One Box at a Time

My Mother called and was excited to announce that she was released by her radiologist today. That is great news! The doctor said she was healing great and he would not need to see her again and unless something new developed.

I was surfing the internet today and discovered a wonderful website. It is full of interesting and helpful tips on things that will help you prepare your house before putting it on the market. It has hints for staging, curb appeal and how to pick the best realtor. It is very informative. www.frontdoor.com

I guess I might be getting a little ahead of myself! We still have a lot that we need to do before we can put the house on the market. I am just getting pumped! We have moved more items to the garage for our next sell. We have added some more furniture and other odds and inns. The weatherman is predicting good weather for Saturday so we are looking forward to another sale. This week we sold the picket fence panels to some friends and another friend wants to buy all the T-post we have.

Dawn has been trying to go through at least one box a day and yesterday it really paid off. One old box of STUFF she came across some treasures. She found her opal and diamond ring with matching necklace that her Mother bought her for her high school graduation. She also found a ruby necklace she hadn’t seen in years. This is one of the reasons that we have to go through each and every box with a fine tooth comb!

Dawn and I were talking about all the STUFF we have and she made a very interesting point. It took her parents fifty years to accumulate all their STUFF and we have had seventeen years of accumulated STUFF and that adds up to sixty-seven years of STUFF, so of course we will not be able to get rid of it as fast as we would like. It will take time but, we will get rid of it and we will live a life with very little STUFF and more than likely be happier. I believe she may be onto something!!!!!!

I look at all this STUFF with great wonderment, I don’t have all the trinkets and STUFF that Dawn has. Dawn was an only child and her Mother saved many of Dawn’s childhood things. My Mother raised three girls and we wore hand-me-downs. By the time the youngest was finished with an item, it was well worn and not worth keeping. She didn’t save our childhood STUFF like toys, baby clothes, school drawings and that sort of STUFF. She gave us our childhood photo albums and baby books. I realize how grateful I am that I have long departed from all the childhood STUFF and don’t have to deal with it now. It has been fun going through the boxes and finding old baby items. We laugh about how different things are now. We have found baby bottles, toddler toys, paper dolls, coloring books, baby shoes and dresses. We laugh at old school pictures, drawings and love letters written in grade school. It has been fun and a burden but we are getting through it a box at a time!

Mental Rut

We are sooo looking forward to selling the house and hitting the road. We just have sooooo much to do and it seems like we will never get finished with this long “To Do” list. I do know that “good things come to those who wait”. But I am getting impatient.

I have been doing a little each night when I get home from work but it just seems like it is going so slow. We both really want to get this done but it seems like there is always some kind of obstacle in our way. I am starting to regain my energy now that the bells palsy is clearing up. But I feel like we have lost precious time. I have somehow got into a mental rut and I really need to get back into the groove of things.

Dawn has been going thru boxes full of old pictures and cards. Going thru the pictures is very time consuming. She is putting aside all the pictures she wants me to scan and throwing out the rest. I have shredded a lot of old papers and still have more to go.

We were planning another garage sale this weekend but it looks like we may have more storms. We will have to wait and see. I guess if it rains we will have more time to go thru more boxes!

On a more positive note, I heard on the news that the housing market in our area is picking up again.

Garage Sale!!!!

Another garage sale! Yes, we had another garage sale. We had a pretty successful day. The weather was good and a lot of people stopped by. We are slowly, but surely getting rid of this STUFF. It is time for me to make another run through and load up a few boxes of STUFF to take to a local charity. We have more STUFF we can put out in its place.

It seems like we are never going to get to the end of this STUFF. But we are starting to see light at the end of this tunnel!!!!

Dawn’s Mother told her she didn’t want Dawn just to give her things away. That is the reason for all the garage sales. We are not giving it away. We are selling it. We feel like we are giving it away sometimes. The fact of the matter is that we are keeping a promise.

The time has come for us to get our butts in gear. We still have a lot to get rid of and we are going to start doing some serious cleaning and throwing out. It has been difficult finding time to get it all done since I am still working and then bell’s palsy again. I am feeling better now and we have to get real busy.

New Curtains

We decided to add curtains to the fifth wheel. We found some Energy Curtain panels at Target. It is a great idea. The panels are backed with Thinsulate. They help to insulate the window to help keep your home cool in the summer and warm in the winter. I guess we will find out how well they work!

We bought 3 panels and I cut them to fit the window and stitched a helm in them. It was very easy. We bought tension rods to hang them on and placed the rod inside the window valances. They look great.