Once my time was completed at PI, I was able to figure out how to take some time off before starting out at Specialized. So I had four weeks between my end date and new start date to prep the house for our move and make final preparations for my Half IronMan.
The first day was really the only one that I totally took for myself. I spent several hours at the pool, lounging on the back patio and the couch, reading, "The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up" by Marie Kondo. My sister had just sent a copy of it to me for my birthday, and it was a method she was swearing by as she started to declutter her own house. I had already heard about the basic idea in the book from her, but reading through the full text gave me that spark of inspiration I needed to begin in our house.
Day two was the beginning of a 10 day process to declutter this place. I was skeptical that I'd have much to get rid of, as I feel like we purge bags to Good Will every time we move (which is a lot). But as I got started, I realized that I was hoarding ridiculous things all over the house. Starting with my clothes, and eventually ending in the garage, I purged at least 25 full 30-gallon garbage bags of belongings. Some of it was genuine trash, while most of it was able to be donated to the local thrift store.
I tried to sell what I could, but was super unsuccessful with this endeavor. After trips to Clothes Mentor, Plato's Closet, Play it Again Sports, 2nd Time Sports, 2nd & Charles and Read & Black Books, I only sold a few items and only came out $100 richer. All of the driving around with bags of items to sell, and waiting around for the stores to assess my belongings just didn't seem worth it. I spent two full days running all over town, and I think I'll just send it all to the donation pile next time.
Letgo and Craig's List also proved to be super frustrating this time around. We were certain that someone would want our fully functional 42" flat screen TV, but nobody believed that it actually worked! I had one person say they would come pick it up one night, but of course he never showed (and then he had the nerve to contact me again a week later to see if it was still available to him). So the TV and several other furniture items were donated as well. (I'm pretty sure the thrift store truck driver just got a new TV... haha).
There are only a couple of items left on my list, and I'm at least partially into the sale of each. I sold a couple items on ebay, and I'm still awaiting payment before I can ship them out. But that should hopefully be finished in the next week. And last but not least, we have an appraisal set up for our piano next Friday. The appraisal will be done by the owner of a piano consignment shop, so I'm really hoping that he will then be able to take it and sell it for us. If not, I'm not really sure what the heck we're going to do about that one... So cross your fingers for us there!
I'll admit that the house feels kind of bare. After I purged all those bags of belongings, we also packed up as much as we could of the house, starting to stack boxes in the basement for the final move. The house is left with items that keep it staged for showings and keep it habitable for the hubs.
We head out to California tomorrow, and I am ready to get back to work. It has been an exhausting four weeks of purging, packing, racing, traveling and then prepping for my initial move. I'll be in a hotel for the first 30 days, and then we'll see where we end up! It will be hard being apart for the first month, and I hope that is all we have to spend in different states. In the mean time, I'll dive into the new job and we'll keep saying our prayers that the house sells soon.
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