We live half an hour from my daughter’s school. Her school is one block from our church. So five days a week we spend 2 hours driving my daughter to and from school and Sundays we drive 1 hour to and from church. That doesn’t include Awana once a week, Bible study once a week, choir practices, praise team practices, school programs and what about when the girls are old enough for sports? Anyway, I’m tired of living (eating) in my car. So, we are looking for a house close to school and church. This also means that I have to get my house show ready. Yesterday I cleaned off my desk. Yes, it took all day. I have one large plastic tote full of cookbooks. I realize that I will have to distribute those book to other totes so that it can be moved more than 4 inches. And no, I don’t think I have too many cookbooks. The next thing to tackle is the pantry. I love this pantry. It is more than a walk-in pantry, it is like a live-in pantry. I will miss the pantry. However, things can get lost in this pantry. I occasionally buy more than I need of something, conversely I sometimes run out of things without knowing that we were running low. In our new, almost definitely smaller house, I will have to find room for things like ice cream freezers, tortilla presses, Dutch ovens and fondue sets. I have had my fondue set since college and have used it twice? I can remember one time clearly, but I must have used it another time, surely one other time. I’m not getting rid of my fondue set. I don’t think I will be using it in the next few weeks, months, perhaps years. Anyway, I can pack it up. The last time I moved myself, all of my stuff fit in the back of my ’88 Jeep. Since then the military has been kind enough to pack us up. Which makes sense since they are the ones sending us to new places in the first place. It has been pretty great and pretty terrible. Great because I don’t have to do anything, but watch and direct. Terrible because they pack everything and I don’t feel the need to go through my stuff and get rid of crap I don’t use. So, here we are. My husband is retired, we want to move and we have about ten years worth of stuff to go through. I might need some help. My plan is to purge and pack so that my house looks staged, not livable. Here is my plan:

1. work on one area a day (this could be a room or a closet)

2. get rid of more than I pack (trash, craigslist, donate)

3. stage with 2-3 necessary or decorative items

So far we have our two hall closets done. And I have half of my craft closet done, or strewn across the floor. We have ten days before our house goes on the market. Let’s make a list.

1. craft room

2. master closet

3. master bath

4. girls room

5. kitchen

6. pantry

7. laundry room

8. living room

9. master bedroom

10. anywhere else that escaped the list

And…GO!