This past week our family of 5 (2 adults, 3 children and all 6 pets) moved ~ we sold our home and are off to new adventures. We were fortunate to spend Christmas in our “old home” but as soon as the packages were unwrapped and the guests hit the road, we were taking down the tree and packing, packing & packing.
I have to admit that “Mrs. Clause” was extremely tired post Christmas and with packing for the big move on the horizon, I had to wave my white flag of surrender and ask for help. I needed this transition to a new home to be as smooth as possible. Thankfully I had worked alongside a wonderful organizational “whiz” and friend for the past 2 years and knew immediately I needed her assistance.
Laurie Martin, the new owner of Simplicity ~ Charlotte’s premiere organizational company, came to my rescue. With very little notice, Laurie came over to listen to what I “thought” my needs were. In my opinion, organizers need to be professional listeners too ~ and she has that talent mastered! She listened intently to me as I described my packing needs room by room, what we should take to the rental home, and what we should unpack once we got there etc.
When the day came for Laurie and her team to come over to help me “organize” before the packers arrived ~ I was in near panic mode. That “elephant on the chest” feeling was really bugging me. I had never moved 3 kids, 4 frogs, 1 fish and a dog ~ let alone ALL of the “stuff” that comes along with our family of 5 + pets. True I had moved across the ocean to London & back (but that was just my husband and I over 9 years ago). The amount of “stuff” in our house 9 years later started to overwhelm me and I did not even know where to begin packing.
Thankfully, Laurie spent 3 hours with me during that near “packing panic attack” and helped me sort, label, purge, and organize in preparation for packing the next day. While I was on hand to answer any questions they had, Laurie and her colleague worked seamlessly to provide order to my complete chaos.
What did I learn that day?
1. You don’t want to move trash ~ literally, if you have not emptied your waste cans on packing day, the packers will pack your garbage!
2. When you are moving to a rental home, you don’t want to unpack everything ~ organize items into “pack and store” piles versus high frequency essentials you must “pack and open” in the rental home.
3. Purge before you pack ~ if you haven’t used an item in the time you have lived in your “old” home, chances are you will not use it in the “new” home. Save money by purging before you pay the packers by the hour ~ or before you take the time to pack it yourself ~ those boxes are expensive!
On moving day, my house of boxes was loaded onto the moving truck one at a time and four hours later we were unloading the truck at the rental house. As the boxes came pouring into the new home, Laurie and her team arrived right on schedule to help turn the sea of “chaos” into organized bliss one box at a time.
Here’s how it went …..
~ Boxes were packed and labeled based on Laurie’s “pre packing” assistance (labeling and sorting).
~ As each box came off the truck it went to the room it was labeled for ~ i.e. master bedroom, laundry room etc.
~ Once the boxes for a particular room were unpacked, Laurie’s team swooped in to literally put the ENTIRE room’s contents away in a SUPER organized manner!
We’re talking bathroom drawers lined, socks put in the appropriate sock drawer, towels folded and placed with care in the linen closet, beds made, books organized on the bookshelves, clothes hung in the closet, shoes placed neatly on racks and much more!
The BIGGEST help was in the kitchen! While I would have spent an entire week figuring out where to put the plates versus the Tupperware, Laurie’s team has done this so many times that in the matter of an hour, my entire kitchen & pantry was organized better than I would have EVER done it myself!
I have to tell you the entire “move-in” went flawlessly! By 9pm (remember the move day started at 8am) my children were sleeping in their MADE beds (dust ruffles on!) with the entire contents of their rooms organized and put away (clothes, toys, books, toothbrushes!!), my husband and I were relaxing on the sofa and the entire HOUSE full of boxes had been unpacked and properly put in its new home (unless it had been labeled storage and we had it stacked in the garage for the next move).
Laurie’s team even left flowers in the middle of the kitchen table for us to enjoy. The icing on the cake was a walk through the next day of where everything was located. I was way to tired to do this the night before so Laurie arranged to come over at a time when my eyelids were not drooping to show me how everything was organized and explained why certain items landed in certain places. Her logic was flawless and her execution was perfect!
The biggest compliment I can give is that this entire experience was worth every penny and the Simplicity Team was EXCELLENT. Thanks to Laurie and her team, our move went flawlessly.
