Nights seem to be shorter these days. Periods of wakefulness are full of planning: efficient ways to pack boxes, stuff to get rid of, places to go, people to see, appointments to make, things to do.Yesterday I tackled our taxes and got all the information assembled for our tax preparer. Last night while Pat was at basketball, I took all the house information he had pulled from the files, (woodstove booklet, microwave, oven, dishwasher, furnace, etc...as well as area points of interest) and filed these in an accordian file for D. and L.
I cleaned out the rest of our files and pitched a bunch of paper. We had a mover give us an estimate last week. He gave me a new perspective on what we have accumulated. Moving our stuff is costing $.50 a pound. Do I want to save old magazine articles containing decorating or gardening ideas for something I might be able to maybe do some day? The answer is no. He encouraged us to donate any canned goods we have left to the food pantry (great idea!). He asked if that one pound can of tomatoes (of course today's one pound can of tomatoes weighs 14 and 1/2 ounces - a pet peeve of mine) that I got for $.33 was worth paying $.50 to move. The answer is no.
With two groups of guys arriving in the next month - Daniel and some college friends during winter break and Nate and several snow boarding buddies in a few weeks- I don't think leftover groceries will be a problem. But still, these are good things to keep in mind.
When are we moving? Somewhere between the beginning of April and the middle of May. In the meantime we need to:
- get our dental work done
- get some maintenance work done on the car
- go to Minneapolis ( I'll be there Thursday through Saturday of this week)
- go to Tennessee and BUY A HOUSE
- PACK
- go to my last choir practice and turn in music
- say good by to folks at the food pantry
- plan the Awana awards dinner
- plan menus around the contents of my kitchen shelves for both Daniel's and Nathan's groups
- HAVE A GRANDBABY, well Kristi is taking care of the 'having the baby' part, my job will be to get to Iowa as soon as I can after the first contraction
I would love to get out for a cup of tea with all of my local friends, but I don't think that will be feasible given our schedule.
How about this? Stop by. I've got plenty of tea here (help me drink it all before we move). You may want to call first to make sure I'm not in TN, or MN or IA or the dentist's chair. I'd love to sit and chat with each of you.
Especially if you bring boxes and bubble wrap and know how to use them. We've got to get packin'!
8 comments:
Hi Cheri,
Congratulations on the sale of your house and best of luck as your work through your ttd list. What a bittersweet time for you as you move forward to a new phase of life and to a new home; preparing to leave the precious environment that has been your home; and preparing to greet your new grandbaby. I can tell you from recent experience that becoming a grandparent is awesome! Hope all goes very smoothly for you.
Kathee
Cheri, Do you have a scanner? If some of those magazine articles with great ideas are hard to part with, you could scan them and save them on a disk or to your computer. Or, if you are too busy, I have a great scanner here and would gladly do that for you. Let me know! Happy packing!
Karen P.
I knew your mind would be going a mile a minute. This is going to be so much fun though. You are going to have a ball.
Choosing a new home, making new friends, finding a new church. Such a grand adventure!!
Enjoy the ride!
By the way, all those articles and all the info you want to "save" can probably be called up on your computer in seconds. It is all out there and easy to find. Paper really is becoming obsolete.
Cheri, Another thought for you. You'll arrive in TN in time to get a garden in. You can unpack all summer, get that garden going girl! Karen P.
I'm trying to figure out why I am surprised you will be moving!!! Your house has been for sale for some time and you've been praying. God is faithful to meet our every need.....wow, so now it is happening.
Here's my favorite tip for packing boxes when moving (or storing). Keep a 3x5 card on each box listing the contents and number - remember to number the box too! If you need to find something from one of those boxes before you unpack everything you will know what box to look for. I have found this to be extremely helpful.
Happy packing!
Wow! Moving from MN to TN is a big change! Why the move? Since I'm new to your blog maybe I missed it. And what will you call your blog when you're in TN?
Cheri:
When we moved from there to here 15+ years ago, I devised the following system: I gave each room in the new house a number. As we packed we put the room numbers on each box, with the box number for that room. (Let's say the living room was #1, so it would be 1-1, 1-2, etc. And the second number doesn't have to be near the main number, just somewhere you can know where to look for it.) It didn't matter where the item had come from; what as important was the room it would be going to.
I kept a list for my inventory purposes of what was in each box -- as general or specific as needed. I used a notebook that was at my side or in a safe place at all times.
This worked well for us, as we had volunteers unloading the boxes. So you'd have to think if it would help the pro's, too. We put sheets of paper w/ each number on the appropriate doors. The truck was unloaded in record time, and I knew where to look for something by consulting my list of contents.
It also saves time, effort and marker ink, so you don't have to write "Kitchen" on however many boxes you have.
Just a thought, in case it's helpful.
KJH
Thanks so much for all the helpful tips and the well-wishes ladies!
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