Unpacking at last!

Sorry for the radio silencer, as of last Wednesday I finally took delivery of my household items from the US. Their journey was 2 days short of 3 months, and arrived the day before the Pope rolled into town.

The past week has been a frenzy of unpacking. We did not take much with us to Spain, but even so it filled our little apartment to bursting with all of the boxes. Luckily Europeans are remorseful when it comes to hidden storage spaces. It was by far the smoothest unpacking I have ever done, sure part of that could have been the small size of the move. But mostly it was the pay off of the seven weeks I had to get our life packed up. It took forever to pack, and here is why:

1. I had a complete list of what was in every box. Every box was numbered on multiple sides. I made a condensed list for insurance. Every box was than labeled with our names, destination and move number.
2. Every box was packed to the gills to prevent negative space. If you have moved a lot you know that it is the negative space that allows things to be crushed by the weight of other boxes.
3. I packed every box so that, as much as possible, they would withstand: heavy loads, intense heat, and humidity. For all of you knitters: all of my yarn and wool was wrapped very tightly in unmarked newsprint. The tighter it is lowers a chance of  friction which can cause felting. Also the newsprint was a good humidity control and gave a strong paper smell that worked as a bug deterrent.
4. Every item packed was mentally weighed for it's 'worth'. For example: "can I replace this?" "Is this item easy to get in Spain?" we did not bring over anything we were keeping out of guilt or misplaced sentimentality.

When we first saw the state of the boxes, our hearts sank they were in pretty bad shape. Almost everyone looked like that had had a very rough journey. A lot of them had the corners crushed in slightly, some had huge gashes down their sides, some had obvious forklift holes!

I am VERY happy to report that so far there were only two broken or crushed items! (Some boxes went into deep storage right away and have not been opened.)

I am hoping that I do not need to do that big of move again for a long time - maybe ever. If I have to though, I will be well prepared. :)