Organized Habits

On the Move – Packing continues…

Natalie Conrad — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 03:18:42 +0000

Day 14. Went up to the new house today with another load of boxes. As I mentioned previously, this new place is close enough (90 minutes) to drive to and bring things up a little at time. I have been loading my car (to the brim) every trip with boxes and then unpacking the boxes once I get there and bringing the boxes back with me. No, I don’t need more boxes – I am just doing this so that I do not have a mountain of boxes and tons of unpacking to do later. This strategy does not work with all moves, but this time it is working out well. Each time I go to the new house, the place looks more and more put together and there is only about 20 boxes in the garage to be unpacked later.

Here’s a photo of our new backyard and the peaceful pond that awaits me.

I am working on organizing the kitchen this week so I will talk about that strategy in the next blog post.

On the Move – First Night

Natalie Conrad — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 02:49:56 +0000

Day 12. My dear husband’s birthday is today and I managed to convince him that we should spend the night in the new house. Of course, we took a load of boxes with us – you know, I can’t be unproductive! While we were gone, 2 couples came with their Realtors to look at our home. Both are very interested and my agent thinks we may get an offer even before having an open house. (Oh, darn, now I don’t get to blog about staging!)

This weekend we are talking with our children to see what they want that we don’t need to take with us. Things like landscaping materials/tools, extra cabinetry, chairs, bookcases and the like. I had some positive response to what was being offered and even a few inquiries into things I wasn’t ready to part with! Our children still seem to be processing the fact that we are moving away. Perhaps they thought it would never happen? I wonder how holidays will work now? I am sure we will be coming to their homes and they will have the holiday meals and festivities to plan….. hmmm, that’s not such a bad thing, now is it?

ListPlanIt Form coming soon!

Natalie Conrad — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 21:57:01 +0000

Due to technical difficulties, the moving form from ListPlanIt could not be posted. Stay tuned, we hope to bring this to you tomorrow!

On the Move – Exhausting but successful

Natalie Conrad — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 04:35:26 +0000

Day 11. Oh my aching legs! Today we took a large load to the new house. My helpers today were another son, his wife and my best friend. I was amazed at how quickly we unloaded a 16′ truck. Luckily, this son used to work for a mover during the summer when he was in high school so he knew what he was doing! The downside today was that the new place has steps no matter which door to the house you enter so needless to say, the heavy furniture was a challenge! We managed to move most of the furniture into the house, however. We also unloaded my china into the china cabinet and put away all the scrapbooks into a built in cabinet. I am a basket collector so we have begun to strategically place baskets along the decorative ledge in the entry way. All in all it was a very successful trip but I was so tired that I had to take a 2 hour nap when I got back home and now I am headed to bed early!

On the Move – A Very Productive Day

Natalie Conrad — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 04:59:22 +0000

Day 9 & 10 – Yesterday was spent watching my dear granddaughter and having my old faithful dog’s portrait done. A little off the move subject, but life is still happening around me….. I did manage to pack more boxes and stage things near the door for loading. I reserved a truck from Budget Rent A Car and hired a 2 man work crew- essentially one of my sons and his friend. These days with work offerings so slim, I thought I would help them out by giving them a job for a day or two and take advantage of their young muscles.

Today, Thursday, started off with going to Budget to pick up a 16′ truck. I figured this size truck would be sufficient since the goal is not to move everything at once. We are having a real estate open house next weekend, so I am leaving some furnishings for staging purposes (and so my husband would have a place to lay his head at night). I did rent moving pads, since I have furnishings with inlaid glass and a few antiques. We bought the truck back to the house, I handed “my workers” a list, by room, of the furnishings to load and then I went to work. I had an organizing client for a few hours today and was happy to go instead of watching how the boys handled my furniture!

The truck was finished loading around 6 o’clock and I fed the boys (again). I then started regular household chores in the kitchen and managed to vacuum 2 rooms as well. I’ve set more things by the front door to load in my car in the morning. Another son is coming over to drive the truck for me and I will have him load my 3 live indoor potted trees in the back before taking off.

On the Move – The expenses are adding up

Natalie Conrad — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 04:42:55 +0000

Day 8 – So tonight, after packing 14 more boxes with the help of my dear friend, Chriss, I am sitting here thinking… “Wow, that grande iced coffee from Starbucks did nothing for me!” Needless to say, no energy here. Aside from packing the boxes, today it became evident that there are more expenses than anticipated.
Insurance to cover our possessions and property. I called our existing agent and gave them the change of address and all the details. Now I owe 50% of an annual premium for renter’s insurance (this on top of the homeowner’s policy still in place while our home is on the market).
Truck Rental. Compared 2 well known truck rental companies and need to reserve that tomorrow. More on how that goes later.
Muscle for hire. Hiring a few of my son’s friends to help load furnishings on this end of the journey into the rented truck. I am anticipating moving the first 50% of furnishings this weekend. (I am leaving some things at the house for staging purposes).
New washer and dryer. My set is over 15 years old and although not broken, we are giving this to our sons for their new place. Need to purchase a new washer and dryer (like the red ones on my vision board). Also convenient to have them delivered and installed at the new place for us!
Double household bills. We will incur charges for 2 sets of household bills until such time as our home sells. Phone, internet, pest control, and satellite dish will be transferred mid month. At least that’s only a half of a month of additional expense, but expense nonetheless.
Oh and for good measure, let’s throw in a needed car repair too!
Don’t worry, I’m still smilin’…….

On the Move – what a weekend!

Natalie Conrad — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 00:05:02 +0000

Here’s a video blog of the first weekend of beginning to move.
I’m trying hard not to look tired!

On the move – and on the phone!

Natalie Conrad — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 03:41:28 +0000

Day 5 – Today was a busy day for me. I was in work mode as well as move mode. I opened a new business account at a bank that will be local in my new city. The manager, Nick, was very friendly and I found it a huge relief to be able to not wait in a long time to speak to someone. Nick was very interested in me and my business and even promised to follow up himself. I love small community banks (this one took no federal bail out money, by the way).

Next, I went to an eWomen networking event and helped facilitate the monthly Elk Grove luncheon, where I won a gift! Looks like a great housewarming gift for our new home, doesn’t it?! I also was lucky enough to talk to another woman at the event who is moving this weekend and is more than happy to have me take her boxes off her hands. (Have I mentioned I love to recycle, yet?)

On the way to and from this event, I managed to make phone calls and get the PG& E accounts squared away. Next, I called the phone company and got our new phone number and internet connection dates. I also changed the address for old bills to be forwarded to and stopped the automatic withdrawals as we need to set those up next month on the new bank account.I was also able to update my address one more online account.

There are 2 empty boxes staring at me next to my desk but…. tomorrow is another day!

On the Move – Day 4

Natalie Conrad — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 02:54:08 +0000

Day 4 - Okay, so what tasks were completed today? I think I’ll make a quick list:

Set date and time for this weekend to do walk thru and get keys
Decided which Realtor will list our house
Left message for insurance agent to obtain renter’s insurance
Assembled and packed 8 boxes (while granddaughter was sleeping)
Identified some furnishings with the dot system

Dot system??? – Are you curious? I explain this in my book, Downsize to Organize, but here’s the short version: I am using sticker dots to identify which furniture items I want moved during each moving load. We are planning to move a little at a time all month long yet still operate from this house for at least the next 2 weeks. If I am not specific about what is taken then I could end up sleeping on the floor! There are also other uses for these dots – to be explained later.

So the Realtor that we chose to list our current home is..(drum roll please).. Claudia Niedzielski of Prudential Realty. As I mentioned before, we interviewed 3 different agencies and really feel that Claudia will to the best job for us. Another benefit of using Claudia is that we get a team – her associate Belinda Johnston will also be working on our transaction and helping with the staging and open house.

The eight boxes that were packed were mainly from the kitchen area and one bookcase. I started on the top shelves of the kitchen cabinets as these items are used less frequently and will not impact the day to day here until we are fully moved. I remember moving into this home and having 50 boxes for the kitchen alone. Thank goodness, I have weeded out things since then!

Join the Journey – What now?

Natalie Conrad — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 02:59:27 +0000

Day 3 – Feeling a little nauseous today. My dear hubby thinks I am a little stressed after talking to the last Realtor but I think it may be a little heat stroke. (The stress comes later I’m sure!) It’s been very hot these past few days in Northern California.

Not only do I have to move the household but I am also moving my business. So I needed to start making a list of all those things running around in my head. I affectionately call this activity a “brain dump” and if I don’t do this regularly I begin to feel like I am going crazy and/or losing my mind! One thing at the top of my list was to start changing the address information I have out there for my business all over the internet. You know things like my vendors: Go Daddy, merchant accounts, eWomen Network, etc. Boy, do I have a lot out there and too many passwords! Where’s the passwords to all this? Out comes the password book.

Here’s a tip: If you don’t want your passwords in your computer then put them in an address book, writing them in alphabetically. Put it in a not-so-visible yet convenient place for you to get to. I’d tell you where I keep mine but then I might as well tell you my passwords!

… I digress…

So as not to spend the rest of my day (and week) updating all my internet connections, I decided that I would update 2-3 a day. I am placing a small red dot in the address book of passwords as I update each one so I know where I left off.