Top Ten Moving List

10.  If it is not attached to you, it will end up packed in a random box, where you will not find it until three days later.  Like the TV remote, the cell phone charger, clean underwear, or the box of Cheerios for Raphaela's breakfast.
9.  As much as you think you have sorted through, thrown out and donated to charity, you will still bring more junk than you can possibly imagine, or have room in storage.  As a former pack-rat, it surprised me to find some of the items in some of the boxes.
8.  My G-d Raphaela and I have alot of books, enough to fill a small library.  I suppose that confirms the supposition that I come from an Upper-Middle Class Jewish Intellectual family.
7.  Once you get involved in packing and moving and trying to find the floor again, it is fairly easy to forget to eat, drink or sleep.  For several days.
6.  The pet psychology books say that a cat owner should lock the feline in the house for two weeks, so he can learn and conquer his new environment.  Because we moved right down the street, I gave Harry the opportunity to escape into the garden, and he has chosen instead to hide under the bed, coming up for air and food occassionaly.  It took him a whole day in the new house to decide to use the litter box.
5.  If you are going to have chaos, do it all at once;  bring in the electrician, the phone technician, the cable guy, the movers and the house cleaners, and let them trip over each other.  When they all leave, it will remind you of the famous Yiddish story, "It Could Always Be Worse."
But don't expect to have internet access for several days.
4.  No house will ever be baby proof, and a new place provides new opportunities to explore and destroy.
3.  Don't open that closet space above the bathroom, the door is warped and will not close.
2.  People are amazing when you ask for help.  My friend Adi, the mother of Raphaela's friend from Gan, took Raphaela back and forth from nursery for several days, so I had one less headache.  Without my asking, my friend Adi then sent over her mother Chana, a super-organized ER nurse, to get my house in shape and help me see some clarity and floor space.  Chana adopted me as a daughter, making me eat and drink and helping get my office ready for patients, and Raphaela's room liveable for a decent night's sleep.  Then Chana volunteered her friend Yehuda to help me with major lifting and carrying.
Only in Israel.

1. You can never have enough closet space, and a kind land lord is worth his weight in gold.