can play. I still can't believe she is old enough to be in Primary!

The same day Abi made this car out of blocks for Rainbow Dash to ride in. I promised her a picture of it!

Big News

It is official: We are moving back to Utah!!!