I cannot believe it took me from 7am to to 11pm to pack out my entire house and scrub it clean. Of course I had the help of five Sicilian men to do all the actual packing, wrapping, and lifting.

The blue truck that holds my things hostage.

They were awesome, and used a crazy amount of golden tape to hold together my life’s possessions.

The packers used 10-12 rolls of this golden tape.

I did a fantastic job at sorting through everything in order to find what I need when I unpack in San Diego. I have done 5 moves in 5 years and I love putting everything into plastic baggies.

Baggies make for less digging while unpacking.

Above all, I made sure to keep all of my chargers in a special box to later put in my suitcase.  I lose chargers constantly. So this time, I was thinking ahead.

So my house is packed and I go to check my phone to see if my husband has called (he is deployed to Africa), and my phone is dead.

No big deal, I know I packed my charger in my special charger box.

The one charger that REALLY did not make it in was my camera charger, which is why I used my Blackberry cam.

I get to the hotel, and have to carry both boys up to the room. Aiden is knocked out cold, and Eric is wants up. I cave, and carry the 4 and 3 year old boys weighing in at about 70lbs total into the hotel, down a hall, upstairs and to our room. I am sweating bullets and reeking of bleach.

I waddle down the hall with dead-weight Aiden on my hip, and Eric sliding down my other leg. I open the door and plop both boys down on the bed. The ONLY bed. I asked for two queens…and instead, got one queen bed. No biggie.

They are adorable...and heavy.

When Eric falls asleep, I dart down to the car, get my laptop and my box of chargers to juice up my phone. But alas, the phone charger is not there. I calm myself down and think “I will buy one in the morning. No biggie.” So I reach for my laptop.

But where is the charger? I look in the charging box. Nothing. The movers, they packed it! My lifeline! How will I communicate with the world? How will I answer emails? How will I check the blog?

I curse the movers and curse myself for letting them pack my charger. I move to my bag to get some leftover Halloween candy (that I made sure I had), and then – ta-dah! My laptop charger! I did pack it. Sorry Sicilian packers.

Good think I kept my dictionary. All of my boxes are labeled in Italian.

I then plug in my laptop and cannot get online. I need a code. I need the internet. I need it to write a post, THIS POST! It is already past 11pm, so I forgo the phone and head downstairs to get my code.

I am online!

I need a drink.

I go to the random box to get a beer that the Sicilian movers did not take. To my shock there is my phone charger! My lovely phone charger and magically I am reconnected to all outlets of technology.

It is like Christmas morning, but with chargers, and internet codes, and neon green lights that say “Success” everywhere.

Now that I am finished tackling my Tuesday by sending away my life, I have to wonder: Why the heck did I need a special charger box in the first place?

So what are you all tackling today?

Happy Tackling!

What are you tackling this week? Link up your Tackle it Tuesday post…

Tell us what you’re up to with all your other tackles… housework and otherwise… add your link to your tackle in the MckLinky below!

Each week on Tuesday, we are posting before and after pictures of a project or trouble area that we tackled this week.

Find out more about Tackle It Tuesday here.
The project can be little or big – whatever you want.

Basically, Tackle It Tuesday is about giving ourselves incentive, deadlines and satisfaction in getting our household tasks done.

(It doesn’t even have to be housework… just whatever is on your To Do list.)

If you tackled a project this week, just add a comment and add your link below.

Here is a fun thumbnail style linky…

If the thumbnail Linky doesn’t work for you — or you prefer the old style, you can enter in the linky below.

Written by 5 Minutes for Mom co-founder Janice.
You get our feed, right?

*Tackle it Tuesday is sponsored this month by ARM & HAMMER® Power Gel Laundry Detergent, America’s first gel detergent!

What a surprise… Janice is scrambling to pack her bags the night before leaving for a blogging conference.

She’s so behind, she’s making ME tell you about her tackle which is fittingly, prepping for Blissdom Canada.

But before I tell you about her tackle, I first need to whine and moan a little that I’m sadly not joining Jan on the plane to Toronto tomorrow morning.

You see, Janice and I are on the Canadian Advisory Board for Blissdom Canada and we were both excited to attend.

But by some bizarre stroke of bad luck my eardrum burst after my plane ride to BlogHer 10 in New York. My ear was badly damaged and my doctor advised me to not fly for several months.

So… again Janice gets to have all the fun… no, I’m not bitter at all. LOL

Well, the one part of traveling that is NO fun is packing, so I’m not jealous of that. As I type this, Janice keeps ringing me on the phone to ask if she can borrow this and that. “Make a list!” I just told her, “I’m trying to publish your tackle right now!”

I have no before and after photos of Janice’s packing tackle, instead imagine her running around trying to find enough clean clothes to toss into her bag.

And I have to run as she’s got more work for me to still do tonight…

But enough about us… what about YOU???

Happy Tackling!

What are you tackling this week? Link up your Tackle it Tuesday post…

Tell us what you’re up to with all your other tackles… housework and otherwise… add your link to your tackle in the MckLinky below!

Each week on Tuesday, we are posting before and after pictures of a project or trouble area that we tackled this week.

Find out more about Tackle It Tuesday here.
The project can be little or big – whatever you want.

Basically, Tackle It Tuesday is about giving ourselves incentive, deadlines and satisfaction in getting our household tasks done.

(It doesn’t even have to be housework… just whatever is on your To Do list.)

If you tackled a project this week, just add a comment and add your link below.

Here is a fun thumbnail style linky…

If the thumbnail Linky doesn’t work for you — or you prefer the old style, you can enter in the linky below.

Written by 5 Minutes for Mom co-founder Susan.
You get our feed, right?

*Tackle it Tuesday is sponsored this month by ARM & HAMMER® Power Gel Laundry Detergent, America’s first gel detergent!

A Sentimental Tackle…

While Susan and I were in NYC last week for BlogHer10, my eight year old son was at camp — without me!

We go to camp every summer as a family to volunteer for a week. But this summer, Jackson wanted to also go for a week as a camper.

So the day before I boarded the plane for NYC, I dropped Jackson off at the boat that took him to an island for his four-day, sleep-away-from-home camp.

But before I could drop him off, I of course had to pack his bags!

I think the hardest part of sending my eight year old son to camp was imagining the mess of clothes and towels on his cabin floor — dirty and clean all in one heap — and my son wearing dirty underwear all week long.

And almost as bad as picturing the dirty underwear, was thinking about his towels. I am a clean towel freak. I take tons of towels with me when I go to camp and the thought of him wiping his face on a towel that he had dropped on the filthy, wet floor is almost more than I can bear!

Thus, I was determined to pack his bags as effectively as possible, to give him every advantage in the mission of keeping clean.

I bought these Heys suitcase organizing bags off the shopping channel in the middle of the night last year and I love them! I use them on every trip I take.

After washing and folding, (we came home from a weekend away the night before and so I had to quickly wash his clothes,) I got ready to organize.

I put four sets of clothes in one large Heys bag: each set had one shirt, one pair of shorts and one pair of of clean underwear. Then in another bag I put “extras” — extra underwear, socks, etc. And in another bag I put pants, long sleeve shirts, etc for evenings or colder weather.

I also added in other camp essentials like flashlights, water bottle, Bible, and a book for night-time reading if he couldn’t sleep.

I must say, it was a little packing masterpiece.

BUT, the next morning when Jackson went to lift up the bag, it was too heavy! So I quickly searched the garage and found a duffle bag the same size that had wheels. I quickly moved everything into that bag, but in the rush and chaos I forgot to put his sleeping bag in the car!

I realized about 45 minutes into our drive to the boat. Fortunately Phil wasn’t far from our house and he went home, got the bag and met us at the boat before it left. Good grief.

I was at BlogHer when Phil picked up Jackson after camp, so I didn’t get to see the condition of his bag when it came home. But I heard it was a disaster — a wet, disorganized mess!

But, Jackson said he been late packing and threw everything thing in his bag at the last minute. So the wet items only went in at the end of the trip. But he also said that he had dumped things on the floor and he just grabbed clothes and ran. He said he didn’t even know what was clean or not. Sigh… I am trying hard not to be horrified.

He is a boy. And he can survive dirty underwear and filthy towels, right?

Jackson had a blast at camp and wanted to go right back. So, apart from the mess of dirty clothes, camp was a success!

What are you tackling this week? Link up show off…

Tell us what you’re up to with all your other tackles… housework and otherwise… add your link to your tackle in the MckLinky below!

Each week on Tuesday, we are posting before and after pictures of a project or trouble area that we tackled this week.

Find out more about Tackle It Tuesday here.
The project can be little or big – whatever you want.

Basically, Tackle It Tuesday is about giving ourselves incentive, deadlines and satisfaction in getting our household tasks done.

(It doesn’t even have to be housework… just whatever is on your To Do list.)

If you tackled a project this week, just add a comment and add your link below.

Here is a fun thumbnail style linky…

If the thumbnail Linky doesn’t work for you — or you prefer the old style, you can enter in the linky below.

Written by 5 Minutes for Mom co-founder Janice.
You get our feed, right?

Did you know that Susan and I also have a pedal car store and a rocking horse store?

I can’t believe I’m admitting this…

But my tackle had two phases…

Yes, as you might guess, my tackle tonight includes PACKING to go to the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration in Orlando.

But the embarrassing part is that before I could pack, I had to finish UNPACKING from my last trip to San Diego in OCTOBER!!!

Yes, I am that bad at unpacking my bags after a trip. You see, San Diego was summer weather and when I arrived home to Vancouver in October, I certainly did not need my summer clothes. And my suitcase sat half-full… waiting for me to require that suitcase again.

I do not like to pack. (And as is quite apparent, I also do not like to unpack.)

But I will try to not complain about packing, since it does mean I’m headed off for a fabulous trip to hang out with blogging friends — new and old — and have a blast at Disney World.

The one thing (besides packing) that does put a little damper on my enthusiasm is that I’m not bringing my 2 and 4 year old girls with me on the trip.

And I feel VERY GUILTY.

But it costs a bundle to fly everyone to Orlando from Vancouver, BC, Canada and we just can’t afford it.

Janice is bringing her family. Her kids are 2 and 8 years old and her husband LOVES Disney World almost as much as her kids. So, they are driving down to Seattle and catching the plane from there and are staying a full week at Disney World.

So please don’t tell my girls where I’m going… ugh… I feel even more guilty as I type this. (To ease my guilt, I’m reminding myself that they did get to go last year when we did a video shoot for Disney. You can watch them loving it in this fun video.)

Anyway…

So what have you been tackling?

Tell me what you’re up to with all your other tackles… housework and otherwise… add your link to your tackle in the Mck Linky below!

Each week on Tuesday, we are posting before and after pictures of a project or trouble area that we tackled this week.

Find out more about Tackle It Tuesday here.
The project can be little or big – whatever you want.

Basically, Tackle It Tuesday is about giving ourselves incentive, deadlines and satisfaction in getting our household tasks done.

(It doesn’t even have to be housework… just whatever is on your To Do list.)

If you tackled a project this week, just add a comment and add your link below.

Happy tackling ladies…

Written by 5 Minutes for Mom co-founder and Mommy Blogger Susan.
Do you have our feed in your reader?

By the way, do you know that Janice and Susan own two online toy stores where you can find a pedal plane or some adorable play furniture for your children?

I’m leaving again in two days!

Seriously.

So, again I’m unpacking, doing laundry and repacking. Do you think I’ll miss out on much sleep again the night before I leave? Probable outcome: 2 – 3 hours of sleep. (And that would be an improvement upon my recent departures.)

I am so beyond behind on everything I have to do, I can’t even begin to explain it. Earlier today I literally felt the stress rising through my body and cinching my chest.

In last week’s tackle I reported that I would be tackling my post-blogher catch-up. You know… sorting through business cards, adding feeds to my reader, following new folks on Twitter. Ya. Right. I can’t even FIND my stack of business cards.

I spent the weekend offline and giving my girls my undivided attention. But now I have suitcases and dirty laundry everywhere. And I think my stack of business cards is in there somewhere. I’d take pictures for you, but I totally do NOT have time.

Oh… are you wondering where I’m off to this time? I’m going to a StomperNet conference. It’s an training conference all about Internet Marketing, SEO, Social Media etc. So I’ll be learning more cool stuff that I should be doing to help promote my pedal car store and my rocking horse store, but that I don’t have time to do because I spend too much time blogging. LOL.

What about you? Tell me what you’re up to… add your link to the tackle in the Mr. Linky below!

Each week on Tuesday, we are posting before and after pictures of a project or trouble area that we tackled this week.

Find out more about Tackle It Tuesday here.
The project can be little or big – whatever you want.

Basically, Tackle It Tuesday is about giving ourselves incentive, deadlines and satisfaction in getting our household tasks done.

(It doesn’t even have to be housework… just whatever is on your To Do list.)

If you tackled a project this week, just add a comment and add your link below.

Happy tackling ladies…

Written by 5 Minutes for Mom co founder, Susan Carraretto.
Do you have our feed in your reader?