Sunday, October 24, 2021

Making Space...

Checking in with a progress post on our move.  Tomorrow is closing day and it's hard to believe we're at this point already.  Packing continues, and life doesn't slow down for it.


There is so much I could write about things going on alongside all the packing, but one of the biggest highlights was that we had the opportunity to meet the sellers of the house we're buying.   They had a garage sale last weekend and while I stayed home on Friday to wait for a furnace tune-up, Hub went over to the sale and met the couple we're buying the house from.

As they talked, Hub & the sellers found they had some things in common.  Mr. seller graduated from Purdue, which Hub also did, and I attended.  Not necessarily unique around these parts, but it's always fun to meet another Purdue Alum.

Then they asked if Hub knew T...  B(ourlastname), and Hub was thrilled to tell them that was his brother.  Now... to our knowledge, Hub's family are the only people in the state with our last name. We live about an hour south of where Hub's brother & sister lives, so it's not very often that we run into each other's people.   You might be able to imagine when it does happen, people instantly are curious if we're related since our name is pretty unique in these parts.    

Anyway, turns out when this couple lived further north, they attended church where my husband's mother, father, sister and brother & his family all attend(ed).  What a small world!  

Then Saturday, I went over to meet them (and Hub went again, too).  We ended up buying some office furniture which will be great because we have an old computer table that is looking seriously shabby, and it probably wouldn't move well if we tried.  

I addition to that, when I saw in the garage sale a picture I had admired when looking at their house, I started to offer to buy it, and before I could get the words out completely, the Mrs. gave it to me.   And through our realtors they had previously offered us three nice bar stools they have at their kitchen island, so it looks like we're set in there, too.  It was so good to meet this terrific couple (and some of their family, even).  They seemed genuinely glad to meet us, too.  It's nice to know we're not meeting complete strangers tomorrow at the closing.

Immediately after the closing, we take possession of the new place.  We plan to take a couple of loads over tomorrow late afternoon.  I'm lobbying for getting Chinese take-out and having our first meal there at the kitchen island as a celebration.  

Meanwhile, packing continues...

I don't know how it is, but with each box packed and put in the garage, it seems I become aware of how much more there is to pack!  It feels a tad overwhelming, but then I remind myself that we get to make this move in stages.  The plan is to move small stuff ourselves during the week after closing.  We have a smallish moving van rented for next weekend and will move medium-sized stuff when we have more help.  Then finally we've scheduled (hopefully big, burly) movers to handle the truly heavy stuff - like furniture, an upright freezer, a piano, and anything else we're too pooped to deal with...  

We've never done a local move before and this concept of moving in stages is interesting to plan out, and I hope will be a lot less exhausting in the implementation.

This past Thursday a friend helped me pack up most everything in my china cabinet.  Before we started I told my friend I wanted to take some pictures of the process.  I thought I'd be artsy and get fun angles of her hands placing nicely wrapped dishes in boxes, reaching for dishes in the cabinet, things like that...  Half the time the dining room table was covered with dishes and packing material and even that would have been a great shot.  But do you think I could actually remember to do this?!?   Of course not!  I seem incapable of being part of the process and documenting it at the same time.  So instead of artsy pictures that could provide me great memories in my old age, I have pictures of stacks of boxes containing dishes and china cabinet stuff as they fill my living room, that will only serve to remind me of my aching back in my dotage.


Books have been the easiest thing to get packed, but I will tell you - packing is seriously making me rethink being a collector of books.   In order to not create too heavy of boxes, when I can't put my hands on a small box, I've found that packing books and yarn (or any soft, lightweight items) together is a great way to make sure I'm not packing boxes that are too heavy to actually carry.  


Who knew my closet full of yarn would come in handy in this way?  My books and yarn will possibly end up in the same room at the new house, so the items are a natural to pack together. 😄 

I know a few books slipped out during this challenge before I took a picture of them, but looking back through these posts and counting books pictured, I can see (including today's post) I've gotten rid of at least 194 books in the last year.  Today, I've just counted 50 that came out of the family room!


And lastly for today, I've finally decided I'm just getting rid of the rest of my Taste of Home magazines and am not going to look through any more of them to determine if there are recipes I'd like to save.   I think I counted 29 below:


So this week I have 79 more things leaving the house and I've more than met my goal of 1,000 things gone in a year's time.  If I could take this packing business slower, I could probably get rid of 1,000 more things in the next few weeks, but I can see that isn't going to happen. My decluttering journey (while I probably won't document it further here - at least, not in the same way) will, no doubt, continue at the new place.

I'll try to remember to keep a camera close and snap some pictures this next week.  Once we have possession, I'll feel freer to post some pictures of the new place (or at least spaces in the new place).  A whole empty house isn't going to be terribly interesting, but I'll see what I can do.  

Making Space Week 51:   1029  things gone!



11 comments:

  1. WooHoo 1000 items gone. I can just imagine I would be ready to part with a lot more and I would not have so much attachment if I had to pack it to move. I will keep plugging along as you have provided me much inspiration to do so.

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  2. Good for you! It's exciting and exhausting all at the same time. Just be sure to take frequent breaks.
    So great that you met the sellers and sort of 'know' them - I'm sure they're very much relieved to know that someone they 'know' is going to live in the home they no doubt loved. Win/win all around!

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  3. You’re doing great! My wife and I have hundreds of books and while I acknowledge they’re easy to pack, well, they’re not exactly light! But should we ever decide to move, it will be a good opportunity to cull a bunch of them. Sounds like it was a real blessing to meet your sellers and I bet they’re just as glad to know the folks coming in behind them. Good luck with all, and remember, as I told my wife when we moved into our home 20 years ago, you have the rest of your life to unpack!

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  4. How nice you were able to meet the sellers. Even nicer that you hit it off. Good luck with the "stationed" move. We did it that way the last time we moved. It was the easiest move we ever made.

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  5. All the best with your move. Neat story about meeting your sellers. They sound like good folks. Are they moving out of town? Perhaps, you'll be doing even more decluttering as you whittle through your treasures.

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  6. Oh my goodness I can't believe tomorrow is closing day already, I'm so excited for you and how nice that you met the sellers and you have things in common. It looks like you are all organised, I hope that the move goes smoothly and without any problems. I'm looking forward to hearing all about it and maybe some pictures of your new home. xx

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  7. Becki! I'm so out of touch!!! Oh wow on meeting the sellers and how sweet they were. I hope you got your Chinese takeout food!!! :)

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  8. This post puts a big smile on my face. Congratulations on closing on your new house! May it quickly become "home" to you as you make beautiful new memories within its walls. How lovely to have made a connection with the former owners! Also, congrats on your removal of 1,000+ things from your home! Applause!

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  9. Congratulations on the 1000+ items, what an achievement. I had to move some shelves yesterday which have 2 shelves of books and albums and I thought gee whiz these are heavy. You are lucky to have your move spread out. Here it all seems to happen within a couple of hours and we once moved in through a front door and the people were still moving their stuff out the backdoor because their mover had let them down. One of our boxes went straight in and out the backdoor to their house but they kindly brought it back when they discovered it. Your way sounds a lot less stressful. Well done again on your achievement in making space and how lovely to live in a home of people you now know and have a connection with.

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  10. Prayers all is going well, and y'all are settling in nicely.

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  11. Oh yes to packing yarn with books. Like you, I learned books make a box very heavy very quickly.

    It sounds like you have everything well in hand. I am impressed with all you have accomplished. And how great is it that the sellers of the house are such neat people!!!

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