Preparing the move

        Now that I've put all kinds of money down for my new apartment, I need to get ready for the movers to come on June 1. I will get a phone call about five days in advance to review the move and make any adjustments. I'm not going to give in to the temptation to add any furniture. Slowly I'm going through all the drawers and closets to see what I pack and what I leave. The main factor in moving out of a furnished place is that I need to mark clearly what stays and what goes. I just can pack the contents of the closet or the dresser or the bookshelves, but in some cases I need to use post-it notes to indicate which items stay and which ones go. Half the towels are mine and half belong to the unit. Same with blankets, sheets, pillows. I have most of my kitchen needs met by stuff I got from mom's place that my sister saved. As for my dishes and serving ware, I will move the loose items to the top of the kitchen table as a staging area for the movers. There is a fair amount of framed art to pack. I've started taking down stuff like all the magnets and images on my fridge, the smaller paper posters, the smaller framed prints that are not framed with glass. I will need to take some time to pack up all my earrings that are hanging up; maybe I should used tape to attach them together before I pack them in a baggie so they don't get lost in the tangle.

I found about a dozen small bottles of baths salts and bath oils I got from Nancy and mom from hotels, but there's no bathtub in the new place so I should just make a selection and give some to Rosemary. She doesn't have any storage to speak of in her bathroom so I need to remember that.  I wonder if there is a sauna or bathhouse anywhere. I should check Korean neighborhoods.

As I go, I am discovering things that I haven't used or seen in years, and I get to decide if I'm going to donate them (all the craft supplies) or keep them (the go bag for natural disaster prep). In my new home I won't need to worry about wildfires sweeping down from the hills, or earthquakes. I might need to deal with a fire. I'll get renters insurance and repack the go bag when I get there to make it less geared toward camping out homeless in the zombie dystopia, and more about having things for a prolonged stay at a motel or at my daughter's place in case I were to be displaced by a fire. 

Here's some professional moving instructions: