Staying Organized in the Midst of Boxes

My husband and I are currently apartment-hunting.  We're looking for a two- or three-bedroom apartment near Hubby's office, and we're hoping to move relatively soon.  It's exciting because I'll be happy to be in a bigger place (maybe even with a whole room for my office!), but moving is always a challenge, and I'm not looking forward to packing up all my office stuff and getting it all organized once we get settled.

Let me tell you something.  I hate moving.  Growing up, I was an Army brat, so every few years I spent a week packing up my life into boxes, and when we got to our new house, I spent a week unpacking and organizing my life again.  As a result, I could happily move somewhere and stay there the rest of my life.  Granted, it would have to be a nice place, but if it meant never moving again, I'd be happy.

Regardless of how I feel about moving, it's happening.  So in addition to packing up the lives of myself, my husband, my future son, and our fur babies, I'm charged with keeping my writing organized so that I can continue to work while we're moving.

Fun, huh?

Thankfully, I think I've figured out a few ways to do that with minimal headaches and maximum productivity.

First of all, I'm working on making sure everything is organized now.  I have a bin with my writing/research files in it, and while we're looking into apartments I'm making sure I have easy access to my active files, that my inactive files are stored properly, and that new things get filed properly right away.  That will keep me from needing to organize while I'm packing, and will ensure I can find things easily no matter what stage of moving we're in.  As part of that organization, I'm also updating my files.  For example, things I haven't needed in quite some time can get packed in a separate spot from my active files.  It will help avoid clutter.

Another thing is that my office will be the last packed and first unpacked.  It's a little easier for me since I have a laptop, but if possible, I recommend that even desktop users keep their computers up and running as long as possible in the moving process.  Setting up my office as early as possible at the new place also encourages me to organize my space right away.  Not only because I'll be able to get back to work right away, but it helps keep my writing organized no matter how much is left to unpack in the rest of the house.

Finally, I use moving as an excuse to make sure everything is set up exactly the way I want it.  Sometimes, after I've set up my office, things get moved around as I use them, and after a while, things aren't the way I like them anymore.  When I move, I can get things back to the way I want them.

Even with keeping things organized and waiting as long as possible to move my office, not having access to things, even for a brief time, is inevitable when you move.  After all, you have to get from one place to the other, don't you?  And if you don't have the Internet set up right away (or turned off at your old place a bit early), there could be some dead time.  It's not fun, but it's part of the process.

How do you stay productive during a move?