Danielle Blog

photos of packing. note: wealth of tea

That is what the edge of our kitchen and dining room looked like at about 9:30 last night. I had just finished splitting the tea; it is on the counter. This photo also documents my version of organized chaos as I pack.

This is what inspired me to pull out my camera.

Can you believe that we own all of that tea???
And can you believe that all of that tea fit into the left side of the cabinet that is above it? ( see photo above) Yes, it took up the WHOLE left side, and we really didn’t get to the stuff behind the first couple of layers much. We really needed a lazy Susan for tea, or a nice pull out rack like Texas Seestor has in her kitchen cabinet – of which I am quite jealous! I guess I will have to find a poor man’s version of a nice pull out rack. Maybe some sort of desk organizer…
… well, I’ll have to think about that.
That or I’ll have to make that one of my arts and crafts projects for the summer. Now, there is a thought!

As I was pulling this tea out, it was like discovering old friends. I had forgotten that we had all of those Tealuxe paint cans of tea from when we lived in Boston! I actually found the paint can opener that we had to use to open them in the silverware + tea utensil drawer. Speaking of the tea utensil drawer, I found 3 large metal mesh tea balls, 2 small tea balls, two tea squeezers (one for home and one for school – from my grad school advisor). And that doesn’t begin to include my collection of tea pots, spoon rests or teaball rests, and mugs.

Anyway, I should explain one thing about the massive stack of tea – particularly the tower in the back. Dad worked with a woman who had a connection to Bigelow (I’m not sure entirely of the connection anymore – I think she might have worked there part-time), so we ended up with a ton of tea for free from her from Bigelow.

As for the rest of the tea, the canisters are all different flavors of Republic of Tea teas. Some of them had special edition canisters, like Memoirs of a Geisha for the Cherry Blossom tea which is renamed to be called Spring Cherry Green Tea, or the red Zen Dreams canister for Passion Fruit Papaya – my second favorite tea. Or is Blackberry Sage my second favorite tea? I suppose they are tied for second.

In the end, splitting the tea wasn’t too terrible. There are things that HB purchased for himself that I never liked anyway. And we had two of a fair number of teas – especially those Bigelow boxes!

Pulling out the mugs earlier in the day was also like discovering old friends. I have mugs from as far back as high school freshman year that were given to me by friends. I remember who gave me, or where I purchased, almost every one of them. I have even kept a chipped one that was such a favorite for so long that I’ve never been able to put it in the trash – I purchased that one, but I’m not sure where. That would be one of the few that I can’t recall where I got it.

And here are some more photos I went ahead and took as long as I had my camera out.

This is where I stood all day Wednesday. Packing paper in front of me, box being packed to my left, towels and blankets used for packing to the far left on the couch and chair, office paper and newspaper behind me, and for a while, I had bubble wrap to my right until I used it all up!

I felt compelled to take a photo of all of the utensils that I’m taking with me after I split them. That was sort of odd too. We have only one of some things, so I tried to keep track of the things that I will need to buy. And I started a small list for HB of things that he will have to buy, if he so chooses.

Well, I’m nearing the end of my cheerios and Home Depot is now open. I used up the last of my tape making the box to hold all of the utensils plus other stuff last night. That makes 4 rolls of scotch packing tape (purchased) and 3 rolls of cheapo brown tape from Atlas (free). I’ve probably been over generous with the amount of tape I use, but I’d rather use too much and have the boxes stay intact than use too little and have the bottoms bust out. So, off to buy tape I go. Maybe I’ll take some more photos. I’m finding them sort of funny to view.