When we relocated here for my husband’s new job, we did so in a matter of a few months.
In looking at Houston and the surrounding areas on a map, we really had no ideas about what would be a good neighborhood until my husband came down a month ahead and scouted places. I stayed behind to pack.
He e-mailed me photos and stats of the apartments he found and we spent minutes on the phone picking the place we would live for the next year. We are very happy in the apartment we’ve found and the cramped space is easier tolerated knowing we’re going to try and find a bigger place to buy when our lease is up.
It was a cleansing experience to move. We found boxes in our basement that we hadn’t opened from when we moved in twelve years before; those items didn’t make the trip to Texas. In fact we just went through the house knowing the apartment would be 1/5th the size of our house, and picked the furniture, toys, art and books we couldn’t possibly live without and that’s what we packed. We left the rest in the house for an auctioneer to sell and mail us a check later. Though we still haven’t been able to unpack everything we brought, we know we will in our next place. The problem now is what to do at the holidays.
We already have more things than space. Paring down made us realize how many things we don’t need. It was a sobering and embarrassing experience to clean out twelve years of clutter and realize exactly how much money we spent on items we never used and ended up auctioning for pennies or plain giving away.
It’s easier to keep the place picked up now, and when I had eight pair of scissors it was much harder to find any one of them then than it is now that I have two pair and they are always where they belong. Even Kiddo is happier to play with the few quality toys she’s had the room to rediscover instead of wallowing knee deep in a sea of pink plastic plastic.
It’s got me thinking about what we'll ask Santa to bring this year, swim lessons? Water park tickets? Passes to the children’s museum? Whatever it is, I hope it’s not something I’ll have to pack when we move again.