I’ve posted the background over the last few days, here and here; now comes the story:

We decided to downsize and move into an apartment.  I haven’t lived in one since, oh, 1989, and never in a big complex – you know, one with pools, weight room, clubhouse, tennis courts, etc.  The one we picked has a lake, too.  Should be interesting.  Of course, it does have washer/dryer hook-ups, one of my requirements; haven’t used a Laundromat since about 1985.  Our new place, however, requires stackables – which means, of course, washing about three items per load.  Sigh.

Whenever we’ve moved, we’ve had a system of packing.  First, we start with all the stuff we can find that we want to get rid of – this time, since we’re downsizing as well, I have a good excuse to get rid of things I’m just tired of, like our bed.  I can deal with just a metal frame, till I find something I like better.  So we’ve listed lots of things for sale, and thrown out some others, and I’ve already gone through all those boxes of “memorabilia”.  Even found some things that my daughter was supposed to have taken to her own place, three years ago.  Grrrr.

And, big news, I finished shredding!  Two boxes of papers, receipts, etc., two years’ worth.  I am so utterly sick of that cheapo shredder – but it did the job, and I only had to un-jam it twenty times or so.

Anyway, now we’re on the walls.  No, not climbing them, packing up whatever is hanging on them; that, and any knick-knacks that are still lying around.  So my house isn’t “pretty” right now, no big deal.  This might take a day, or even half. 

My son was tasked today with getting rid of stuff in his room.  First, he brought out the old X-Box, the one my husband took apart three times to make it work again, and which we now use for parts.  I took one look and handed it over to let my husband make that call; check another thing off my list.  Son also brought me a box of rocks.

My kids seem to have a thing for rocks.  My daughter had a boxful that we moved from Missouri to Colorado to another house in Colorado (’cause Colorado doesn’t have any flippin’ rocks, ya know) to Texas.  And twice more.  We finally ditched them.  My son, however, thankfully, has no such attachment.  He found the box, the contents of which he’s collected since we’ve been in this house, and took out one arrowhead and told me to dump the rest.  Great kid!

My husband is not a fan of moving rocks.  Or books, for that matter.  I did point out, a year or so ago, that if I had, say, a Kindle, moving would be a lot easier in that respect…. 

After the walls and knick-knacks are finished, we’ll move on to a very broad category of “stuff we can live without for a few weeks”.  I’ll pack up a lot of the kitchen, the linen closets, out-of-season clothes, movies, CDs, DVDs; my son will pack up toys, Legos, miscellaneous stuff, Legos, his desk, Legos, and more Legos.  Yes, we have a lot.  We graduated to them after the train phase.  Oh, we have a lot of those too – they multiply at night, when everyone else is sleeping. 

And we’ll be having some company in the coming weeks – who fortunately never stay with us, so it’s all good.  In fact, they may not even make it over here, we might have to just meet someplace else.  No worries.  But, just in case, my house does have to be clean – and for showing purposes too, of course.

Which is another issue.  I first emailed the property management company on June 11, giving 30 days’ notice, and asked what we needed to do prior to vacating; I also asked if we could terminate on July 18, which is earlier than the lease is up but more than 30 days’ notice.

A week later, I wrote him again.  This time he answered, sort of – said “sounds good, let me know when I can show the house”.  I’m not too worried about this part because, another week later, he has yet to list it as available.  I still don’t know what he wants us to do, like carpets, cleaning, windows, etc.  Of course, there are things we have to do, or rather, my husband has to do: fix the basement door that the dog scratched, fix the screen door that the cat tore up.  Plus the usual move-out cleaning.  Guess owning a cleaning business, a few years or so ago, comes in handy now, huh?

So, we’ll muddle through.  If I can get over this head cold in a reasonable amount of time, that is.  Never rains but it pours, right?  Figures.  I do have a bit of energy at the moment, so I better get in gear…M minus  three weeks!