<p>This is my favorite thread in a long time!!! I’m waiting with bated breath for the next installment.</p>
<p>Thanks so much for the entertainment. It will help me keep my cool next week as first child leaves next Saturday. So far he has lots of empty totes and dirty laundry everywhere. But Roller Coaster Tycoon and Age of Empires are screaming nonstop out of his computer, so I’m sure those will not be forgotten! Actually, he asked if we could go shopping together tomorrow and go to lunch, so he is really trying to ease my sadness at his leaving. Whether the purchased items will actually make it into the minivan is another story, of course.</p>
<p>We’re leaving tomorrow and son has a late night planned tonight ans some morning activities. He is only partially packed. When he leaves there are screams and curses for weeks after since he tends to scarf up other family member’s belongings.</p>
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<p>Ah yes, we have one of those, too. When he was packing to leave (at the last possible hour), everytime he left the room the other 2 would dive into the duffle bags and pull out their stuff and go hide it in my room! We honestly don’t think he knows what clothes belong to him.</p>
<p>I spotted a packed duffle bag in son’s room this afternoon and I was all excited – until I realized that it is his fishing stuff, still not unpacked from a trip he got home from a couple of weeks ago. Ha. Joke’s on me.</p>
<p>Weenie does he actually trouble himself with unpacking when he gets to his college? Or, does he live out of the boxes and suitcases for ten months?</p>
<p>LTS:</p>
<p>There’s unpacking and unpacking. In my book, unpacking means putting things in closets, drawers, bookshelves, etc… In my kids’ vocabulary, it seems to mean dumping everything on the floor.</p>
<p>OK. I give up. You all finally have me laughing too. Love the duffle from the fishing trip AND the unpacking by dumping things on the floor…</p>
<p>In our house kid unpacking means bringing your suitcase out of the car and leaving it in the living room hoping someone else puts all the dirty stuff into the laundry…</p>
<p>Actually, my D just finally emptied the suitcase we returned home with (after dropping my S off at college). She did this by pouring the contents out into one of the two laundry baskets which are full of her clean clothes! She was very busy with her internet role-playing game, followed by frantic scarmbling to fill in the blank map of the US that she has to ID all states, capitals, waterways, mountains, and some major cities. This weekend I will make her put things away BEFORE she can go on her computer. <sigh></sigh></p>
<p>Great stories!</p>
<p>We’re not THAT bad at my house, but I am the only one who takes ownership of the shopping/packing concepts–DH & boys are totally oblivious. And DH is a planner by trade! Apparently he only does really big stuff like 5-year plans, not piddling day-to-day events. At work he has a secretary. At home he has–me. :D</p>
<p>My hubby is also a horrendous packer–mostly. When he packs for himself, just for business trips (which he takes several times a year), no problem. When he packs for leisure or when he used to “help” me pack for our kids for leisure, watch out!
We went on a family vacation to Yellowstone once several years back. I researched for literally months before we left & warned EVERYONE repeatedly that there is snow recorded for every month of the year at Yellowstone, including summer when we would be there. The kids & I packed appropriately, with lots of clothing we could layer. Hubby packed lots of summer clothes and the warmest thing he brought was one windbreaker (this for the man who wears flannel pjs year-round in HI). The 1st day we to to Yellowstone, it started off sunny, then started to rain, sleet, hail & snow, all in the same day. My hubby’s mouth dropped open & the kids & I just grabbed extra clothes out of our bags. Fortunately, both kids had hugely over-sized clothes they were willing to “share” with dad so he wouldn’t become an ice cube. For Father’s Day (on the trip), we bought him a VERY WARM Polartec jacket.
I stopped letting him “help” pack the kids suitcases when we all agreed they did a better job choosing their clothing than he was–they were still in grade school.</p>
<p>My H and I were laughing at dinner tonight about my son’s packing. If you recall, he’s the kid who brought home EVERYTHING he owned last Christmas (lazy packing=just open the drawers and put everything in) and then US Air lost his suitcase permanently, forcing us to replace his entire wardrobe three weeks after Xmas when the stores are all out of everything.</p>
<p>Anyway, based on that, we know A) all of his clothes fit in a large roller suitcase and B) he must be planning on packing his old way - just put everything in, no mulling it over too much.</p>
<p>I must confess I broke down today and bought him a new printer ($19.99 at K-Mart + $50 worth of cartridges). I’m sure that will be a BIG RELIEF for him…
;)</p>
<p>I guess we’ll go shopping for basics when we get to Denison.</p>
<p>Sigh…I’m in here on the computer because if I go into DD’s room I’ll scream. We’re supposed to leave at 6am tomorrow and her room looks like a bomb went off in it. She says she’s almost done packing. DH just stopped by to say that he always thought that when she left her room would be empty. Frankly, I don’t know if we’ll be able to tell she’s gone…</p>
<p>Weenie, your son seems to pack the way mine does. I will confess that I helped a lot with packing for last fall, so he probably took too much stuff. When he came home in June, I couldn’t believe how much MORE stuff he had! And it all seemed to be just thrown into boxes, a big duffle and large garbage bags that I think he got from the hallway of his dorm. So most of the stuff has stayed in whatever it came home in, except for the stuff that I took care of. The basement has several boxes, duffles, his roommate’s refrigerator (I don’t know where his is) and it hasn’t been touched since he got home. He goes back to school in a couple of weeks, so I guess he just intends to put all the same bags, boxes etc in the car and dump them on the floor of his dorm room. </p>
<p>By the way, I know when he’s gone because that’s the only time his bed is made. (I do it!!!)</p>
<p>HImom… are you sure you aren’t married to my husband? Your Yellowstone story reminds me of the time our kids were 3 & 5 and we drove from NY to Orlando in December. Given we were driving from NY, yes, we had our winter coats. My husband said, “we’re going to Florida… I’ll just wear T-shirts – I don’t need a sweatshirt or lightweight jacket”. He did have his heavy ski parka. we get to Orlando & its 45 degrees … not quite t-shirt weather, nor parka weather (besides, he’d have looked ridiculous). After an afternoon of trying to be macho… in his micky mouse summer t-shirt… when I had the boys on a snack break, he snuck off to a gift shop & bought a very overpriced souvenir Disney sweatshirt.</p>
<p>When my D was packing for her 6 weeks away, you would have thought it was four the year, and yet, she tells me that some girls had TWO giant suitcases</p>
<p>My H, well he can last either a couple of days or three weeks with the same size suitcase, and still just wears half</p>
<p>My Ds, finally have started to share clothes, and doing it nicely at that, along with jewlery</p>
<p>Next year when oldest leaves, we will have to split up the shared items…I figure, draw straws, long straw gets first choice, short gets to pick two, then back and forth</p>
<p>But the shoe dividing up, not that many pairs, but its the nice heels they are gonna argue over…</p>
<p>Girls are no better!</p>
<p>We leave in 30 hours, 16 of those will be spent sleeping. My D stopped working on Tues, so she could hang at the pool for 3 days but no go. Her room is not done, most of her clothes BUT NOT ALL are somewhat packed. So much for her “healthy glow” that she wanted to have to start college.</p>
<p>My friend told me that she’s going to get her son a pair of those plastic storage containers that fit under a bed instead of a dresser for his apartment. She said that since he just picks his clothes up from the floor to get dressed, he can just pick them out of there and shove them into there. People come over, he can roll it under the bed and when it’s time to do the laundry he can pick them up and throw everything into the washer. When they’re dry, he can fill 'em up! When it’s time to come home, he can just close the lid and he’s packed!</p>
<p>WAIT – There appears to some packing getting started!!! There’s hope yet!!! Denison or bust tomorrow.</p>
<p>Weenie:</p>
<p>I am following this thread with bated breath! And I’ll have to wait to hear whether Mootmom’s S makes it across the continent with his car intact (ditto luggage).</p>