It continues

As always, you never know how much you’ve accumulated until it’s time for you to move. Then it becomes clear that you have a lot more than you remember having. Books that have somehow fallen somewhere into the temporary alternate universe only to surface years later. All kinds of I’ll deal with it later objects that never get dealt with. Gifts, tchotchkes and collectibles that pile up on bookshelves. Things you’ve forgotten you bought and had been looking for. Clothing and other items you’ve used once or twice then forgotten about as they sink further into the back reaches of the closet. And being a writer, there are always, always, hundreds of blank or near-blank notebooks and notepads and unused pens that you’ve been meaning to use for ages.

And when you’ve got a set (or a planned and hopefully set in stone) moving date, it occurs to you that packing isn’t going to be a day long thing as you’d hoped, but a weeks long event that needs order and planning, hundreds of boxes, and loads of tape, Sharpies and packing paper. You start playing 5D chess: you want to move this so you can uncover that which is on top of those things that you know you don’t want and need to sort into recycling, donation or trash. And because you’ve (hopefully) learned your lesson in the past, there will be a method to your madness, and the things you’ve moved temporarily will be placed in a specific place elsewhere in a pile that will then be packed and vaguely labeled as ‘desk stuff’. The recycling and trash are easy, of course — you can just bring them to the bins downstairs. The donation boxes are a bit more tricky, as you’ll need to somehow find a temporary spot to put them until you have a moment to get them down to the car in as few trips as possible and hopefully find a close parking spot at the local Goodwill.

All of this, of course, during your off hours when you’re not working the Day Job. And are most likely working on a half-tank of energy.

*

This has been us the past couple of weeks. Alas, I have fallen slightly behind in the writing work, but I’m allowing it only because this is a life event and not simply slacking. Once the move has taken place and we’ve settled somewhat, I’ll be able to pick up where I left off once the PC and its attendant externals are up and running and the internets are turned on. I can take my time with the unpacking, as long as I keep that consistent and don’t fall into the trap of hiding it in the garage where it will inevitably fall into the I’ll deal with it later dimension once more. I’ve seen too many local garages that are basically I’ve Got Too Much Sh*t storage containers, and I refuse to let that happen to us. After all, I put ‘having a garage’ on my wish list precisely because I want somewhere to park our car when it’s not being used.

Still, if we time this out right (and I think we will), all should fall into place with minimal distraction or distress. Fingers crossed.