February 28, 2013

Do it Now: Unpacking

Truth: I love to travel. Even if it's just an hour and half away to visit my nephews, I love packing up and taking off. Truth: I'm a horrible packer. I always over pack for fear of regretting leaving something behind. Even bigger truth: I despise unpacking when I get home. Despise it. So much so that I have been known, much to Jim's horror, to take up to a month to fully unpack my suitcase. Sure, I'll take my toiletry bag out, and I'll throw the dirty clothes into the hamper, but that's about as far as I get. From that point on, I just take things out of the open suitcase as I need it. Eventually it gets empty. Or, my husband will move the not-fully-unpacked suitcase out into the hall as if making some kind of "well then, I'll show you what I think of your unpacked suitcase" statement. Whoa, clearly I have a problem.

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February's book club book for my Edmonton book club was The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. Once I started reading it I found myself super-motivated, flagging every second page with neon post-its, anxious to start on my own Happiness Project before I had even finished the book. Actually, I haven't finished it yet - I decided to slow the reading of it down so that I could better reflect on each chapter of the book, and think of ways to apply aspects of her book to my own life.


The Happiness Project is divided into chapters by month, with each month focusing on a new resolution while also continuing with the previous month's one. January is about all about boosting energy, and for many people, myself included, reducing clutter and living in an organized home boosts your overall energy, and well, happiness. And it's just damn satisfying. Gretchen also has a list of Commandment's for herself which she applies throughout each resolution. One of these Commandment's, which really struck home for me in this chapter, was "Do it now".  Then I turned the page and got to "Tackle a Nagging Task". Enter: unpacking my suitcase.

I don't love not unpacking my suitcase. I just don't love unpacking it. (I had to read that several times to see if there was a double negative in there somewhere - so if there is, I'm sorry, but you get my point.) But it's definitely a nagging task and one that affects both myself and my husband's sanity. This month, I went on two separate trips:  to visit my sister in Vancouver and then to Mexico for a week. Since I started reading The Happiness Project while I was in Vancouver, I was motivated to put some of what I had read in the book into practice in my own life: I would unpack my suitcase when I got home. And if you're thinking I would have had to anyway to pack for my next trip, well then you'd be wrong because I own more than one large suitcase.

I hate unpacking
{Saigon *loves* inspecting my suitcases when I come home}

When I arrived home from Vancouver, Jim was just arriving home from work. I had been gone for 5 days so I was excited to see my husband (and Saigon) and catch up in person about the time we had been apart. Usually this would occur in the kitchen or maybe over on the couch. But not that day! Nope, that day I made Jim come upstairs with me and while I unpacked my suitcase, he sat on the bed, (in shock I might add), and we talked about our week. So not only did I accomplish a "Do it now" and a "Tackle a Nagging Task" task, but I'm pretty sure Jim was relieved he wouldn't have to trip over my suitcase every morning for the next month! And I will admit, it felt SO good to zip up that unpacked suitcase and put it away.

{I did it!}

We arrived home from Mexico two days ago, and you better believe my suitcase is all unpacked!  Does this mean I foresee a bedroom, free of unpacked suitcases in my life for years to come? I sure hope so.

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I'm pretty confident that I am alone in taking this long to unpack one's suitcase, but I'd love to know which you prefer: packing or unpacking? Why? Do you unpack as soon as you get home from somewhere?




12 comments:

  1. Ha, this post is awesome! I can't say that I enjoy either one. I'm a pack at the last minute girl, but I share your fear of forgetting things. But I hate the unpacked suitcase, so I definitely unpack right away. Besides, most of the suitcase just goes straight into the laundry hamper, which makes it easy :)

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    1. I think if I didn't over pack, then ya, I could throw most of it into the hamper when I get home - see, there's my problem! ;) I'm also a last minute packer, like morning of last minute packer lol.

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  2. I'm not too bad with unpacking ... Usually, I just throw ALL THE CLOTHES in the hamper. BUT the suitcase usually stays in the bedroom for a while, since I don't want to take it ALL THE WAY to the basement.

    Yay! You're back! I hope you had an awesome trip!

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    1. Yay, I AM back! It was hard to come home ;)

      We store our suitcases in one of the spare bedroom closets upstairs, but I still find it a huge drag to put it away! Probably because I have to move things out and around to get it back in properly. Oh the horror!

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  3. Congrats on actually unpacking your suitcase. And I mean that with total sincerity since I am like you and can go a month without unpacking my suitcase. I however only have 1 size of each suitcase so it gets put away either when I trip over it one too many times, or when I need to use it again. At which point it's like 1/2 way packed so SCORE! (It's 1/2 way packed cos I always over pack cos how do I know what I'll want to wear the whole trip?? I need choices! So yeah it generally still has a decent amount of clean clothes in it.)

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    1. Yay! So I'm totally not all alone on this - makes me feel a lot better! :) And EXACTLY - how the hell am I supposed to know what I'm going to feel like wearing once I get somewhere?! And then there's the whole, "well is it going to be hot, cold, rainy, windy, are we going to do active things, fancy things?", etc, etc! Stressful, I tell ya.

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  4. I love packing for trips as well! Although most of the times my mom just takes my stuff and organizes it in the suitcase. I over pack a lot too because I don't want to find out that I'm missing something. I've never actually had a problem with unpacking though, haha. Good job for unpacking everything and breaking a bad habit! :)

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    1. Thanks, Leanne! We'll see how I do after my next trip! ;) Everytime I have an upcoming trip, I tell myself I am going to pack with a plan, but I always fail and over pack. I HAVE gotten better with the only one checked baggage allowance on airlines though. I will not pay to check an extra piece!

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    2. For me the packing is the DREAD! I too like to have choices and not be "stuck" wearing something because I have no other options. I also like my outfits and accessories to coordinate so it takes me FOREVER to pack a suitcase!! Just got back from Las Vegas on Friday evening,and I promptly unpacked, however, all of my new purchases I brought home are still in bags. Baby steps.

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  5. I am the opposite. I will unpack no matter how tired and cranky I am. Restoring order makes me feel better!

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    1. My husband's the same - he will unpack even if it's after midnight when we get home and he has to work the next day. Maybe the deeper issue is my bedroom is not as organized as I would like it to be, making unpacking undesirable because not everything seems to have a place...

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  6. Haha i am so proud of you! I know how much you dislike unpacking, heck I usually am so bad for it too. But this time I had my bag unpacked and laundry going by that night i got back to Van, i was so proud of myself!

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