It's all about the boxes

You have to realize that I was someone who found my cozy little apartment at the corner of Belmont and Blair in Nashville and decided to live there permanently. Rent was reasonable, the size was good for me, the location kicked ass, and all was right with the world. I lived in that apartment for almost 10 years before I moved to Greece. Prior to that the biggest moves I had for 20 years were to a dorm room and a couple of apartments in Nashville. Moving was something I was not a pro at doing, nor was it something I aspired to do.

As I've said before, I knew when I married my husband that I would have to move to 3 different locations within the first 3 years. I moved from Nashville to Athens, from Athens to Kos, and from Kos to here. Due to the time my husband graduated from med school, our moves would always take place in July/August. So each year, as May rolled around, we knew we would be getting the new assignment and be moving in a couple of months. It was dreaded, but expected.
When my avalanche of stuff arrived on the boat to Athens, we decided to pack up some things we knew we wouldn't need over the next few years and send them to store permanently at our house in the outskirts of Thessaloniki. In all this time, I regret that we didn't send more stuff there. How many books did we *really* need to keep moving with us each year? Sure, I've reread some of them, but not all two huge bookcases full of them. Did we really need to keep moving the piles (and by piles, I mean 3 boxes full worth) of videocassettes we never watch anymore because we have a DVD player. Seems to me I could have picked out a modest selection of books and videotapes, my favorite things and things I would want to watch or read frequently. But nooooo. And we all know that in the course of time we have acquired more of these things, more books, more DVDs, more CDs, because my husband and I are good little consumers who have no kids to support.

Now we go back to the move from Nashville to Athens, which was done by a professional moving company, which meant lots of really nice boxes. Did we foresee the future of our boxing needs and keep these boxes? Not exactly. We decided to keep the 3 wardrobe boxes and one book box and one larger dish pack box and no more. I am still trying to figure out why we felt the need to get rid of these boxes. I blame it on our lack of moving skills. When it came time for us to move in July, we had a full blown box panic on our hands. My husband scoured the local grocery stores for boxes that were still in semi-decent condition. We managed to pull through in the end, but barely.

Of course, when we moved to Kos, most of these boxes were already in such bad shape that we had to throw them out. Still saddled with our Atlas moving company boxes, we stored the few good ones and forgot about boxes until moving day loomed again. So we did the responsible thing, and looked in the phone pages for a moving supply company on Kos to buy our boxes from. We discovered new boxes could be expensive, and in the end were really too big. Some of the boxes we bought were too big and flimsy to be good for much more than pillows. The other boxes which were stronger were saddled down with books and were so heavy I heard the moving guys on both ends of the move grumbling.

And here we are again, ready to move. We saved a few of the stronger, bigger boxes to hold clothes and bedding and pillows, stuff that would be semi-reasonable in a bigger box. Yes, we still have our Atlas boxes, but this just might be the last move they can endure. But we knew all along we were going to need smaller boxes for books, DVDs, CDs, and videotapes because these things are heavy and we are moving to the 6th floor this time. I mean, we aren't totally cruel people, although we do expect our moving men to earn their money. So we bought a couple of stronger, smaller boxes, but we have been counting on the grocer across the street to supply us with what we need. Tonight, I scored 4 more decent boxes for us, which brings our count of boxes for the heavier stuff up to 14. I fear that still won't be enough, so we'll keep plugging away, hoping we don't have to resort to the really small Amazon.com boxes I kept just in case.

I'll never take another box for granted again. I promise.