Homestead Reboot 2.0 - Moving In Strategy

Bacon and Eggs tape signaled it belongs in the kitchen

Once our stuff finally arrived by semi-trailer (note: DON'T use U-Pack or anyone that utilizes Old Dominion as their freight company), we started the daunting task of unpacking and organizing.

To start, prior to loading up the semi-trailers, Wifey attempted to color-code the boxes by using several different rolls of patterned duct tape. She would tear off a little piece and place it on each box that was to belong to a certain room.

• Kitchen: bacon and egg patterned tape
• Master bedroom: polka dots
• Big girls room: zigzag
• etc

ZigZag tape belongs in the big girls' room...

In a perfect world, we would have created a "legend" or poster board that had each piece of tape and next to the tape would be where the box would go. This would be posted at the front door and help direct anyone at the other end of the journey that might show up to help us unload.

Of course, that perfect world didn't account for a shipping company arriving 11 days late and finally showing up on a day that was snowing and cold. That initiated Plan B.

Plan B was to simply unload everything into the garage, close it up to keep out the weather and begin using the garage as a staging area from which everything would slowly and methodically be brought in. Snowy and muddy shoes were not allowed in the new home.

Organized rows make for easier finding in the garage.

At first, since we had help from four kind gentlemen from our church, things were placed in the garage stacked but haphazard. It wasn't until the weekend that I took half a Saturday to arrange all these boxes into order. NOW it looks more like Warehouse 13 with isles created for someone to peruse up and down when and if they decided to hunt for something.

This tact has served us pretty well. I made the isles big enough to carry boxes through and faced every label I could TOWARD the isle so anyone looking knows immediately what is in the boxes. To keep Lucky from eating everything in sight, since he sleeps in the garage, for now, he is crated in a dog kennel.

I look forward to the day we can use the garage for our cars and no longer have to scrape ice off the windshields but for now...I'm just glad we're here.

~OJD