When I moved, I had packed all my fabric up in bankers boxes. I stood the drawers on end and folded the fabric to fit. Also had everything sorted by color and labeled the boxes. This way after I moved I could still quilt and find what I needed until I figured out where and how I wanted things set up,

Catsden just reminded me of something. You can check with your movers but some will allow you to leave things in the drawers when you move. My mom put a lot of clothes and stuff they didn't need day to day when she moved from So Cal to Texas. She said it saved a lot of packing and boxes and the dresser was going anyway so why not?

Laughing!

Sounds like y'all are being very serious with the purge!

The movers we use, (have used the same company before) have no problem with us leaving things in drawers/dressers. But, with my fabric so heavy and so much of it, I'm afraid that if the fabric got pushed/or slid against the cabinet doors, it would damage the doors. And my shelves in the cabinets are adjustable also, and just sit on brass pegs, so I don't really trust the shelves not to get damaged with the weight as well if the fabric were to slide. For the actual move, the adjustable shelving will be taken out of the cabinets also, to protect the cabinets/shelving. I asked the movers about box weight and size and they said it didn't matter how heavy or big the boxes were, so I packed them in boxes that were long enough for the bolts.

I keep all my fabric, even the 1 yard lengths 'bolt' like, if you know what I mean - that way I don't have any new folds, just the folds of how they are on the original bolts.

It ended up that each box weighs approx. 100 lbs. The boxes are 19 x 28 x 16. Fabric is soooo heavy. Thank goodness the boxes are heavy cardboard. DH says that it will take something nuclear for them to pop open on their own. The boxes are now up ended and standing in a row, ready for them to be dollied out to the moving truck(s) when the time comes.

I just started a new quilt and kept all of the project fabric out, so I'll have enough to do until I get unpacked. As if I'll have a lot of time to work on it, with all that needs to get done with the move! LOL But, it will be nice to be able to sit and relax with it occasionally, in the meantime!

Now, just to find floor space in the house to put more packed boxes for the rest of the household that still remains to be packed!

Are you going to be able to handle to boxes yourself when you get there or are you going to just have the movers put them down and unpack later? Just not use your sewing room until everything is unpacked?

I just returned from helping my BFF set up her studio, and unpack her totes and boxes. Almost everything seemed OK. Didn't seem to matter if it was in a tote or box. The big exception was the batting. Her batting was packed in both boxes and totes. While unpacking it, the batting all seemed to have a musty smell to it. Type of batting didn't matter. It all had the same musty smell. Everything was stored in the same storage units, under the same conditions, so not sure what caused the batting to pick up a musty odor. None of her other fabric, cottons, blends, decorator, costume fabrics seemed to have a smell to them. Also, she has several pillow forms, and bags of fill, and they did not pick up any odor!

I'll have the movers put the boxes in my 'new' craft room, up ended like I have them now (that way they won't be on top of each other). Then I can just plop a box over, open it and unload into my cabinets. Then break down the empty box for recycling.

We used plastic totes when we moved 2 years ago. When emptied, they stack well and have endless other uses. We stored the storage totes in the attic and retrieve as needed. I placed quilts at the bottom of a tote when breakable things were packed in order to pad/protect them.

Good plan.

Just a hint re odour in stored fabric or clothing. I alway place a small cake of soap in the container / drawer and I find that I don't ever have any odours.