> Well, you know how when you move to a new place and all of your unpacked boxes confront you every time you come home? And you know how, if you just leave them there for a few weeks, the boxes stop being boxes and start being furniture, just part of the layout of your apartment, almost impossible to perceive?
No, I do not know this. I've moved ~29 times in my life. I've never once had a problem unpacking. I packed up shelves and drawers and dressers and closets. When I get to the new place I open a box, see what's in it, "oh, this was the stuff in bedroom drawers" so I go put the stuff in there in just a few seconds. In a few hours I'm 100% unpacked.
I've never really understood why it would be any different for anyone else except if maybe if they moved to a much smaller place.
Is it really that common of an experience?
More to the point of the article though - I'm not entirely sure I want to unpack my job - I feel like lots of people would not "do the thing" if they knew how hard it would be. But, looking back, they're proud they "did the thing". I know for me, I started some companies and projects years ago. I was able to do this because I didn't know how much work it would be. Now that I know, I find it extremely hard to get started again. I wish I could go back to my old naive self.
Maybe a better example, all though one I have unfortunately not experienced, would anyone have kids if you "unpacked" what having kids is actually like? I think you could list 100s or 1000s of "unpleasant on paper" things but I don't really think you could write the positives in a compelling way against that list of negatives. And, yet I believe the majority of parents would tell you having children was the most fulfilling thing in their lives. I think many of the things mentioned in the post might also have a similar issue.
On unpacking after moving: I'd posit that what you describe is an extreme outlier of moving efficiency.
More often, there was some amount of disorder introduced along the way.
Boxes badly/not labelled, disparate contents mixed. Differences in house mix of drawers/cabinets/closets/etc means there's no direct equivalent for where something used to live. Unpacking that's blocked on other tasks like building the bookcase or deciding what this room will be used for. And if course the classic just having way too much stuff.
This all compounds for ADHD people, for whom the large stream of unpacking tasks coupled with their attendant stream of decisions can overwhelm and then depress, resulting in a quagmire as described in your quote.
It ain't pretty but I assure you it happens. My friend is going through it right now: six weeks after moving, their living room remains wall to wall boxes.
Unpacking the boxes is just a small piece of moving, but pretty sure you're "crazy" (and you should use that) if you don't associate it with physical and mental pain. Apart from the cognitive drain there is a point in doing it slowly so that you remember where everything went.
Moving 29 times is absolutely nuts, unless you have like no possessions
I agree that following the exercise too closely would dissuade many people from careers they would do fine in. Every job has toil.
That being said it has some value but perhaps not much more than just a little critical thinking.