How To Pack: Piles

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I move down to London next week and so a big part of my life this week is packing up pretty much everything I own into boxes of various sizes. This isn't an experience done often so I may as well share the pain. Today we'll be discussing the packing organisational system that is known as "piles on you floor".

To get this system working the first thing you'll need to do is clear your floor. The best way to do this is to flick everything of your bed except what should be there, make it, then throw everything on the floor back on your bed. You now probably want to vacuum the carpet. Twice.

With the floor clear you need to mentally divide the floor up into 6 different sections. You can cut this down by using your bed as a variable swappable space, but it's easier if you have at least five sections free on the floor. Then starting with all the junk on your bed start piling things up into the following different sections. If you have a bunch of stuff that all goes in one pile but already is organised neatly then don't bother flooring it (for example, there's no point taking all your books off your bookcase if they're mostly going in one pile, just take the ones off that are going in another pile).

  • Things I won't really pack, they'll just come with me
    • iBook
    • Camera
    • Bible
    • Pocket stuff (Phone, iPod, Wallet and now an Oyster Card)
  • Things I'll need within a few days
    • Shoes, Clothes
    • Important documents1
    • Climbing stuff
  • Things I'll want within a fortnight
    • Colder clothes
    • Some books
    • Sleeping bag
  • Things I'll want by Christmas
    • Bike
    • CDs
    • DVDs
    • Most books
    • Duvets, sheets, towels
    • Trusty Wilkinson's frying pan (the most expensive frying pan in the shop, costing a grand total of £7, it's absolutely awesome on every level)
    • Herbs / Spices
  • Things I'll never need nor want again (which splits into four piles):
    • Things that can be charity shopped
    • Various books, cds and clothes
    • Things that can be recycled
    • Papers, old worn out clothes
    • Things I feel I should be able to be recycle.
    • Broken shoes
    • Bike parts
    • Things that should just be chucked out.
    • All those secret santa presents
    • Anything that you haven't thought about for more than three months that only has 'sentimental' value.
  • Things that I have no idea about how they came into my possession. (This pile doesn't really need a space of floor if you have a large enough window and a strong enough arm to get it into the nearby hedge

The reason for all this is that chances are you won't take everything down with you at once, or if you do you won't be bothered to unpack all at once but would rather make it a more leisurely affair. By dividing things up by when you use them you can still have boxes kicking around all packed up in three months time.

Now with everything in nice neat / sloppily haphazard piles you want to start putting the first two piles back where you removed them from. This sounds counter productive but if you put them back neatly they'll be easier to pack and really you don't want them out right now. Now starting with the stuff you can bin, work your way upwards through the list. Before you know it, it'll be time to go to bed and your floor will be a mess. But eventually it'll get done.

1 We'll be dealing with how to pack up and organise your paperwork later this week. So don't worry about it for now.

Right Now

(t) Rhi, Paul
(8) Infinity Land - Biffy Clyro


Your Comments

Paul

You need to pop a list of all the thing you don't want any more on here. I might want the things.

I think I have a margin now.

Cat

Wow, it is a complicated process commenting on your site!!

I am excited for your move to London! When can I visit??!

What was that picture you sent to my phone? T-Mobile doesn't let me view pictures on my phone. For some reason, it has to be on the internet??!!

xx


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