Checking in from Chaos Central

Things have gotten a little crazy around here since we decided to put a "For Sale By Owner" sign in our front yard at the start of peak Christmas light touring season. About two months later, our home was sold. About a week after that, we'd made an offer on a new, bigger place in Des Moines. And now, here it is: We're moving the first weekend in April.

I actually don't hate packing and unpacking, but it's easier to say that now when we're still three weeks out and I haven't yet reached that flustered point of finding half a bottle of shampoo, a shoehorn, and a dusty antique pitcher in the back of a cabinet as the moving truck is being loaded.

One thing I'll say: Packing and moving has allowed me to indulge my borderline obsessive love of Rubbermaid containers. After Christmas, I got a whole slew of them on clearance just because they were green with red handles. There was that, and the fact that I already owned eleventy billion of the things. If it's stored in my basement, it must be in one of these containers. And labeled. With a matching label. With a consistent font size and alignment. And maybe some therapy.

Another fun thing about packing is finding stuff -- like, in the attic, this poster of various photos of my husband that was displayed at his high school graduation open house:



And, under some books on a dusty shelf, tickets from two of my favorite events I've attended:

I figure when you move you sort of get two chances to inventory and purge your belongings -- when you pack and when you unpack. Honestly, I haven't spent enough time in our new house to even have an opinion yet about what from my current house will work in the new one. So I've probably thrown some things in boxes that will end up being donated or sold. But at least I'll have some options, right?

As for leaving our current house and neighborhood, I've gone through the sad "yeah but we brought our son home from the hospital here" stage and have started moving into the "Gah, we don't have enough space here" affirmation of why we needed to move stage. But seriously, I'll miss our gingerbread-esque Beaverdale brick and the wonderful amenities of our neighborhood.

An absolutely great house for two people.

Here's hoping this will be the perfect place for three!

And now to un-stick the packing tape from my shoe.