Another use for duct tape

I'm moving in a week and since I work best with lists I've made a list of helpful things/ things to do as you ready yourself for a move:

• Clarify your move-in/out date for your new place.  In my instance one lease ended the day before my new one began.  I managed to talk to my current landlord to extend the lease for a weekend, giving me a few extra days to move.
• Also make sure to double-check what you are responsible for in terms of getting your security deposit back.  A lot of times you need to have your carpets professionally cleaned as well as your house professionally cleaned.  Here in D.C. there's an entire cleaning business based on move-in/out cleaning.  I managed to get out of hiring professional cleaners and only hiring a carpet cleaner.
• Change addresses for not only your utilities but also for USPS and all your internet shopping accounts,  subscriptions, etc.A year later and we still get packages for what I hope are the previous tenets.  Nothing worse then ordering a package and never getting it.
• Pack early and often.  Now I'm super organized and really antsy about these types of thing so I started packing about a month before the move.  I started with easy things like books and movies that I knew I wasn't going to have time to watch in the next month.  Next I worked on out-of-season clothing, excess toiletries and now 5 days before I'm working on packing up the kitchen. 
• DUCT TAPE: this is where I will probably save the most time.  I bought 5 different colors of duct tape since I am moving to a place with 5 rooms.  Each room has a designated color so on the day of move-in all my helpers (who are lured with free pizza and beer) they can distribute the box right in the room it belongs, instead of me having to move boxes twice.
• Finish any "projects" you might have.  I had a ton of clothes that needed mending/altering and I realized that if I didn't do them now I would probably never get around to doing it so I made a day out of completing all my sewing alterations.

Packing tips according to item:

• Clothes
• Pack out of season clothing first, and use suitcases you already own
• Take this time to go through your clothing and get rid of clothes you don't wear - it can be helpful at this time to invite over a friend you see regularly and have him/her judge if they've seen you in an item.  Chances are if your best friend hasn't seen a shirt you've own for years, you don't wear it enough and should donate it
• For things in the closet - keep them hung and then put them in trash bags.  I want to use the bags again so I put the bags around the clothes and use the bag ties to secure the hangers in place, that way after the move I still have trash bags to use!
• Bathroom
• Pack all your spare toiletries up early and only keep a small travel-sized bag of toiletries that you can use for a week or two and that you'll be able to use the day of your move/ a few days after you move so you aren't digging through boxes for everything.
• Entertainment
• You probably won't be able to watch a whole lot of movies or read a whole lot of books in the upcoming weeks before the move so take some time and pack those early to get them out of the way
• Pack books in small boxes or rolling suitcases because books get incredibly heavy
• Kitchen
• Use your current kitchen towels to help pad boxes and protect breakables
• Use paper or Styrofoam plates in between your nice, ceramic or glass, plates so they are protected and that they dont scrape against eachother
• Outdoor Items
• Another seasonal type item that you can pack up parts earlier then others.  Things like boots, shovels, sleds can be packed right away if you are moving in the summer - and the reverse is true if you are moving in the winter
• Tools   
• Save these for last or make sure they are always easily accessible.  You will need tools up until you move-out and right away when you move-in.  Same goes for cleaning supplies - you want these to be handy throughout the moving process.

Spray Paint

I decided to get down with my bad self and use spray paint for my latest craft!

A little bit if a backstory:

When I was in college I had the pleasure (?) of running for student government Vice President, because I liked being involved and my friend who wanted to be president needed a running mate. 

For part if our campaign we wanted to make tshirts and we wanted them to be customized and our poor college selves needed to do it cheaply. I go the idea that maybe we could use spray paint and a stencil to get the look we wanted. 

3 years later I happened to find myself and my dodgeball team in need of fun, customized shirts for spirit week. So I thought about it and proposed the spray painting idea to my team and they loved it!  Instead of spending $20/shirt we ended up spending $10. 

First thin you need to do is fine the design you want and enlarge it so it fits the size of your shirt. After doing it print it out. This is the stencil. 

Next, grab an exacto knife and either a movie or good music (this part is a bit time consuming) and carefully cut out the letters. Reminder that with letters with an inner cut out (like O) you need to make sure and not cut everything out otherwise you'll just have a giant circle - I made this mistake a few times, thank goodness for tape. 

Next, grab your shirt and spray paint and head to a well ventilated area (it was nice out so I used my front lawn). Put a piece of cardboard in your shirt so the paint wont bleed through. Place your stencil on top of your shirt and cover excess areas with cardboard or paper towels. If you use paper towels, it is much more helpful to tuck them under the stencil. 

Then take your can of spray paint and hold it directly over the stencil - if you hold it at an angle it is much more likely to get under the stencil. Spray your paint using even motions and thin layers. After you have covered the area remove the stencil. 

Once you have removes the stencil I recommend hanging the shirt up to dry - if you used too much paint and it looks like it will drip then leave the card board in it an let it lay flat to dry. 

Let it sit over night and then ta-da! Your own customized shirt!!

It's not perfect, but I think that's part of the charm. We also were able to put our nicknames on the back

Ready for Spirit Week!