How I Helped My Sister Move

My sister's family is moving this weekend. Yes, they're moving the weekend before Christmas. Yes, they realize they're insane (although, I don't think they realize how insane they are).

Let me first say that my sister is actually incredibly organized when it comes to clothing. She separates out all the different size baby clothes for her son and packs away the not-yet-needed very neatly for the future (after washing). I've only seen one other person ever store as much clothing in a closet as my sister managed to do. However, she got a weird "no need to pack that- we'll just throw it in the trailer on moving day!" and "we can't pack that, we'll need that before we move!" mentality that didn't seem to be budging, no matter how close to Moving Day she got.

So, last night I went over to help pack a couple boxes and also entertain some children when I wasn't helpful at deciding what got packed with what. But I quickly hit her "You can't pack that yet!" wall. And finally decided that she was insane when she told me that fact while we were in the kitchen, looking at her packed kitchen cabinets.

Me: "No one is making pancakes for breakfast tomorrow or Saturday. I'm packing the pancake mix."
Her: "We might!"
Me: "I just looked in your freezer. You have toaster strudel, hash browns, and breakfast sausage in there- no need for pancakes."
Her: "Fiiiine."
Me: "And are you going to need seven boxes of spaghetti in the next two days?"
Her: "We might have that for dinner tomorrow."
Me: "Seven boxes worth?"
Her: "We like a lot of choices."
Me: "Wouldn't it make more sense to have something from the freezer?"

I opened the freezer to reveal a bevy of food packed in, in addition to the items I mentioned earlier.

Her: "... We also have the whole deep freeze in the garage still packed."
Me: "So, I can pack up your kitchen cabinets. Great!"
Her: "But not the oatmeal! We eat that every day!"
Me: "Three different boxes worth of oatmeal every day?"
Her: "...No, just the brown sugar and maple."
Me: "And how much do you plan on eating in the next day and a half?"
Her: "Leave two packs in the cabinet?"
Me: "Okay, that's progress."

I couldn't get her to pack up the Pizza Pizzazz, however, no matter how much I tried to point out that she could just use the oven or microwave for a day.