We last left off with the invitation and acceptance of helpers to pack. The kitty-cat wandered in to see if we were really moving; cats know! So, for everyone’s entertainment during the worst part of moving, packing, he’ll provide levity.

What’s going on in there?

The first two pals came eagerly and wanted to get the details of this crazy news. Packing sure is a lot more fun with friends. As silly as it sounds, seeing how an entire book shelf could be packed in an hour made the process seem less intimidating. We built a lot of boxes too which takes time. It may not seem like much is happening, but prebuilt boxes facilitate the packing process. I didn’t need more distractions; I knew that about myself at this point.

Inspector OJ.

Over the course of eight days, friends floated in and out to pack. On a Friday at 4, six buddies came to pack for an hour and then happy hour with me. One of those buddies, I could have hugged to pieces. She packed an entire closet of photos, keepsakes, and blankets, no questions. She figured the photos would slow me down, so she boxed them for me. Smart! Every one of them helped in some way if only just to keep me company. You can bet I asked the photo-boxer back again.

The packing party turned into a dinner party with hubbies. My hubby threw together some carnitas tacos and the party closed down around 10 pm. That part of packing was fun.

After that, as the looming day the moving truck would arrive, the stress went up. I woke up to packing and went to bed packing. It’s like college finals, cramming in the eleventh hour. We purged, purged, purged. One of my girlfriends made at least four trips to Goodwill for us so I could keep packing. Thank goodness! I sold as much as I could on a neighborhood Facebook group. Cute dishes, a generator, frames, and backpacks sold easily. Big furniture we donated to an Afghani refugee organization through an elderly neighbor Tony befriended.

Items we couldn’t sell or donate we literally put out on the curb and most of it was picked up. When Hubby put out an empty filing cabinet on the curb, I thought he was nuts.

“Who wants a metal filing cabinet when there’s storage in the cloud?”

We were pleasantly surprised, frequently. Hubby put out gardening supplies such as fencing, burlap, and frost blankets. No sooner had he put them out and a lady pulled up and asked if they were for free. She was building a vertical garden for a college-class project. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. You just never know! Our sofa sleeper loveseat we couldn’t sell or donate, was hauled off our driveway in the dark of night by high schoolers we’re told.

If our version of curbside pick-up didn’t work, we piled it on to the hauling pile What started as a 4X2 foot mound, grew to 6X6 feet. A lot of junk gets stuffed away into dark corners and cabinets and stays there until an impending move. We added two grills to the trash heap. The haulers whisked it away in about ten minutes for $350. It was worth every penny.

Our movers came a day early to move out the furniture and boxed items. I highly recommend a two-day pick-up. The movers can help figure out how to pack odd-shaped items such as a heavy glass lamp or the coveted glass press pot for coffee. I learned to pack things up in layers of paper, like a big wad, and stack it into a box. The plain newspaper, as in no print, is the best. It’s more flexible for better cushion. You pay for it, but it’s good insurance against breakage. We still haven’t unpacked, so tbd.

And just like that, it’s all gone.:-(

We loved our movers so much that we hugged them goodbye. All of our things were packed into a bigger van that made its way across the country to Raleigh, NC before we ever stepped foot into the state, as in ever.

Yep, the kicker in all of this: we made a sight-unseen decision to move to a place we only read about on the internet.

Yeah, I know. Planners and smart people don’t do rash things like that, but here we are. This is where the magic paved the way for us and removed all practical thinking.