Monday, Hubs might be on board!

     Saturday morning I actually was able to get organized and started by filling boxes.  I took several knick knacks off the walls in the spare room and bath upstairs.  These were packed and taken downstairs by the back door.  Then hubs and I packed up the pictures and the books in the family room downstairs.  We packed until we ran out of boxes.  Then we took two loads of things to the storage unit.

     It looks like things are under way.  The house is looking so bare but that is good as it will be easy to clean walls and paint now.  I really got no cleaning done at all because packing and moving stuff that has sat for along time is messy.  We were able to stop and get more boxes on one of our trips down from the storage unit and we have another truckload ready by the back door.

     I was able to get the under the stairs closet cleaned out and what a dirty mess. It was full of old suitcases, and years of tax returns, how long do we keep those again? There were some Easter decorations and then four large tubs of memorabilia. I have kept every award, picture, school project, report card etc that the kids did and then put them in boxes at tax time.  The problem was some times I was lazy and just threw all three kids things in someones box.  So I spent 4 hours Saturday night going through those boxes one paper at a time and sorted them according to child.  I was able to throw away two huge garbage bags of things.  Mostly papers out of the misc. box kept for our memorabilia.

   Do you think it was okay to throw away the cards from our wedding 42 years ago? Then there was all the cards from Franka's death.  I kept just a few from close friends and relatives. It was time to let go, after all the darling will be 35 on her next birthday.  I still had a blanket that my grandmother had made for her.  I put that in my eldest daughters box, she can pass it on to one of her grand children someday.  Each box contained their first baby shoes and a couple of blankets and quilts made for them by grandmothers. The girls will get these at Christmas and then they can do what they want with the things. That  closet only contains three suitcases right now and I hope it will stay that way.

     Then there was a wooden box that has sat in there going on 4 years.  It was full of old rain gear, outdoor clothes and Hubs work boots. I put him in charge of that knowing he would start reminiscing and refuse to part with anything. But he looked at the boots and then said he had two more pairs upstairs and I thought. " Yes, I know, I have been cleaning around them for 4 years."  He brought those down and started to grease and polish them up.  I was beside myself, but said nothing.  He then said that they should all be sold.  They are Whites, and Danners which are very, very expensive. The cork boots and packs were close to $400.00 a pair.  Hubs always took very good care of his boots and always had two pairs so he could switch off every other day. He wears a 9.5 which is the most common size for men. Often these kind of boots are rebuilt because they cost so much. We put them on  site and already have three people coming to look at them.  First come first serve. I can't believe he is going to let go of something. He also did not grouse about taking things to the storage.  I think he is getting on board.

     I also organized all the wrapping paper, boxes and bows  Mom was a stickler for wrapping and I had at least 4 different boxes of things.  I save boxes, bows, and tissue and recycle when I can.  So I organized and downsized cards and paper.  I got everything into one container and will use up as much as I can this Christmas. I just took shoe box full of cards and several tubes of paper to the good will this morning. Now I get to deal with the dirty mess all this packing has done. But that is for another day.

    The hot water heater closet, is 1/2 done as I took all the wrapping paper out of there.  So now it just has 4 fans and a box of believe it or not beanie babies of my mothers.  How I hated those things and the craze they caused.  Not sure what I will do with those.  Any ideas? But once that is cleaned out vacuumed and swept I will just have the two dressers and the main closet to do in the shop.

     The littles are here today as I have to take the eldest to a dance rehearsal at 4.  I also just realized I have no one to take a meal into a family that has illness.  I let that ball drop, so I will do up a pork chop and rice casserole as that is easy.  I have some broccoli that needs to be cooked and I need to scare up a dessert. Right now Hubs is at the ear specialist and I am trying to keep the monkeys in line.

     The shop has been very busy this morning and I will have to sew all day tomorrow. If I am not too tired after the rehearsal, I might just get that water heater closet done.  Yeah like that is going to happen, but a girl can dream.

Have a great and productive day staying positive while you are in the negative.

Kim