Practice Makes Perfect (or really, really anal)

At some point tomorrow morning a group of movers will show up here with their brown boxes, tape, bubble wrap, and recycled-looking paper ready to pack anything and everything they can get their grubby little hands on.

I'm ready for them.

Just so that I can pat myself on the back later on in life (or, sooner, like tomorrow night), let's take a look at what I've been up to the last couple of weeks.

First Task: Sorting. I can think of 5 main categories and various other sub-categories:

1) Trash: a) recyclable paper (must be taken to the school) b) must-be-shredded paper c) "easy" trash (can be placed in any trashcan inside the apartment, larger items just outside our door on our same floor) d) "high-maintenance" trash (must be hidden in on a different floor of the apartment building as "someone", aka Julio, will take it out because it's not trash at.all.)

2) Give-Away items that go to: a) the maid, b) the driver, c) the piano teacher, d) the doormen, e) Juan Carlos's teacher, f) Julio's teacher, h) Pedro's teacher, i) the school library, j) church

3) Items that go on the plane with us: a) carry on, b) checked bag

4) Items that belong to Guapo's company

5) Items that belong to the owners of the apartment

So, every.single.item from in my house has been sorted into one of these 5 categories and is now somehow arranged so that hopefully the movers won't take anything that doesn't belong in Colorado.

Second Task: Arranging. My best friends the last few days have been all of my Rubbermaid boxes and my label maker. More than 50% of the packers' job tomorrow will be putting my boxes into their boxes.

Julio's room:

Gotta love those labels (even if I'm the only one who respects them):

Juan Carlos's and Pedro's room:

Juan Carlos's and Pedro's closet:

I should mention that I have personally gone through every one of these boxes-there is not an item out of place. For one fleeting moment in time, all games have all of their pieces, the costumes are all folded neatly and their accessories are in a separate bag, the three different kinds of trains that we have are all in their own boxes, all little bouncy balls have been disposed of, there are no cars in the airplane box, or vice versa, and with a moderate-to-high level of confidence I can say that I just may have located every last rouge Lego in the entire house.

Instead of leaving the items in the room of origin, I created more work for myself by making umpteen trips between the three floors so that most things are in the living room so as to speed the packaging process along:

And a special thanks here to my maid who somehow managed to keep it looking clean and presentable throughout the process.

Everything's disconnected and ready to go (this was one of Guapo's jobs-excellent work!):

I placed the things that are going with us in our bags in designated closets and cupboards which now have tape "X's" on them:

Things that I can't realistically stick in the closets, but that need to stay here (don't mess with my Internet, dudes), have orange dots on them:

Hopefully they'll get this-it's the worst (speaking from experience) to have a half-full (half-empty?) trash can delivered after months of sitting in a hot, stuffy container:

This afternoon, the moving company brought over 4 industrial strength dehumidifiers:

I'm pretty sure it's completely pointless since it's raining out and house is leaking like a sieve in almost every room. Oh well... it's the thought that counts, right?

It's kind of ironic that on what we hope will be our last move for a long time, I feel like I have it mostly under control. At what cost has this organizational masterpiece come to pass, you ask? Well, my kids probably wouldn't tell you I've been the funnest mom lately. Unless their idea of fun is sifting through tens of thousands of Lego's looking for non-Lego items, which it didn't appear to be. That and I haven't shaved my legs for days-that takes way to much of my precious time.

Guapo says I'm like one of these:

He's right. I am a ball.of.energy (did I mention that I also baked homemade chocolate chip cookies today for, and attended, Julio's going away party today, practiced piano, posted on my blog, AND ran my fastest 3-miler in about, oh I dunno, 3 years?). I guess, in sporadic instances such as this, it's ok. If I felt like this all the time I would certainly be getting some counseling, or more likely, medication.

Guapo's not even here, did I mention that? When I found out that Guapo had to travel this week, leaving me solo to do this two-day move, one of which the four kids will be home for (aggggh!), I was not pleased. But after further reflection, I realized it's probably better for both of us that he not be here. When one person is obsessive about organizing and the other doesn't care about it so much, it can put a little "strain" on an otherwise perfectly happy relationship.

Before he left I asked him to go through some of his stuff. After sifting for a few minutes he says, "I don't know what to do with this stuff, can't I just stick it all in a box and go through it there?"

Ummmm, wrong concept.

Oh well, at least he gave it a go. Here's his box now, properly labeled:

Wish me luck tomorrow!