Do it Now: Unpacking

Truth: I love to travel. Even if it's just an hour and half away to visit my nephews, I love packing up and taking off. Truth: I'm a horrible packer. I always over pack for fear of regretting leaving something behind. Even bigger truth: I despise unpacking when I get home. Despise it. So much so that I have been known, much to Jim's horror, to take up to a month to fully unpack my suitcase. Sure, I'll take my toiletry bag out, and I'll throw the dirty clothes into the hamper, but that's about as far as I get. From that point on, I just take things out of the open suitcase as I need it. Eventually it gets empty. Or, my husband will move the not-fully-unpacked suitcase out into the hall as if making some kind of "well then, I'll show you what I think of your unpacked suitcase" statement. Whoa, clearly I have a problem.

February's book club book for my Edmonton book club was The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. Once I started reading it I found myself super-motivated, flagging every second page with neon post-its, anxious to start on my own Happiness Project before I had even finished the book. Actually, I haven't finished it yet - I decided to slow the reading of it down so that I could better reflect on each chapter of the book, and think of ways to apply aspects of her book to my own life.

The Happiness Project is divided into chapters by month, with each month focusing on a new resolution while also continuing with the previous month's one. January is about all about boosting energy, and for many people, myself included, reducing clutter and living in an organized home boosts your overall energy, and well, happiness. And it's just damn satisfying. Gretchen also has a list of Commandment's for herself which she applies throughout each resolution. One of these Commandment's, which really struck home for me in this chapter, was "Do it now".  Then I turned the page and got to "Tackle a Nagging Task". Enter: unpacking my suitcase.

I don't love not unpacking my suitcase. I just don't love unpacking it. (I had to read that several times to see if there was a double negative in there somewhere - so if there is, I'm sorry, but you get my point.) But it's definitely a nagging task and one that affects both myself and my husband's sanity. This month, I went on two separate trips:  to visit my sister in Vancouver and then to Mexico for a week. Since I started reading The Happiness Project while I was in Vancouver, I was motivated to put some of what I had read in the book into practice in my own life: I would unpack my suitcase when I got home. And if you're thinking I would have had to anyway to pack for my next trip, well then you'd be wrong because I own more than one large suitcase.

{Saigon *loves* inspecting my suitcases when I come home}

When I arrived home from Vancouver, Jim was just arriving home from work. I had been gone for 5 days so I was excited to see my husband (and Saigon) and catch up in person about the time we had been apart. Usually this would occur in the kitchen or maybe over on the couch. But not that day! Nope, that day I made Jim come upstairs with me and while I unpacked my suitcase, he sat on the bed, (in shock I might add), and we talked about our week. So not only did I accomplish a "Do it now" and a "Tackle a Nagging Task" task, but I'm pretty sure Jim was relieved he wouldn't have to trip over my suitcase every morning for the next month! And I will admit, it felt SO good to zip up that unpacked suitcase and put it away.

{I did it!}

We arrived home from Mexico two days ago, and you better believe my suitcase is all unpacked!  Does this mean I foresee a bedroom, free of unpacked suitcases in my life for years to come? I sure hope so.

I'm pretty confident that I am alone in taking this long to unpack one's suitcase, but I'd love to know which you prefer: packing or unpacking? Why? Do you unpack as soon as you get home from somewhere?