Packing & Moving Tips - 1 month later

As many of you know, we just got done moving about a month ago. I've gathered together a few tips that I learned to make the process go more smoothly. 

1. Start early. It's going to take way longer than you think to pack up all your stuff. I started packing about 4 weeks before moving day but still felt rushed there at the end.
2. As you pack, stack everything somewhere in the house in an out-of-the-way place.
3. As you pack, PURGE PURGE PURGE!!! No point in moving what you don't really love or need.
4. Shrink wrap is your friend. We stacked baskets and other containers on a wire shelving unit the shrink wrapped the whole thing together. We also shrink wrapped brooms, remodel tools, rakes, shovels, hoes, etc. It really helped keep like items together and minimize space used on the trailer.
5. Label EVERYTHING. As detailed as you can. I'm still searching for a few things that I shoved in boxes with unrelated items 1 month later since I didn't go as crazy with labels as I should have.
6. If you have little ones - GET A SITTER. I tried to hold out on this but finally 2 days before moving, I took my friend Amie up on her offer to watch Levi {shortly after he got himself stuck in the empty cookie sheet cabinet to the left of the old stove...yikes!}. I got SO much more done that day than any other.
7. Schedule time to clean the old and the new house when you won't be tired or overwhelmed. We found ourselves alone, deep cleaning the old house at 7 pm, after a very long day of loading the trailer with a 3 hour drive yet to do, in 2 separate cars. Talk about exhausting!!!! And then once we got here, it was crazy to try to clean the new place after all our boxes were dumped off in here the day we moved in.

Now I'm curious...what are your all-time best packing/moving tips?

6 Week Meal Plan - Preparing to Move

Back in the beginning of October, since I knew we'd be most likely moving in 6 weeks or so, I decided to take an inventory of what we had in our freezer and pantry and make a 6 week meal plan to try to use it all up by Moving Day.

In all reality, the pantry items would be fine to move, really, but they are heavy and would take up space on the trailer and any glass containers run the risk of being broken and making a big mess, so I'd rather just use this all up. Same with condiments in the fridge, etc.

Here's what we had:
Ground sausage - 5 lbs
Ground venison - 4 lbs
Bacon - 5 lbs
Scrapple - A LOT
Deer tenderloin - 1 large piece
Pork fish - enough for 1 meal
Deer roast - 1 2-3 lb roast
Deer tenderloin slices - 9
Deer stew meat - 1- 2 lb package
Italian sausage links - 8
shrimp - 1 bag that needs to be used up by Jan anyways
chicken breasts - 3
frozen broccoli
corn
peas
mixed berries
bananas
1 1/2 gallons vanilla ice cream
dried black beans
white rice
oatmeal
crackers
macaroni noodles
lasagna noodles
2 cans baked beans
2 cans sweet potatoes
2 cans green beans
taco shells
spaghetti sauce
applesauce

After looking at that, I realize a few things:
#1 - We are INCREDIBLY blessed that we have enough food on hand to fix nearly 6 weeks of meals without having to buy much of anything. Sometimes we say things like "there's nothing to eat" but what that really means is "there's nothing to eat that's really easy to make or that I want RIGHT now"
#2 - We're going to have to use up a lot of sausage and venison
#3 - How on earth have we not eaten our remaining 5 lbs of bacon??? They were in the bottom of the freezer in a brown paper bag...that's how! I didn't know they were there. Dave's going to love the next 6 weeks. Bacon is one of his favorite food groups. :)
#4 - Dave's going to have to increase his consumption of scrapple for breakfasts on weekdays. He said he's been more hungry lately so that's good.
#5 - If we want dessert, we'll be having vanilla ice cream, berry/banana smoothies, or banana bread.
#6 - We have a large unopened gallon of maple syrup. I think we'll just wait to open it till after we move so we don't have to keep it cold for the move.

And here's our meal plan that I wrote out on paper. I just made my inventory list at the top of the page then drew out a grid for 6 weeks of days and filled them in while checking off that I'd allotted for all the sausage, venison, etc. Easy enough...

I may mix and match between the weeks for variety and what we're in the mood for that day, but this gives you an idea. If we stick to this, we should not have to move any frozen meat or veggies. And Week 6 only has like 3 meals cuz I know that inevitably we'll go out to eat at some point and still have plenty of food around by that time.

Week 1 -

sausage lasagna
venison tacos
sausage corn chili
venison tenderloin and sweet potato casserole
shrimp stir fry (this will be the night Dave works late cuz he hates shrimp)
sausage & pepperoni homemade pan pizza
rice & beans served with chicken & shrimp

Week 2 -

pork fish, mac n cheese, broccoli, applesauce
Italian sausages & baked beans
loaded bacon potato soup
bacon quiche
bacon & pepperoni homemade pan pizza
sausage and fried potato skillet

Week 3 -

venison tenderloin, garlic mashed potatoes, peas
spaghetti w/ sausage meatballs
venison chili with Mexican flare
beef tacos
baked beans & bacon
Stromboli
bacon, eggs & toast

Week 4 -

venison tenderloin, mac n cheese, broccoli
ground venison chili (Shan's recipe)
venison roast, potatoes, green beans
Italian sausage sandwiches
leftover venison roast BBQ sandwiches
pancakes & bacon

Week 5 -

pork burgers & green beans
venison mexican casserole
jammin venison stew
chicken fajitas
venison steak & bleu cheese salads
french toast & bacon

Week 6 -

bacon sandwiches
bean & bacon soup
chicken chinese meal w/ rice & egg rolls


Anyone else have any advice on preparing for a move? I'm looking for any tips I can get!