The very first thing I did in November was creating shared spreadsheets.
I used Google Drive and Google Documents because I’m an android user and I have gmail addresses so it was the more convenient. There are probably more efficient planning tools out there but I didn’t do any research. I just went for the most practical.
I created a schedule that started in November and going all the way to march. I like the way it looks and I can see very quickly what needs to be tackled and when. I filled each months with what I felt needed to be done. Obviously I had more ideas for March than for November but I tried to move to earlier months knowing all too well that march would be crazy busy.
When it comes to planning, I feel like writing everything is better to prevent forgetting something. That’s why I wrote obvious things like “packing”, “sort clothes” or “go to storage unit”. I really wanted to be fully aware of tasks to come and avoid as much as possible being overwhelmed.
I used colors to sort tasks in categories: DONE in green, URGENT in vibrant red and BOYFRIEND in blue. Again, I used this schedule to reassure myself that everything could be done in time.
By the beginning of December I started an inventory of what we had and what we could bring. I started by sorting my clothes, Marie Kondo style. So whatever doesn’t bring me joy, I don’t take with me. I managed to select about half of my clothes. You may not know that but I do not consider myself as a girly girl with a lot of clothes. God was I wrong… I had accumulated so many pieces of clothing it actually made me sad. I don’t even wear skirts and yet I had like 10 of them! I even had sweatshirts I’ve had for over 16 years…
As I laid everything on my bed I could see how screwed I was. So much to do in so little time! So I took out my suitcase and started packing every single item that sparkled joy. How naive… I wasn’t even done with my T-shirts that my suitcase was half full, and I was still missing my sweatshirts, pans, shorts, shoes, sport gear…
By mid-December I had created an inventory spreadsheet that would have basically every single item that we owned in order to keep track of what we kept, what we would bring and what we would be selling/giving away.
So starting planning as soon as you can is, in my opinion the best way to avoid any surprises.
2020: The year I changed my life 