Stuff

There are good things, not so good things and there are bad things about having to pack up your entire house.

Bad things:

All the dust you find when you move furniture away from the walls or when you climb up to retrieve the decorations you put on high ledges and have never touched since.....like with a Swiffer on a looooong pole, of which I have one in my closet.

Pain. Neck, back, feets. So glad we stocked up on Advil.

We just cannot keep everything. Boo. I like my stuff. But the house we are moving into is a lot smaller than this one we were blessed to live in, and there will only be the three of us moving, so we don't need as much.

Not so good things:

It makes you grouchy.

Too much salt and calories in restaurant food that you have to eat because you packed most of your kitchen already.

The dog is a little whacked out by packing of any sort.

Saying goodbye to people you love. This cannot go on the bad list although it is not so good, because there are such great ways to stay closely connected these days. 

Good things:

Thinking about setting up a new house.

Blessing our grown kids and friend with stuff we've had to part with. I am even giving them their memory bags I've had in my closet since they were babies. I gave Bethany hers and she said, "Wait, we can have these?" I told her yes, they are full of things I kept for them, so they could remember things from their childhood. "But how will you remember us now!?" Sometimes she reminds me of when she was little all over again. She was full of those kinds of questions.

Finding that stash of chocolate I hid a few months ago. Actually I don't know if it was a few months, but it was long ago enough that I have no memory of ever putting it in there. (I can't say where because apparently it's a really good hiding place!)

Giving away stuff and lightening the load.

Yes, I know that was also on the bad things list, but it's both. It's hard.....and then it's freeing.  You never realize how bound you are to certain things in your life until someone asks you to give it away. And when you can give it away, you realize how much you can do without.

Freedom is good. (side note to my dear husband, this does not pertain to my grandmother's china and my pink depression glass, so let's don't go there)