Boxed In

Today is the final walk-through for our new house. We began this process a year ago, and it is FINALLY (almost) over.

Though it has taken over a year for this house to get built, I think it was worth the wait. The house is certainly very beautiful. Also, we have had plenty of time to get ready for the big move. Moving a household is never exactly a fun experience, but having more time to do it in takes a lot of the stress out of the situation.

When we moved into this house we knew that we would be moving again in a couple of years. So one thing we did to save a little green was to save all the boxes from the move into this house three years ago. We folded them up and stored them in the attic space over the garage. There’s plenty of space up there and all that cardboard was probably extra insulation, too.

About two years ago one of my husband’s co-workers made an across-town move. My husband went up into the attic and got the boxes down. His friend used them to move, and when he was done with them he gave them back to us. Back into the attic they went.

About a month ago the boxes came down yet again. We have had a couple of very serious packing sessions, with a few more leisurely ones in between. By now my house is about 85% boxed up, with only the essentials for living left out.

Free moving boxes aren’t necessarily very hard to find. People post them on Craig’s list as free giveaways, you can get lots from work, and from behind grocery stores. But all this does take some effort so if you have them on hand when you need them, that is very convenient.

We don’t have any plans to move again in the near future, but I think we’ll save the boxes just-in-case. There is plenty of space in the new attic to store them. Plus, every time we turn around it seems as if someone is moving, so we can lend them out again, too. Not to mention that there are always a million uses for cardboard boxes around a house. They make great solar cookers, too.