I love to listen to podcasts while I’m driving, whether that’s the short trips into work from where I live in rural NSW or a longer journey which takes me to Sydney or beyond for family, business or fun.
A new favourite, “Dispatched to a Friend” is my go to. Recently I was so fortunate to hear one of its creators speak at a local event – and now I’m hooked! The content is awesome – but even better, you can hear the smile on their faces of these delicious ladies as they chat.
It centres around the beautifully crafted letters written between friends, exploring the joys of everyday life – with the occasional random thought…… one I particularly adore was “what is your position on flannelette?” (but let’s explore that another time), leaving me feel like I’m driving with my best friends in the car, and there’s so much to talk about.
In a recently enjoyed episode – after an overseas trip (the podcaster’s not mine), one friend mentioned in passing her inability to unpack her suitcase once returning home and pondered reasons why?
This got me thinking…..
When it comes to packing and unpacking, at Perfectly Sorted, we do that for a client who is moving home with such preciseness and efficiency, sometimes it continues to blow me away with the amazingness of our team. This is followed by our unpacking frenzy – in a matter of milliseconds we have a whole house unpacked, boxes flattened, rubbish removed and our clients then continue on with their daily lives in their freshly unpacked and perfectly sorted new homes. So why is it when it comes to my suitcases and overnight bags – upon returning to home they lie dormant and to be avoided at all costs on the floor of my bedroom? Even removing the dirty washing goes down the list of priorities, the clothes that I wore and rewore on that trip, and couldn’t have lived without, are now no longer a priority as these have been replaced with others from the wardrobe – so no need to unpack, wash, put away and deal with these with any sense of urgency.
I love packing for a trip, there’s the excitement, anticipation, sometimes a fancy party or friends to see which I’m looking forward to and want to make sure everything is just so – I’m desperately trying to create “a capsule travel wardrobe”… though this is work in progress, and a topic for another day.
Let’s digress for a moment… – have you ever Googled “Capsule wardrobe for Fiji Conference?” – recently I tried this – it’s so amazing what Pinterest offers you – though in reality I still packed way too many pairs of shoes, and don’t have all those matching neutrals or that perfect bathing suit!!
Back to the packing – there’s something which appeals to my organised side – the little piles of matching/ coordinating clothes, underwear considered and counted along with the teeny tiny toiletries all into their designated packing cubes…. Which then snugly fit into my suitcase, arranged just so, a bit like the pieces of a puzzle coming together….. maybe that’s another great idea for a post……
Anyway – I love to pack, whether it’s an overnighter to the big smoke to see the kids or a week long winter family holiday – there’s something satisfying about pulling it all together and knowing there are few decisions about what to wear once the zipper is shut. However – UNPACKING is my worst nightmare. Avoided at all cost. Recently one of my housekeeping angels commented that I had 4 bags in various states of unpack on the floor of my bedroom – and that didn’t include the 2 from Mr S (my husband), I actually think Mr S is worse than me…. He NEVER unpacks!
Starting to explore why this is so hard, I wondered….
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Is it the jet lag (if one has been lucky enough to go somewhere on a different time zone)? Perhaps it’s those winter woollies which you used in some far distant country which are not needed in Mudgee on Jan 28th when trying to get kids back to school?
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The fact that the trip was so wonderful and fun filled, you don’t want it to come to an end and subconsciously you want to still be living out of that Samsonite?
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Is there an actual word to describe the procrastinations of unpacking? I throw down the challenge to my literary, editing, cryptic crossword completing friends to fill this gap.
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Am I the only one suffering from this, or is it really common? (I explored this with my office manager – she said she’s the same but are there more grown adults out there with this same affliction?).
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Why does this affect teenagers even more than grown adults – should we be nipping this in the bud and introducing it to the new Australian School Curriculum, or does it go hand in hand with the “floordrobe”? The preferred storage method of those aged between 11-22years of age? In which case it would be double subject.
As the packing and unpacking experts – should we be extending our services to include “vacation unpacking”…. I bet that could be a new thing…. because I know that a kale smoothie and MCT coffee are so last year!!!