This is a post about labels—not even kidding, LABELS—so if you’ve got more important things to do, I promise no one will be offended if you click away right now. ; )

I’ve been trying—really trying, promise!—to adopt the “done is better than perfect” mentality in every little thing I do.

And it’s been successful on some fronts.

I wrap birthday gifts in a fraction of the time it used to take me. I fold laundry without worrying about possible creases in my undergarments. I’ve gotten to the point that I can mop the floor in 20 minutes without worrying about all the dust I’m missing in all of the cubic feet above the floor (read more about that little trainwreck here).

And then I started packing.

I keep fluctuating between “done is better than perfect” and “but perfect is perfect and perfect is great.”

It correlates directly with how much time and caffeine I have that day. Ahem.

In any case, I gathered the following items over the course of about a week:

• boxes*
• Post–It labels
• These awesome moving labels . . .
• . . . printed on these sheets
• newspapers (we started keeping them before we’d found a house)
• tissue paper (packs of 40 sheets from the dollar store)
• permanent markers
• tape
• scissors

* Someone moved into our building and stacked ALL NEW (only used once) BOXES on the sidewalk. Score.

I also started keeping those sealed air thingies that come in packages. We have a real Amazon addiction around here, but at least we have the opportunity to reuse shipping stuff, right?

Helpful hint when packing: Podcasts. Find some good ones and listen while you pack. I’m a huge fan of Happier and She Percolates.

I put together a little basket of packing stuff so I could keep track of everything.

Went into serious detail on the labels here. One of the movers found it amusing to read each label aloud in its entirety. He’s lucky I have such a great sense of humor.

You should know that “MF” stands for the maker of the glasses. Please don’t think I use abbreviated expletives on my packing labels.

I learned two things during our last move:
1. It’s a good idea to label more than one side of the box.
2. It’s also a good idea to be at least a little more specific than just “kitchen.” “Kitchen” as in ice bucket that I use twice a year or “kitchen” as in sponges that I need right this minute?

That’s why I’m using Post–it labels on the side of the box opposite the overly specific label.

See that blue label? Instead of listing every content down to the number of paperclips, it says something normal, like “Living Room Fragile.”

I followed that whole “pack what you don’t need now” system until the day before the move, and I’m happy to say that I don’t have much that I don’t need now. Yay for simplifying! It was mostly holiday decorations, sewing supplies, non–teaching books, and dishes for entertaining (not many of those, actually).

Okay, back to work. The unpacking is always more fun, right?

PS: Is it weird that I insisted upon moving my Le Creuset myself? Like, rode to the new house with it in my lap?

Didn’t think so.