Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Moved, mostly


I hate moving, more than just about anything I have to do. I think it goes back to my childhood, when, courtesy of the US Army, I was moved 5 times from the time I was born until I was 3 years old. Until I was 25, the longest I lived in one place was 5½ years. To the best of my recollection, all of the army moves were done by professionals, right down to the packing, and several pieces of my furniture bear multiple identification stickers from those moves. I hate packing, and I kind of don't really like unpacking, but I do a little better at the unpacking than at the packing. Saturday, courtesy of some of the most awesome friends, and my 2 youngest nephews, all of the furniture, and 97% of the boxes got moved. Most of what was left is hanging clothes, and miscellaneous stuff, only about half to ¾ of which will get moved, the rest is just plain crapola, and will go in the garbage.
The cats have done very well, especially Trinity & Tegan, who were born in the house we just moved out of. I think the best part for them is that they don't get locked up in the bedroom at night, so if they want to go out on a perimeter inspection in the night, they can, at least as much of the perimeter as the walls will allow. There's only been one accident, and it was on the linoleum floor, so easy enough to clean up. They are still very much sleep with Mom cats, at least 3 of them are. Mollie, however, has decided to proclaim her independence, and she's not going to sleep in the bedroom unless it pleases her to do so, thankyouverymuch, a point she made last night by staying out in the living room on the ottoman.
We have less space overall than we had access to in the old place, but their confinement has gone from about 120sqft (our bedroom, which is where they HAD to spend their nights, and where they remained confined anytime I was gone overnight) to 790sqft, although part of that is closed off until I can get to sorting all those boxes and such. We now live in a 2 bedroom duplex with NO DOGS in our space. The bedrooms are a little bigger than the one we had, and they are also more square, while the previous one was Longer than it was wide. I chose the larger (by about a foot's width) of the 2 rooms simply because it IS larger, but I discovered on Saturday night that I chose even MORE wisely because the window in that room faces the back of the property, which is essentially an open field, whereas the other bedroom's window faces the parking lot on that end of the building (I am in the downstairs unit of a 2 story building), and while the security light is AWESOME to have lighting the parking lot, it also lights up that bedroom pretty well too.
I am quite pleased with the fact that I have finally pared down (9 years after Mom died) everything I own to that which I will actually USE, or I truly LOVE. Now if I can just find those organizational faeries to come get everything unpacked and organized, it will be fabulous! I am not pushing myself to get it all done at once. Last night I picked up a load of stuff (mostly clothes and my small garbage cans) from the old place on my way home from work. My goal for last night was to get the kitchen cleaned up (dirty dishes from the chili I cooked on Saturday to feed my moving crew, plus what hadn't gotten washed on Sunday & Monday), unload at least 1 moving container in the kitchen, and get all the clothes sorted. I managed to accomplish that PLUS clean out a drawer in my dresser that was holding random stuff instead of the clothes it could/should have! I also got the window security locks installed on all the windows except the one I can't get to in the spare bedroom (aka storage bedroom) because of all the boxes. Tonite I have several loads of laundry to get done (thank heavens for the inexpensive Laundromat a mile from home with 25-cent washers & reasonably priced dryers AND free wi-fi (since my home internet is STILL not working, tyvm AT&T for telling me lie after lie throughout the process of getting moved. If you'd been honest in the first place, I would already have everything I need & not be hatin' on you today) that I can use to get my internet fix, and get caught up on some of my FB apps that have suffered the last 5 days since I unplugged on Friday before the move… I figure that by the time I finish the laundry, I'll be ready to get home, hang what needs to dry in the bathroom, put the rest away, and empty another tote in the kitchen before I am ready for bed. At this rate, the kitchen will be put together by the weekend, but not a whole lot else. I just HAVE to finish it before Scarby starts, though I'd like to be able to say it's finished before NTIF, which still gives me 4 weeks to get it all done (aside from the monster in the spare bedroom, which will be reasonably done by the beginning of Scarby, if for no other reason than I'll need to be able to get all my garb organized & easy to choose from & pack for each weekend).

1 comment:

Michelle said...

Good luck getting unpacked. I detest moving and will NOT be moving from my current house hopefully ever. E-ver. I'm with you that it's the packing I hate. Once I'm there, I love to organize and get everything put away and fine the new good homes for my stuff. Here's hoping you finish yours within your time limit.