When most people commute by train in NYC they usually store their personal items inside their handbag, messenger bag, tote bag, backpack, or pockets. Well, most people except for one packing genius.
You see, this one packing genius wasn’t commuting. He/she was moving. An entire apartment’s worth of stuff. On the uptown 2 train.
Location: Near 14th street.
Destination: Your guess is as good as ours.
Owner: Unknown.
Witness: Kathleen Fox.
Feeling pretty confident about the situation on the subway during this unprecedented security event here in NYC. pic.twitter.com/TgaKXUgpiE
— Kathleen Fox (@foxxinthefield) September 23, 2015
What makes this unknown packing genius a packing genius?
Five reasons:
1. The unknown packing genius saved a ton of money.
What’s better than paying hundreds of dollars for professional movers and a moving truck?
Paying for neither and sparing only $2.75 for one train ride.
2. The unknown packing genius organized everything like a world-renowned professional organizer.
Flowers go with flowers, umbrellas go with umbrellas, binders go with binders, shoes go with shoes, toiletries go with toiletries, and so on. Guess who won’t have any trouble finding and unpacking his/her stuff in his/her new apartment in Guiness World Book-record time?
The unknown packing genius. Because he/she chose to organize everything by category, just like the great Marie Kondo would.
3. The unknown packing genius used protection.
You can’t tell from the photo, but we have a sneaking suspicion that those umbrellas and other items in clear wrapping are smiling. Because they’re cozy (the 2 train gets pretty cold) from being wrapped in protective padding. Padding that’ll prevent them from breaking and bruising other items that are carpooling with them in the same storage container.
4. The unknown packing genius packed mostly everything inside storage containers.
Traditional cardboard boxes aren’t the strongest. Yet many people use them to move their stuff. Many people except for the unknown packing genius. He/she neatly packed mostly everything inside durable plastic storage containers. Storage containers with closed lids that stop its contents from ejecting and slamming their heads against the 2 train’s unforgiving roof.
5. The unknown packing genius secured everything on a trolley.
Who agrees that the most physically exhausting aspect of moving is walking to and from a moving truck and carrying everything inside your new apartment, multiple times?
All of us agree except for the unknown packing genius. He/she is immune to that pain. Because he/she stacked the storage containers on a trolley. And then secured them with DIY moving and lifting straps. After attaching a cardboard bumper. A cardboard bumper that’s way more pleasant to crash into than a fellow commuter’s elbow, lap, or bulky backpack.
Who is this unknown packing genius?
Does he/she even exist?
Or is he/she a mythical being whose moving hack masterpiece will be crowned The Official 8th Wonder of the World (sorry Grand Canyon)?
What was inside the unsuspicious duffle bag that’s sitting on top of the moving hack masterpiece? Spare clothes? Gold Coins? Lucky Charms?
And where was this unknown packing genius when Kathleen Fox took the picture?
We can only assume the unknown packing genius was standing on the platform of the 2 train subway station that’s closest to his/her new apartment. Patiently waiting for the train to arrive so he/she could effortlessly roll his/her moving hack masterpiece straight out of the train’s doorway.
Or, more realistically, the unknown packing genius was at his/her new apartment lying in bed, not glued to Narcos or Jessica Jones, but planning his/her next sublime lifehack. Until he/she had to get up and open the front door for the TaskRabbit Tasker who was hired to roll the moving hack masterpiece and unpack the storage containers. Because that, ladies and gentlemen, is how an unknown packing genius probably (maybe?) operates.
h/t gothamist
