Usually, when I go on a trip, I like the packing better than the unpacking.  I'm not quite sure why.  I always have a hard time figuring out what to take, what my kids should take, what my husband should.  I inevitably end up bringing either too much, or too little...at least for someone.  Shoes are a big dilemma.  A girl's gotta have shoes, right?

Still, hard though packing can be, I like it.  It's unpacking that I despise. Why, I've been known to leave a half-unpacked suitcase sitting on the entryway floor for four or five days.Why, then, am I so hysterical about packing up my apartment for the summer? This stock photo couple looks SOOOOO happy about it?  Is ANYBODY happy about being surrounded by boxes at either end of a move?See, We are doing a bit of renovation.  When we weighed the horrid economy against the incredible price cuts every contractor was offering - we decided to go forward and fix up our bathroom (quite literally being held up in places with Duct Tape. Really.), and to knock out the lowered cielings.  Yes, it's true.  Sometime around 1975 - the last time anyone really did anything to this apartment - someone decided that it was a groovy idea to LOWER the ceiling by more than one foot.  So my 9 foot ceilings became slightly less than 8 foot ceilings.  And this summer, they're going down!Every check I write to pay for this renovation gives me heartburn.  Every trip to the tile shop, or the rug store, or the plumbing supplier makes me queasy.  But it is the idea of packing up that keeps me up at night.  I am seriously losing sleep thinking about moving out of this apartment.  Ten years of STUFF.  How am I ever gonna pack that?When I'm packing for a trip, there's the excitement of travel: where am I going to wear this? Can't wait until I'm somewhere where it's warm enough to wear that.  Packing for this renovation feels more like: How am I gonna pack this? Is that gonna break?  Can't wait until this is over!I've looked at it as a chance to purge: get rid of those pants I'll never fit into, the hideous vase we got as a wedding present.  It's a chance for that ripped up old t-shirt my husband thinks is still appropriate to wear outside of the house to get "lost."  So it's not all bad.  But it's also forced me to see how much "stuff" I have. Yick.Plus, there's the unpacking to look forward to. Uber-unpacking.It's like my worst nightmare -- just when you thought you'd unpacked.....twetny more boxes!!!!I think that after this renovation, I may hate packing as much as unpacking.Hopefully, it won't stop me from being a Traveling Mom.

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