Unpacking Boxes

After the movers brought in the MILLION boxes and just left me high and dry......(why didn't they just unpack for me), I woke up the next day ready to unpack everything! In my mind, I would unpack the kitchen stuff first because I needed to find my Keurig to give me a little energy, and then move on from there, unpacking them all in ONE day.

I know I know....STOP laughing, this is the first time Ive ever moved really with a "whole" house full of stuff. Yeah, I was totally off on my calculations.

That first morning, I almost started crying because I couldn't find the freaking Keurig. Do you know how hard it is to unpack boxes half awake without some caffeine in you? You don't? Well Ill just tell you, its not fun! I finally had to just drive over to Starbucks so that I didn't fall over, and its just my luck that the VERY last kitchen box was the one with the Keurig. Oh, please help me. 

It has now been exactly two weeks since the movers left, and I'm about half way done unpacking. It would be a lot easier to unpack these boxes if there weren't so much packing paper. I'm so glad that the movers made sure nothing broke by packing everything safe and secure, but OH MY PAPER! Just for an example, Mr. Hunt has an entire collection of shot glasses (he collects them from places he has visited) and they individually wrapped each one with about 10 sheets of paper each! I couldn't even tell that that's what they were because with the 10 sheets of paper wrapped around each one, they definitely didn't look like shot glasses, so much bigger. 

The only way I can truly share how much paper there was is to share some pictures....Ill let them do the talking. 

Below is the pile of papers just from one box! Remember, I have about a million boxes...

I have some pictures from my phone too, but poor River. No matter where I am in the house, he is RIGHT next to me. This is NOT an exaggeration, he literally follows me around all the time. It was so hard for him to find me with all the paper. At first he didn't know that he could step on it, he just saw it as a barrier, but then I showed him that he could step on it and walk through it, and there was no turning back.

Then Hannah and River thought it was fun to play on the paper

Then he found the paper as a great "bed"

He was so content just laying there as I put all the kitchen stuff away

At one point, River laid down on the paper (like he does now for every box of paper), and I still had a lot more to unpack. The paper started to just pile on top of him, and he just sat there. I of course ran to get the camera while shouting "stay....stay," because if I didn't say that, he would have stood right up and followed me.

Now for some pictures that I took with my phone because I was blocked in with paper and couldn't find the camera. 

As I was unpacking the dining room, River wanted to be as close to me as he could, but the paper was in his way, so he just made himself comfortable on one of the dining room chairs. And yes, he doesn't look happy, I'm sure he wasn't, especially because I was laughing and taking pictures of him.

If you are wondering where Hannah is, she was either outside laying in the Texas sun, or sitting right next to the glass door, looking outside at the Texas sun. She is a redneck puppy.
So now with all the paper, I needed a good game plan. My initial plan was to smash as much paper as I could into the larger boxes, and break the other boxes down. Then take the boxes to the recycling center. 

I started to get annoyed when I couldn't break down ANY boxes because they were all being used for the paper. I couldn't put all the paper in trash bags because the bags I had didn't really hold that much paper and it was a waste of bags. 

So then my next plan was to just make a ton of trips to the recycling center. To my surprise, the closest recycling center is an hour away. I decided to go once just to see if it really was an hour away, but I could only fit about 5 boxes into the car because the boxes are so big. Yes, it was an hour away, and yes, it took about 5 dollars in tolls to get there. (there are a lot of toll roads here). So, I'm not doing that again. 

So my last plan (and the plan I'm sticking to) is to fill the boxes with paper and break down as many as I can. Then when I'm ready to take the trash out once a week, fill as many trash bags that can fit in the can with bags full of paper, and put out as many boxes as I can (or as many that won't take up the whole driveway) and have the trash men take them.

This is what the garage looks like right now. This is after one trip to the recycling center, and two trips from the trash men. And, I'm not even down unpacking all the boxes. 

**See the little spray paint project that's happening in the right top corner? Surprise! Ill share soon. I had to have a project going so that I could step away from the boxes whenever I felt like ripping my hair out from all the paper**

Does that picture remind you of something?

Yeah, I guess its not THIS bad....but there are a lot of boxes, and I remember saying that I wouldn't let the garage ever get like this again. Right now I have no choice. Well I do, but it would consist of hours upon hours of driving back and forth to the recycling center and dollars upon dollars of tolls....that equals NOT worth it. I'm keeping the garage tame besides the boxes, in fact, there are about 10 boxes of "garage" stuff still to unpack too.

Phew, so that's it so far. Now I need to go because not a single box has been unpacked in the guest room. It still looks just like this....

and we have our first guest coming on Friday. Ill give you a hint of who it is. Her name starts with an R, she is my sister, and Ive written about her many many times on here. If you don't know who it is, then you will have to wait until I share all of the fun activities we will be doing this weekend.

Until then, I really need to go unpack those boxes in there, seriously, I need to step away from the blog or R will be sleeping on the couch and that's not very nice of us.


Love,
Girl who HATES paper right now!