The More I Pack, the More I Find to Pack

Today's goal is to finish packing up the living room. I have six days until I close on my new house, and I am not ready to go yet. Fortunately, I have 11 days until the movers arrive, and I am only moving a small way down the road, so I can take some things over in between closing and movers. That's the plan, at least.

I am almost finished with the dining room shelves. I keep finding additional books on shelves, but I am almost finished and ready to take the shelves down. Once that is done, I will be able to stack boxes against the wall instead of in the middle of everything. I should also be able to move my coffee table and my loveseat to that area so I can pack up the rest of the room. 

I have lots of ambition and very little energy, so this should be interesting.

There are so many things that go into being someone moving houses. In my original timeline, all of this happened during one of my breaks from my job, but the universe had different ideas, so now I am doing most of this right before a short break. I have to take yet another day off next Friday so I can get my keys. After that, I will be able to move back and forth freely. The internet and phones will be transferred to the new house on Saturday, so my blogging in a couple of weeks might be spotty depending on where I am in the early mornings.

I have so many plans that incorporate having the energy to move things over to the house, but I am not sure about having that same energy. Once I get going, though, I tend to go until I am absolutely exhausted. This morning, I have packed up five boxes and am now blogging to give me a rest before tackling the rest of the stuff. I think I have about two boxes more of stuff on these shelves before I can take them all down. Some of the things that are here are instruments and will be packed over by me. The movers charge extra to move musical instruments, even when most of them are hand-held percussion instruments. So, I will be moving all of my instruments on my own. This would really be a good time for a comprehensive inventory, wouldn't it? I think I will do that as I settle into my new place. After all, I will have to unpack. I could just start the voice dictation part of my Office 365 and do things that way. I will think about that. 

I know that I have lots of things that I never use and could be either selling or donating, but I really have no way of tracking things...yet. That's one of the good things about being a long time music therapist - my family is really good at finding musical instruments for me. 

My Dad used to go sit in our favorite music store around Thanksgiving and say, "What is the strangest instrument you got?" (I trained him to say that!!) I ended up with a torpedo shaker - here's a link to one, but the one I have is bigger than this. (By the way, I am in no way affiliated with any links that I share - I do not recommend products or vendors - this was just the best picture of the instrument that I have...) I also ended up with a big, beautiful fish design ocean drum, a full set of boomwhackers (including chromatics), a small slot drum, an Omatatone, and countless others that are just a bit strange but that I absolutely love! 

My mother and my sister are also really good at finding instruments for me - they get theirs in thrift stores, and I wish my local thrift stores were even a smidge as good as theirs! I have four different music makers (here's another link...again, no recommendations or affiliations - just a picture), lots of electronic toys (that do not have screens), toy guitars, and lots of small percussion and wind instruments that they have found. I have a mini drum set and a flute that they found in thrift shops that I purchased for myself.

It is time to use these things. 

In my new house, I will have two more bedrooms and one more living room area than I have now. I am trying to figure out what I will do with each of the rooms to effectively use and organize my space. I am going to have a library room - the place where my books and movies and music will stay. I am going to have a guest room - reserved only for guests and decorated by my sister since she promised she would come visit when I had a house to visit. I will have my bedroom, of course, and then the last bedroom will also be a guest room and may house my instruments. It will depend on how much space I use in the second living room for my office/studio. The upstairs will be for guests and for activities of daily living, and the downstairs will be for recreation and relaxation and my business interests.

I am excited, but I am also terrified that something will happen. I don't think I will be able to start to believe that this is happening until I have my keys in my hand and can actually start to move things to my house. That should happen in six days. Hm. I need to keep packing.

See you tomorrow... unless the boxes consume me.





 

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