Packing…too much stuff

Jeff and I have moved more times than I want to count. We have always done it ourselves. the packing, the loading, the unloading. This move would be different. We only lived in 900 square feet, so when we were giving an estimate on the cost of the move we could afford for them to pack us as well. It seemed very strange not looking for boxes, newspaper and buying a case of packing tape. We had packed a few boxes in order to get the clutter out of our house but for the most part we did not look as if we were moving.

Thursday morning six men descended on the condo. Sue walked Ellie, our dog to the vet around the corner, we had decided it would be best if we boarded her for the night. Two men were in each room wrapping, stuffing and taping boxes. A few hours into it the manager’s phone rang. I could tell by his responses that things were not going as planned. When the original paperwork work came out I was a bit concerned. The topic of conversation seemed to be centered around us having more stuff than they anticipated.

More stuff? Actually we lost a daughter and all her stuff. Sure there were a few more thing because of the wedding, but certainly there was less stuff then when the estimate was made.

The packers finished up that afternoon. Jeff flew in from Florida and entered a box filled condo. We left Ellie over night figuring the stress of all the boxes may be too much for her and us. There was a part of me that wished I could be boarded for the next month.

The next morning Jeff headed to the storage unit to up a the remaining furniture items we had removed when trying to sell the condo…more stuff. The movers arrived and began loading the truck. There seemed to be more unpacked items then they had expected causing some frustration between the packers and the movers. The truck was loaded. I was given a stack of papers which listed all our belongings or at least the box number that they were located in. The truck took off, all our belongings with it and we stood in an empty condo.

Early that evening the buzzer rang. It was two beeps, Raun and Pam had driven down to spend the last night in the condo. They brought their own blow-up mattress and made the empty living room their room. Sue slept on a twin blow-up mattress Austyn’s room and Jeff and I were on a double blow-up in our room. Left with suitcases full of clothes that we had planned to take us through the next several weeks. There were a few paper plates and plastic cups in the kitchen. It’s a strange feeling sleeping in a an empty place that hours before was home.

The next morning we took Sue to Union Station, Pam and Raun drove back to WI, Jeff and I loaded the car with suitcases, blow-up mattresses, doggy things, the rosemary plant and my coffee plant. We left the city. Our condo had not sold, instead we decided to rent it out for the first year. We still had one foot in the door but we were heading West and our first stop would only be 45 minutes away to spend the weekend with our close friends.

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