Guest Lecturer: Tania of What Would a Nerd Wear
Dear folks, I’ve snuck away for some much-needed family time. While I’m hanging in the South, here’s a hilarious post on how not to pack from one of my favorite bloggers and friends, Tania of What Would a Nerd Wear, who is preparing for a cross-country move. After you’ve been thoroughly vindicated for your own not-so streamlined packing processes (c’mon, some of you know you’re more Tania than Emily), visit Tania’s blog. Her subtle, elegant style and witty commentary will make you wish you were frantically packing boxes right along with her. I know I do! -E
How to Make Packing and Moving More Difficult
by Tania of What Would a Nerd Wear
The internet seems to be full of people who are competent, responsible, organized packers. People full of useful tips, and beautiful snapshots, who face down 6 months of travel in a carry-on with a smile, and never wait until the last minute to do things.
It seems to me that nobody has any lessons for how to make packing and moving more difficult, and this is entirely unfair to those of us who might like to panic regularly while shoving things willy-nilly into boxes and leaving expensive furniture on the street because there’s not room for it in the moving truck.
Ergo, my 5 rules for making a move more difficult.
1. Move on short notice. Bonus points if you’re moving to a city more than 500 miles away that you’ve never been to.
2. If you are moving with a partner, be sure you have completely opposite packing styles. A neurotic neat-freak + an anything-goes mess-maker? Yes, please. A hoarder + a minimalist? Excellent.
3. Move to a place where even when you double your rent budget, your new apartment will be half the size of your old one. Have fun throwing out all your stuff before you go.
4. If you’re a grad student or a college student, make sure you’ve never thrown out any of your papers so that you are forced to go through 6 drawers of files and agonize about keeping all of your seminar notes while your partner begs you just to burn them because they’ll be no room for anything extra in the $4000/month studio apartment you’re going to have to rent.
5. Possess an ungodly number of books. At least half the weight of your total possessions should be in books. They are heavy to carry, difficult to pack, and generally a pain in the ass to move. So the more you have, the better.
It’s hard for me to imagine that everyone out there wants things to go more smoothly. So follow these steps and you too can show up in a new city having lost the keys to your moving van, no longer on speaking terms with your lover and suddenly realizing you forgot to pack underwear in your carry-on.
You’re cracking up now, right? For more snarky awesomeness (and some serious style), check out Tania’s blog. And come back here in a few days for a more (and Canadian!) awesomesness from Jentine of My Edit.
Hee! For all my bespoke imagery of travel-packing, it must be acknowledged that moving is an entirely different animal, and that all of my moves have proceeded very much like this – only with less wit, more cursing, and occasional uncontrolled weeping. Best of luck Tania, if nothing else DC will welcome you with open arms and a well-earned cold drink!
OMG! When my boyfriend & i moved I was so organised & he was not! So frustrating. He didn’t even have boxes for his tools. We were only moving half an hour away, so it wasn’t so bad. But it was raining, which was no fun (extra points). Luckily, I was able to move all my books to my office on campus a few weeks before …
Kelly @
Elegantly Academic
LOL! This is hilarious.
I moved about 2 months ago and I followed 4 of these rules! I just about lost my mind. Not so funny then but definitely cracks me up now!
Oh, Tania! I can completely relate after having to move once a year for the last five or so years of college dorm living. No fun at all. The last time was with my husband, who is such a messy, I will-throw-everything-away kind of person, while I’m the organized hoarder. Not a match made in heaven. But this was hilarious
Ha, I had to laugh at the book dilemma. I moved so many times that I finally took to donating my books to libraries…as they simply weren’t worth the cost of shipping. I have stocked several small town libraries with very eclectic titles.
I so empathize with four and five, as my husband and I are both academics. I did get rid of a bunch of stuff from seminars, but kept all research files — some did mysteriously end up in boxes with random crap, though. We still haven’t unpacked all of our books from our last move, since we only planned to be in our current location for a year, but maybe since my contract got renewed I should think about finishing my move from twelve months ago.