Long Distance Family Trips During Holidays

Holidays mean time spent with your family, whether you’re a huge fan of your family members or not. Sometimes, this can be a great reunion with distant family members who you’ve dearly missed. Other times, it can spell anxiety and stress as you prepare yourself to hang out with your dysfunctional family.

No matter which situation best describes you and your family, though, you’re likely looking forward to the holiday because it almost always means great home-cooked food, some gift giving, and time away from the daily grind.

My family, for example, doesn’t often meet up throughout the year. But when we do, I’m always having laughs with my brother and our cousins. Perhaps it’s because we don’t see one another very often. Perhaps it’s because we like to reminisce back on our younger days. Or perhaps it’s because the four of us get along better in our family than anyone else. All three seem like viable answers to me.

But the holidays can also remind you of how distant some of your family members may be. Maybe they’re distant in the fact that they live far away from you and your closer more local family. Maybe they’re distant because you don’t see eye to eye anymore like you used to and they just don’t come around anymore.

For those who are farther away, though, there’s something to be said for both parties having the responsibility of catch up somehow. While the advent of technology makes it quite easy to still contact them no matter their distance, it’s not always the easiest to still feel like it’s the holiday season.

Most of my family is local and within a two hour drive of me, so we see pretty much everyone each time a major holiday rolls around. But we do happen to have some pretty close family that lives at least 15 hours away by car, so it can sometimes be a few years in between visits.

The best remedy to these sorts of situations is mailing gifts to them as little surprises. Even though a lot of people don’t exchange gifts on Easter (save for giving stuff to the children), I still enjoy sending a little something to my family down south just to show them I still think about them. By rounding up a few shipping boxes, packing some unique little gifts in them, and sending them down, I can show that they’re still a part of the family even if they can’t be here. And almost always I end up receiving a few shipping boxes in return with whatever it is they gathered together for me and my parents.

Some Packing Tips for Moving

The major concern for any person about to move to a new place is packing the household items in a way that there could be hassle free transportation and unpacking. These costly items come after you spend major part of your earnings. So, ignoring those items or selling them just to get rid of them is the last thing you would consider.

With that said, one may wonder what’s so technical in securing items in a box. Well, there is a lot of take care of when you are packing your items in the boxes before you move to the new place.

Pack smartly

It’s the shipping boxes that will have entire load of your items distributed among them. Here, you will have to make sure that distribution of load is in a way that handling the boxes wouldn’t be an issue. For that purpose, a simple trick is to pack heavy items in the small boxes and lighter items in the large boxes. The reason is that if you pack heavy items in the large boxes, handling those boxes is going to be extremely difficult. Moreover, the relatively heavy items to be stored in a box should be placed in the bottom. That will make maneuvering the box easier.

Pack things ahead of time

Packing everything in short time creates a hassle which can make things go seriously wrong. Start packing at least 6 weeks before the day of moving. Now, you have time and you can easily decide what those items are that you are not going to need in the coming weeks. Start with packing those items first. You might feel an unpleasant change in your life when you start packing so early but it’s worth the convenience that you will have on the day of moving.

Labeling the boxes

It’s the job of moving services to get every box to its accurate place in the house where you are going to move. Hence, your job is to tell them which box belongs to where. For that purpose, labeling the box is highly appropriate. The label should explain where the box needs to be placed in the new house. Moreover, you can also make list of items in the box and attach that list with the box. That’ll be for your own ease.

Taping the box

Taping is highly important to make sure that box remains secure during transit. Sometimes, removal of tape becomes an issue when you are dealing with the box having delicate items. Extra strength of adhesive with the tape can rip the box and make items inside to fall outside. To prevent this scenario, you can tape the box with string that will run underneath the tape throughout its length. Make sure a little piece of string is hanging out from the end of the tape. To unpack the items, you simply need to pull the threat and it will rip the tape’s width throughout its length.

Ensure safety of breakables and other delicate items

Breakable like dishes, glasses and artworks need to retain their integrity while being transported. For that purpose, you can use packaging materials to cushion the items and restrict their movement. Furthermore, you can also use clothes, curtains and other fabrics to provide the same cushioning to these delicate items. As a matter of fact, using clothes may turn out to be the better alternate.