Moving Saga - Clearing Out the House

Childhood lesson: Banana boxes are fantastic. 

Saturday, the packing began in earnest. I assembled shelves from work and the basement in the storage unit. I used banana boxes to scoop up stackables and throw them on said shelves.

It gave me something to do while Carrie started working on the kitchen. We had the dishwasher and laundry going all day as we worked on our respective projects. 

I took Shane to TKD and to Costco on errands (and for banana boxes!) to help get his energy out. He got to sit on electronics and was mostly oblivious until Carrie boxed up his mattress and broke down his bed. 

The latex fit in three boxes that I drove over shortly thereafter (It's fantastic having a storage unit less than half a mile from home!).

Shane will be sleeping in a sleeping bag on an air mattress for the rest of the week. Carrie's still deciding if we're going to keep our mattress or chuck it.

We made good progress, but there was still a lot to be done. Carrie packed and boxed, Shane stayed out of her way, and I moved stuff and consolidated the storage unit.

I would have made Shane do more, but Carrie's stress levels were high enough and it's summer.

Sunday was round 2 of the consolidation. Everything needed to get vertical or nest. I was proud of the nook I found to support/protect a lot the artwork and pictures.

Horse gear got dropped in the empty filing cabinet.

Boxes were stacked and shoved as far back as they could go. Tetris helped prepare me.

I'm also taking pictures for insurance purposes. We have a better lock this time, but it feels a little odd to keep throwing things in the unit that was robbed.

Speaking of the thieves, there are some small choices they made that boggle my mind. Why steal two out of four small tables of a set? Was that all you needed to fit a space? Or was it the stickers?

All of that stuff is going to the dump Thursday or Friday. Carrie's proclaimed the front porch as a trash gathering ground.

It was raining and misting all day Sunday, so there were some limits on what could be moved.

I focused my efforts on bringing all of our shelving units to help with future moving. Then I focused on the basement and things that could get a little wet.

Nova had left a fair amount of stuff we're going to have to pitch, but her area is almost all cleared out now.

Carrie packaged up almost all of our silverware and dishes and proclaimed us to be a plastic utensils and paper plates household only from now on (with one exception for coffee cups!).

She filled up the first wardrobe box with a bunch of winter, wedding, and assorted clothes from the guest bedroom. 

Carrie emptied all the drawers and cabinets in the upstairs bathroom, too.

It was another day of solid progress.

I managed to hide from the mirror in the last picture, but there was no hiding in this one.

Things are looking messy as we clear out, pack, and stage things.

Meanwhile, Shane rediscovered the Pokemon card game online.

He packed his suitcase for the summer and went with me to church, so he wasn't plugged in all day.

Monday, there was a break in the rain. We started to move "big stuff."

Carrie was stressed since we didn't do much moving in the morning. She took Shane to Alamo's summer movie camp and I spent about four hours working on an educational testing report should be my 'final project' for LMA (had to go in, drove the kid home, dropped off the kit at the HS, etc).

We got almost everything that would only fit in the truck, though. The dining room table has been downsized.

The rest of the large stuff has been moved to the main floor, so there are fewer stairs in our future.

We finished Monday with dinner at Chic-Fil-A, Lowe's, and a Staples run.

This would have been way harder if we had to be out of the house in May. God had a plan for how He wanted things to work out and I'm glad it was up to Him.