Benford's Musings

I have my general plan for the move laid out, as you saw in my last post. As of right now, I have exactly 2 weeks until the actual move and I feel like I’m floundering in stuff. I’m doing my best to try not to pack things that I’ll need to sort once I get there by sorting and getting rid of things now. But I feel like these next 2 weeks will zoom by and I’ll once again be shoving things into boxes and onto the truck at the last possible moment.

There are quite a few things in a house that just must wait to be packed. My friend Stacy asked me today what percentage of the house do I have packed and I honestly couldn’t answer her. I’m truly not sure because I feel like I have a majority of the house still to pack up.

Tomorrow’s (Friday, July 1) task is to make a list and prioritize everything that will have to be done in the next two weeks. Everything from schedule utilities to be turned off here to packing a suitcase for Texas Bandmasters so I’m not scrambling to get that done and not knowing where anything is while it’s still in boxes. I am also having the 2nd and final phase of the Driveway Sale on Saturday morning so tomorrow will be a prep day for that extravaganza as well.

Something I haven’t said in any of these posts yet – this will be my 18th move in 38 years. Funny thing is, I feel like I don’t know what I’m doing. I guess because this is the biggest move I’ve had by myself yet. If you have any suggestions for the planning stage of the next two weeks, leave me a comment. Any suggestion is welcome!

Love you, mean it!
~C

I have a move plan that I hope will work. Thing is, I really can’t afford movers so I have to do this with the help of friends and family. I think this will be the easiest if we do it in 2 days because there’s just enough driving involved that trying to do it in 1 would kill me. I may not be old but I’m not young anymore, either; AND I’m moving smack in the middle of July (why can I never move in December??).

On Friday, July 15, start early (hopefully, I can pick up the truck the night of the 14th and not get charged for an extra day – I’ll have to tap into my band director-truck rental negotiating skills) to pack the last of the stuff and load the truck. It takes me just under 3 hours to drive to Huntsville on my own so I figure it’ll take us about 3 1/2 hours to caravan a truck and any personal vehicles there. I have a feeling that’ll realistically put us in Huntsville around 5 or 6 pm. I have a lot of stuff and I always have last minute stuff to pack, sorry.

Here’s why it’ll probably take 2 days – when we get there, we’ll be tired after hauling things into the truck then driving that whole way. So, I think we should grab things we have to unload (food, personal things for overnight), have some dinner and chill out for the evening. If we pack the truck just right and put a TV on towards the end, we could even pull that out and have some entertainment since cable should already be hooked up. 🙂

On Saturday, July 16, start early again (cooler temps!!) to unload the truck and take things to the storage unit (which I still have to arrange for). I am renting a truck from Penske and their nearest drop off point is about 30 minutes away so Ken and I are going to take the truck back and hopefully, he can stay an extra day to help me get the new place situated. He’s VERY good at that stuff.

Yes, I’m going to have to store things. A lot of what I have in the garage here is curriculum from my elementary teaching days that I either made or bought. I can’t really sell it in a garage sale and I didn’t get to offer it for sale to current RRISD elementary music teachers so I’m taking it with me. Besides, there will probably be someone who wants to teach elementary music who is graduating soon that might be interested in my stuff. Yes, some of the VHS tapes may be technologically outdated but many schools have plenty of VHS players (and will for a long time, I predict) so I think I can sell that stuff through my time in grad school. I also have a Christmas tree and decorations as well as Halloween decorations that won’t fit in the apartment as well as some other things I need time to go through and figure out what I’m going to do with it that I will work with at the storage unit. I know what this realistically means – I may need the show Clean Sweep to come make me do it but I’ve gone through this stuff once recently and I can go through it again. It’s a process to let go.

So that’s the plan, folks. I’ll need help both here and in Huntsville (I’m moving my washer & dryer so as much muscle as possible there will be nice). I have quite a bit of beer and food to pay you with. I also need to borrow at least one large ice chest so if you have one that I can borrow (I’ll be back through Austin the next weekend), I’d certainly appreciate the use of it. If you can help for any of this, leave a comment.

Love you, mean it!
~C