The Adentures of Moving

I feel like I am on a roller coaster that never ends...sometimes it's all uphill, but then I have moments where I really do feel okay. After my horrible breakdown, I was doing alright until I went to the Daisy sleepover on Friday. There were 12 Daisies and 10 moms and as we were all laying there going to sleep, I just got so sad. I thought of these sweet girls and their moms and how different we all are, but what a fun year we've had, and it was just one of the many things I'm leaving.I have spent countless hours going through every corner, cabinet, closet, and counter throwing out stuff, donating stuff and packing up personal stuff that makes my house to "personal" or "cluttery" for potential buyers. It's crazy. I'm not a pack-rat. I take at least two bags to Goodwill a month, usually more. However, I just don't want to move with anything that I don't need/want. It was great to unload, but I just couldn't believe the junk we had. Seriously, if you think you might move at anytime in your life, start unloading now. I mean, I had FOUR CRATES of college papers, folders and text books that haven't been opened since 1996. Why was I hanging on to them?...and that's just one example. Here is my garage. I have a pick-up scheduled for Friday. Meanwhile, we can't even get a car into the garage. This doesn't count the overflowing garbage and nine bags full of garbage. I didn't even dare get rid of the grill or college crates this week...it's just too much junk for those poor garbage men to unload in one week.

I didn't even know what a "stager" was until one came to my house. I think I want that job. She walks around and takes down things and moves things and then tells you all the big stuff you need to do before she comes back. The major thing? The playroom. She said, "I know it's organized. I can see baskets for each item...HOWEVER, the walls are bright pink and blue and there is SO MUCH STUFF in there that it simply needs to be unloaded, painted and the guest bedroom needs to be moved in there instead. Choose a few toys to put in the old guest bedroom, but show off the big room as a guest room/home office.

So, this is how I spent Mother's Day. Man, it was so much work. However, I took Christy's advice (the expert on moving cousin of mine whose husband is in the military) and tried to make it fun for the kids. I mean, that has to be a little traumatic...painting over their beloved playroom walls. The girls did a great job with the primer. However, as I was washing out the primer brushes to get going on the color, they had gone back and fingerpainted their names in the wall. Dave had to sand it down...what a mess. They were banned from the playroom after that.

And this was the result...a big difference. I wish you could have seen it before, but I didn't take photos.

And another lesson learned...I got rid of 3/4 of their toys...probably 1/4 of that was donated and the rest is stored in a crawl space for the move. However, they spent every second up there from the time Amelia got home from school until it was time to go to GS tonight. They didn't get so overwhelmed with having so much to play with. They found things that I don't think they even knew they had. Now I don't even want to move with anything in the crawl space!

So this is hard, really hard, but the house is almost ready to go...the computer needs to move up to the bonus room for a "home office" instead of the easy-access location in the sitting room by the kitchen. Apparently, this area had become a "catch-all" according to the stager. Then I need to move the piano to the other wall and move in a chair and ottoman and lamp, and we're done.

Now, if only the house will sell...and this roller coaster will come to an end.