What I've learnt about moving.

It never occurred to me that I've moved that often, because I didn't have a "house" and there weren't professional removers involved. Also, I hate moving, so I avoided thinking about it. But I recently did the maths, (while doing other maths- like, how much more money do M and I need before we can afford the deposit on a new house and never move again?) and I realised I've moved a lot. Seven times in fact, in four years.

So- I'm no expert, but this is what I've learnt so far:

• Junk from Kmart are the most annoying. It's cheap and easily replaced, but when you have to replace 30 $3 items, it adds up. I also hate consuming more resources. So.... don't go Kmart for your kitchen goods. Shell out for decent stuff. I can't recommend self sharpening knives enough. Maybe *start off* with Kmart stuff, until you really, really know what the minimum is that you'll use in a kitchen.
• But they tie with stuffed toys. By this I mean BIG stuffed toys. Willow has always had a lot of stuffed toys (big and small). They started pouring in before she was born, and never really stopped. Here is the thing: a lot (most, actually) of the stuffed toys we were given warned on the label that they were not suitable for children under three years old. They take up loads of room. I really cannot stress this whole thing enough. I get that a lot of people gave us stuffed toys as an act of love... but they're all rabbits or something. As fast as I cull, they return, sixfold. Willow doesn't even have enough room in her bedroom for a full sized bed- and our bedroom is used to hold bathroom supplies and cleaning products... our house is tiny. Even if it wasn't tiny, Willow has more stuffed toys than she knows what to do with. I've kept a small handful of the better quality ones, and even that is getting out of hand...
• Money and gift cards rock. This ties in with my first point, in a way. Everyone's requirements are different. For example: I have three cast iron pots, and a ceramic dutch oven. Most people don't even own any cast iron. I use them for bread making, chicken roasting, sausage cooking, soup cooking, porridge cooking...
• Beautiful glassware is heartbreaking. Either you take it interstate, and risk breaking it, or you leave it behind, and miss it.
• Modern technology is amazing. I am so glad I don't have to transport several large photo albums around with me. Ditto for movies- why ARE dvds filled with so much air? (Again, we don't have much room for clutter. M and I are psyching ourselves up for a cull.) But, our shelves look so much more sleek down we have less dvds- and after lugging a couple of books down with me to NSW, I've come to realise a kindle might be nice. I can even download text books for uni onto kindle, or onto my smart phone. Sure, books on a book case look classy. But a house that's not full of junk and clutter? So much classier.
• Modern technology is also annoying when it's in the form of large flat screen tvs that are incredibly fragile to get from A to B. Modern technology also means lots of cords and cables, and why why why do people feel the need to hang onto old mobiles and/or their chargers? Why? I don't recall M and I going through THAT many electronic gadgets, but we have two drawers stuffed full of stuff we've collected in the past year together.
• Bicycles suck. I have no idea how I'm going to get my bike down here, and if it's even worth it, financially. Ditto for my bike trailer. Maybe in the end it's just worth buying another?
• Boxes, boxes, boxes. Hold onto those boxes, because sooner or later, someone, somewhere near you, will be moving, and will be forever grateful for your boxes. Or you'll be moving, and you'll want those boxes. 
• Smokers are disgusting. Seriously. I don't think smokers realise how smelly they, and their stuff, are. I get stuff stored away gets musty after a while... but when you factor in cigarette smoke... it's foul. I'm only throwing this one in because I offered to help a neighbor  who smoked move, and it was awful. 
• Bring food and cold water. Packing and unpacking makes me hungry. It makes other people hungry too, except they don't always have the luxury of a fridge with cold water, or cups available to drink from, or they mightn't want to cook and mess up the kitchen.

We're due to go to the op shop soon, since there's no where left to stash Willow's stuffed toys. (and our op shop box is full anyway.) Which makes me a bit sad, since some of them are special ones, brought down from Darwin... It's a catch 22. I don't have room to leave them out, but if I pack them away then Willow never plays with them. (Some are too big anyway to pack away, anyway.) The only other options I can think of:

1. Take several to Sydney or Grafton next time I go there. "Accidently" leave them behind. This means by the time we get them back, they're all new and exciting again.
2. Skin them, and turn their fur coats into a quilt. 
3. Skin them and turn their fur coats into a coat, a la 101 Dalmations. 

What do you think? I don't think the current problem is that our house is too small, I just think Willow's been a very lucky young lady. (I mean, our house IS small, but doesn't it seem kinda "first world problemly" to get a bigger house for the soul reason that we have too many material goods?)