Stacey Morgan knows a thing or two about PCS-ing. The U.S. Army wife and mother of four is preparing this summer for her eighth move, and a moment she had in the shower this week is going viral—well, sort of.
Morgan is an author and speaker currently living at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. She is preparing her family for a permanent change of station to Colorado Springs and had a moment of clarity while washing her hair.
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“I was thinking about how much shampoo I need to ration in order to make it as close to our PCS date as possible—without going over, like a perfect ‘Price is Right’ bid—and that sparked the idea of writing about the incredible amount of mental energy the PCS season requires, as well as the absurdity of many aspects of it,” Morgan said.
Taking to her Instagram account, Morgan shared a carousel post. It is titled “Sorry, we are not buying any more mustard. Welcome to military move Phase One: Do not aquire any new liquids.” In the post, she recounted the relatable timeline for getting ready to move and using only what is already available in the house, from beauty products to kitchen ingredients.
“Dinner is about to be less ‘home-cooked meal’ and more ‘pantry-based improv theater,’” she wrote on one slide. “Every night between now and June, I will open the cabinets like I’m about to perform a magic trick. Tonight’s ingredients: one can of something beige, a freezer item with ice crystals thick enough to sink the Titanic, and a spice mix I bought during the Obama administration.”
Morgan says she was hoping that a few people would share some of their funny stories. Every military family, no matter how long they have been in, has so many good PCS stories. What she got was completely unexpected, though.
“We have a jar of unopened cloves, expired sometime in the 2000s, that has traveled the world with us. It is the pantry mascot. It will never be used and will never be thrown away,” one user commented.
Another hilariously added: “They packed my friend’s dog. He was in a pet house, in a box. They had to stop packing/moving and find the dog.”
Shared Chaos
As of Friday morning, nearly 750 social media users weighed in with their own PCS tales in Morgan’s comments section.
“I was not expecting quite the scale of the response or the incredible hilarity that people brought to the comments. I have been laughing constantly,” Morgan said.
Amid the laughter, one comment stood out to Morgan.
“She told the story of when she and her husband were brand-new to the military and money was tight, a senior officer’s wife brought over a box of the stuff the packers wouldn’t pack and gave it it all to them, [which was] a very meaningful gesture to them at the time,” Morgan said, adding it made her tear up thinking about the military community caring for one another.
“Gestures like that are happening all the time, all around us, on every U.S. military base around the world.”
Amid uncertainty In a chaotic world, moments of connection stand out. Restocking your pantry (and cleaning supplies, candles, batteries, light bulbs, and more) seem like a small thing, Morgan said. They’re not when you are asked to do it over and over again.
On top of everything else associated with a family move.
“I love that we can share the dark humor of these challenges, but I’m also so immensely proud to be a part of such an incredibly caring community of people,” Morgan said.
Somewhere between rationing shampoo like it’s a competitive sport and turning pantry scraps into a questionable episode of “Chopped,” military families aren’t just surviving the chaos of moving. They’re finding ways to laugh through it together.
