I've learned several lessons during this moving process. Hopefully I can help out mankind.
1. Collect boxes early. Keep collecting. Become a box hoarder. And then you think you have a sufficient stash, double that.
2. Color code boxes with various duct tapes from Dollar Tree.
3. Write the contents on the outside of the box before sealing instead of immediately after. Just the process of working the packing tape dispenser will erase all content memory from your weary mind.
4. Don't pack with children present. Ever. It's like brushing your teeth while eating Oreos.
5. Less is more. The more you throw away and donate, the less you have to pack and thus unpack.
6. Remember Sonic sells half-price milkshakes after 8pm ifyou're lucky enough to be packing during the summer. They're necessary for sanity breaks.
7. Begin packing either two months or two weeks before moving. Your last minute list will be equal either way.
8. Sometimes taking the kids to the splash park is the most effective packing secret. You might not make progress, but at least your kids won't digress the situation just by their mere presence in a house half-way packed.
9. Kids and half-packed houses cannot coexist.
10. Make friends with someone who owns a truck.
11. Hire movers. They're worth every penny. Feed them pizza at lunch and they just might do extras like hook up your washer and dryer. But don't trust their washer hook up skills. Doing so just might flood your apartment kitchen. Just sayin for the record...
12. Strategically place your child's pink doll house where a 250 pound mover will see it and carry it out to the truck. It'll give you a much needed stess reducing laugh.
13. Remember that packing is an OCD suffer's worst nightmare.
14. Never place cherished framed pictues delicately balanced on the top of Rubbermaid bins piled ceiling-high. You just never know when the bottom bin will give way and the whole thing will come crashing down. Again, just sayin...
15. Try to RELAX and remember this too shall pass. And remind yourself how awesomely rewarded you'll be when you move into your dream house and will be super-cleaned out and super-organized in the process.
16. Tell yourself: it's all worth it! Every bit!!
Showing posts with label Moving. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Moving. Show all posts
Friday, July 3, 2015
Wednesday, July 1, 2015
Moving and Moving On
Aag! A whole month since I've blogged! Let's see, what has transpired in the last month for the Gozas? Well, we accepted an offer on our house (in May actually...six days after the sign went up in the yard), we packed half our house for storage and half for an apartment, dealt with all the dealings in closing on a house, dealt with all the dealings in building a house, moved out of a house, moved into an apartment, and continued to keep up our "normal" summer schedule.
It's been such a whirlwind of activity and deadlines and to-do lists and situations that I'm quite exhausted and have at many times been overwhelmed. If I've learned one thing about moving, it's that I hope this is the last time I have to do it for a looooong while!
In the midst of all the business I had several breakdowns (caused by OCD flare ups and hives breakouts from all the stress and to do lists). Some days I could reflect on this closing chapter in our lives, other days I was desperately treading water to keep my head above it all. The first moment I actually had to really stop and reflect and process was when I was alone in an empty house making the last carload of random stuff to the apartment. The gravity of it all crashed down onto me.
I sat down on the hearth, the same place I remember sitting thirteen years prior when my twenty-something self was anticipating this new house. I looked around the same empty den that held so much promise and future the day we bought the house. My mind began reflecting on so much that had changed in a little over a decade that we lived inside these walls. Not only am I now a thirty-something starting to tip the scales toward my next milestone birthday, I only hope I'm wiser and more grounded in who I am.
Some changes are obvious: two children, new jobs down career paths. But then my mind flooded with countless little changes. I remembered the day we painted this room, the day we laid these wood floors, the day Gabe knocked out the light globe on the ceiling fan with his practice golf swing, and all the upgrades to the house. In fact, this house looks very different now than it did thirteen years ago, constantly evolving. Such is life. Always changing, always moving on, constantly evolving. Some changes are sudden and drastic, some change slowly over time and become almost unnoticed til moments like these.
And suddenly I became overwhelmed. Just the sheer pace of life left me feeling as though caught in a current (Heck, just the last few weeks and the quickness of the house sale left my mind spinning). The older I get the more I understand my grandparents' remarks about the shortness of life. I felt a rush of anxiety mixed with peace if that makes sense. Anxiety in the way life seems to flash by often times. Peace took over the anxiety at the thought of all the memories that are treasured up now that I've experienced more life. Life is sweet, precious and fleeting. I never felt it more clearly than in that moment.
I pictued my girls running around the corners as they've done countless times. And I realized they never would again do so, at least not these particular corners. But one day they'll be grown, and it won't be the corners themselves that change (whew, momentary sense of peace...it's just brick and mortar...this time). But the day is coming all too fast when they'll be grown and it'll be theirselves that have changed and not merely a house. Just as this house is gone from our lives now, one day they'll move on to their own adult lives. They'll turn their last corner and be gone.
Just as my almost three-year-old is not quite sure how all these massive events of moving will play out, she trusts her mama and daddy and eagerly follows. I'm not sure of what will come, put I pray to continue with a child-like faith.
I realized three ah-ha moment thoughts while sitting on that familiar hearth that in two more days would be a memory.
A house is just a house, but a heart makes it a home.
Memories get packed up and moved with you right along with your stuff; they don't get left behind.
Life moves fast, so keep up and savor.
I could only think of one appropriate (well two) responses in that moment. Tears flowing, I thanked God for His faithfulness and goodness, while trusting His promises. Secondly, I wiped my tears, stood up, grabbed my purse and simply and quickly walked out the door, pulling it shut behind me, ready to move on to the next moment that surely as the tide is rushing in.
It's all I knew to do.
It's been such a whirlwind of activity and deadlines and to-do lists and situations that I'm quite exhausted and have at many times been overwhelmed. If I've learned one thing about moving, it's that I hope this is the last time I have to do it for a looooong while!
In the midst of all the business I had several breakdowns (caused by OCD flare ups and hives breakouts from all the stress and to do lists). Some days I could reflect on this closing chapter in our lives, other days I was desperately treading water to keep my head above it all. The first moment I actually had to really stop and reflect and process was when I was alone in an empty house making the last carload of random stuff to the apartment. The gravity of it all crashed down onto me.
I sat down on the hearth, the same place I remember sitting thirteen years prior when my twenty-something self was anticipating this new house. I looked around the same empty den that held so much promise and future the day we bought the house. My mind began reflecting on so much that had changed in a little over a decade that we lived inside these walls. Not only am I now a thirty-something starting to tip the scales toward my next milestone birthday, I only hope I'm wiser and more grounded in who I am.
Some changes are obvious: two children, new jobs down career paths. But then my mind flooded with countless little changes. I remembered the day we painted this room, the day we laid these wood floors, the day Gabe knocked out the light globe on the ceiling fan with his practice golf swing, and all the upgrades to the house. In fact, this house looks very different now than it did thirteen years ago, constantly evolving. Such is life. Always changing, always moving on, constantly evolving. Some changes are sudden and drastic, some change slowly over time and become almost unnoticed til moments like these.
And suddenly I became overwhelmed. Just the sheer pace of life left me feeling as though caught in a current (Heck, just the last few weeks and the quickness of the house sale left my mind spinning). The older I get the more I understand my grandparents' remarks about the shortness of life. I felt a rush of anxiety mixed with peace if that makes sense. Anxiety in the way life seems to flash by often times. Peace took over the anxiety at the thought of all the memories that are treasured up now that I've experienced more life. Life is sweet, precious and fleeting. I never felt it more clearly than in that moment.
I pictued my girls running around the corners as they've done countless times. And I realized they never would again do so, at least not these particular corners. But one day they'll be grown, and it won't be the corners themselves that change (whew, momentary sense of peace...it's just brick and mortar...this time). But the day is coming all too fast when they'll be grown and it'll be theirselves that have changed and not merely a house. Just as this house is gone from our lives now, one day they'll move on to their own adult lives. They'll turn their last corner and be gone.
Just as my almost three-year-old is not quite sure how all these massive events of moving will play out, she trusts her mama and daddy and eagerly follows. I'm not sure of what will come, put I pray to continue with a child-like faith.
I realized three ah-ha moment thoughts while sitting on that familiar hearth that in two more days would be a memory.
A house is just a house, but a heart makes it a home.
Memories get packed up and moved with you right along with your stuff; they don't get left behind.
Life moves fast, so keep up and savor.
I could only think of one appropriate (well two) responses in that moment. Tears flowing, I thanked God for His faithfulness and goodness, while trusting His promises. Secondly, I wiped my tears, stood up, grabbed my purse and simply and quickly walked out the door, pulling it shut behind me, ready to move on to the next moment that surely as the tide is rushing in.
It's all I knew to do.
Monday, May 4, 2015
And So It Begins...Moving!
After several years of waiting for God's timing, we've made the decision it's time to SELL our house and BUILD another!
First item on agenda...finish architecture plans...CHECK
Second item on agenda...stage the house. (not so easily checked off the list!)
And the first order of business for staging is to clear out all the stuff that has made us outgrow this house! Packing up stuff is bittersweet for me. Though my OCD loves order and neatness, it's still difficult to pack up or get rid of all the stuff. I keep reminding myself it's the memories attached to the stuff, not the stuff itself. I'm still holding on to the memories, but trying to bring "less is more" into our everyday lives.
And if this pile for storage is indicative of the entire moving process ahead of us, I'm gonna be wiped out by the time it's all done. But, oh, how worth it all it'll be!
Yipes!
And Sanford and Son tackled the garage storage closet one weekend. This pile here...
But, seriously, back to the not-so-fun, yet hilarious in the process, staging agenda. Hence our "oceanfront" storage unit. Notice Gabe lifting the hatch.
And more fun was the décor and "de-person-ifying" of the house. Down came all the family pictures.
Except for these two of the girls. And I'm really only posting these pictures for my own sake so I can have documentation of how our house last looked before we moved. After all, it's been our home for 13 years!
Baaack to work, painting ALL cabinets, trim and almost all doorframes in the house.
Will all our hard work pay off????.........
First item on agenda...finish architecture plans...CHECK
Second item on agenda...stage the house. (not so easily checked off the list!)
And the first order of business for staging is to clear out all the stuff that has made us outgrow this house! Packing up stuff is bittersweet for me. Though my OCD loves order and neatness, it's still difficult to pack up or get rid of all the stuff. I keep reminding myself it's the memories attached to the stuff, not the stuff itself. I'm still holding on to the memories, but trying to bring "less is more" into our everyday lives.
And if this pile for storage is indicative of the entire moving process ahead of us, I'm gonna be wiped out by the time it's all done. But, oh, how worth it all it'll be!
Yipes!
And Sanford and Son tackled the garage storage closet one weekend. This pile here...
Became THIS....
and on the count of three...1...2...3...
BIG COLLECTIVE SIGH OF HAPPY RELIEF "AHHHHHHHH"...
Oh be still my fluttering OCD heart!
But, seriously, back to the not-so-fun, yet hilarious in the process, staging agenda. Hence our "oceanfront" storage unit. Notice Gabe lifting the hatch.
And more fun was the décor and "de-person-ifying" of the house. Down came all the family pictures.
Except for these two of the girls. And I'm really only posting these pictures for my own sake so I can have documentation of how our house last looked before we moved. After all, it's been our home for 13 years!
Baaack to work, painting ALL cabinets, trim and almost all doorframes in the house.
Will all our hard work pay off????.........
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