Moving

Moving a household … especially one that has taken 27 years to establish and entrench so very completely in the place where it is … is no easy feat.

I hate moving. Pure and simple. It’s why we haven’t done it much. Bernd hates moving too.

The house we have lived in all these years is a mere 1600 square feet. I say mere because (not counting the trend toward ridiculously small houses) the main trend over the years has been to build bigger and bigger homes. The national average for homes today is something like 2,322 square feet. But when you consider that we have a full basement under our house with about 400 square feet of it finished, you then have the problem of having about 3,200 square feet of shi … uh, stuff to move.

I won’t say we are hoarders, but we’ve saved a lot of stuff over the years. Some of that is empty boxes and they are coming in really handy right now. But a fair amount of it is stuff we never use (that’s why it’s in the basement) and probably should have let go of long ago. I’ve let go of some of it, but not nearly enough. I have serious doubts about finding places for all of it in our new house.

We’ve taken a lot of stuff to Goodwill. We’ve put some stuff out by the street for people to take if they need it. Mostly it all gets taken. And we tossed out probably a volume equal to all that we have given away … maybe more. And we have still more stuff to take to Goodwill or put out by the street. I called Habitat for Humanity to see if they would come pick up some of it: an electric clothes dryer, a Quoizel lamp, a digital keyboard, a telescope, a queen bed frame, two 30″ stereo speakers and a window air conditioner plus a few smaller items. They wanted pictures of it all in order to decide if they wanted any of it. I decided I didn’t have the time for that. So quite probably, the smaller items will be put in our car and taken to Goodwill. The larger items will be put out by the street and will probably disappear in a day or two. Oh, and the guy that came to fix the windshield in my Jeep took some of it. Yay!

Moving, especially if you are going a long distance, really makes you re-evaluate what you actually need and what you can possibly live without. I am finding that there is a lot that we can live without. It’s liberating but also a little sad. I love our square glass dining room table with its four comfy, armed chairs and it’s probably not going to fit in the new house. I was unable to talk Bernd into not taking it, however. I’m exploring options like a fold down table that attaches to the wall. Then when we don’t need the table we can use the small space as a sitting area.

I’d like to sell the glass table while we are still here and not have to move it. But possibly he is thinking that then we won’t have anywhere to put jigsaw puzzles together. He’d be right about that. Except if we set up a folding table in the den. That just might work.

Moving is all about change. Especially when you are completely leaving the area you’ve lived in for the last 27 years. I don’t do change well, but I’ve also wanted a change for some time now. Go figure.

But when you take all the same stuff with you, how much change do you actually accomplish. Okay, sure, it will be arranged differently in the new house … maybe. But it’s still all the same stuff. I’ll still be the same me. I’ll still want all the same things I’ve always wanted. Beggars the question:  Why move?

Lots of reasons really: cleaner air, lower population density, small town atmosphere, friendly people who are not simply in a hurry all the time, cooler summers, money in the bank, and much more. And the rock hounding in Wyoming is at least as good if not better than here in Arizona. They have nephrite jade in Wyoming! And turns out the area where it is found is not all that distant to where we will be living. How exciting is that!

There is no Costco where we are going. I know, oh the horror, right? The nearest Costcos are in Idaho and Colorado. There is no Home Depot or Lowes. There are no major department stores. And we are finding that we are just fine with that. Although, just yesterday Bernd confessed that he was going to miss Costco. I figure we’ll do just fine without it. Although the convenience of the sweet kale chopped salad that they sell in bigger bags than you can get anywhere else at a price that can’t be beat will be missed. I’ll just have to make my own chopped salad. I can do it. Really.

We are counting down to the close of both escrows. They will happen first for the sale of our house and then the next day for purchase of our new home. We still have much to pack, but a lot of it cannot be packed until the day the moving van is loaded. So right now we are in a holding pattern of sorts; planning supplies and cooking utensils around what we’ll need for a few days in the new house before the moving van arrives and what we can do without, trying to figure out just how much stuff we can cram into both our cars and a rooftop cargo carrier and still have room for little Maddie in my car, and all that sort of thing.

We are spending the time making sure both our cars are up to the trip. We are getting utilities, endings and beginnings, arranged in both places. We’ve established new homeowner’s and automobile insurances.

Now we just have to hang in there, living in a house that is bare except for the multitude of boxes sitting everywhere. There is no art on the walls. Nail holes have been patched and painted. There are no little knick-knacks sitting around. Cupboards, cabinets and closets are being emptied. Throw pillows are being packed and the house seems less and less like ours every day. I figure that’s a good thing. It should make the final letting go easier. Hopefully.