Moving (Metro)
As if moving isn’t stressful enough, imagine moving your mother and father out of the home they have lived in for the last 37 years. Add to that scenario, making their new house feel like home in one day. As emotions ran high and the “things to do” list ran long the day was eventful. Most homes do not have “turn-key” status when you move in hence; the immediate need for the painters, electricians, cable and phone technicians.
My team of organizers and I packed up the old house in one day including my mothers ridiculous teacup collections of 100. We had raided the L.C.B.O. for boxes and had all other packing supplies delivered the morning of. Everything that was not sold at the garage sale the weekend before was at the curb waiting for the pre-arranged charity to pick up. Many on-lookers helped themselves to items as they passed by. 416-any-time hauled away some nasty looking vintage mattresses plus 50 bags of garbage by days end. My father was in charge of Krispy Kreme Coffee and Doughnut pick-ups and my mother was responsible for eating and the distribution of them. At 3:30pm I was handing my parents their overnight bags. We said our good byes and told them to have a good nights rest and to expect the movers at 7 A.M. We would see them in the morning at the new house.
We arrived at 10 A.M. and not to my surprise my parents were hysterical; well my mother anyway. The crew of painters were working since 6 A.M. and the movers were just bringing in the last few boxes. I assured my parents that they would be settled in by the end of the day. With complete disbelief, Mom insisted that my team of organizers would not be done for at least two weeks. Dad went out once again for the Krispy Krème stop and Mom was now advising the electrician what she wanted done. The movers did an excellent job by placing the boxes in the designated room, which corresponded to the clearly labeled boxes.
By 11 A.M. the kitchen and dining room boxes were being emptied. One organizer was working on garbage management all day. She was separating recycling from garbage, flattening boxes and creating more working room in the process. The laundry room and front hall closets were next on the agenda. We were right on target. The 2nd floor consisted of two bedrooms, one combination office den and 4 closets. This took some time due to the mass amounts of clothing that had to be sorted into categories and systematically placed for accessibility and function. It turned out fabulous, I might say. Boy oh boy my mother has a ton of black pants. The painters we just about finished, they had to complete the bathrooms, which was next on our list…we took a needed break. I ran out to purchase some needed fitted cutlery trays for the kitchen, iron board holder for the back of the laundry room door and a wall mop organizer from Linen & Things. 2:15 P.M. everything is unpacked and organized but the house still looked messy because all the furniture was placed in the middle of the room for the painters. John the lead painter gave us the go ahead to move the furniture into place. We swept the floors and made the beds and finally the house was done.
My parents were completely amazed and thrilled that we had made their new house a home in a day. Happy to be in this organizing business and help out the folks. Congratulations on your new home, Mom and Dad. Enjoy!
If you have organizing questions or comments that you would like me to address please email us at metro@organizedzone.com or call 416-665-2165. We like to hearing from you.
Brenda Borenstein is your Professional Organizing Guru. Look out for her column every second Tuesday in the Metro in the Homes section. For more tips and ideas please visit her Website www.organizedzone.com. She has organized hundreds of homes, and says, “There is nothing I haven’t seen and nothing that can’t be overcome.”