Remodel On Big Timber Road – Pack It Up, Move It Out

To read Part I of our series Remodel On Big Timber Road – Then There Was One, click HERE.

Because of the scale of our remodel, everything had to be moved out of our house. The exceptions were the upstairs office and the garage. For some reason, the thought of packing up our belongings of 24 years never really bothered me. I planned to start at the back of the house and pack one room per day. Unphased by the task ahead of me, my plan for the Remodel On Big Timber Road was just to Pack It Up, and Move It Out.

I’m not much of a packrat. In fact, Jerry T claims I have t h r o w a w a y i t i s. My mantra is if you don’t need it or use it – get rid of it. A little Marie Kondo’ish’ without the thanking and bringing joy stuff. I kept three boxes out during the packing process that made getting rid of stuff a little more organized. A box for the Salvation Army, a box for the Restore (a store operated by the local Habitat for Humanity), and a box for Rega of Paris (our local resale shop).

 

I admit while packing I got a little distracted. Especially packing all of the sentimental stuff. We have a shelf right off of Abby’s old bedroom that holds all of our picture albums (I’m probably the last of a dying breed that still has old photos in picture albums). Along with the picture albums, I have my kid’s baby books, old vinyl albums, yearbooks, and books that my kids made me commemorating birthdays and Mother’s Day.

 

I also had a book that I made for my mom for Mother’s Day, several years ago. These little books are so special and I encourage you to do this for your mom. There are tons of them on Amazon. This one is especially sweet. Of course, I had to go through every one of these memory books. I got very emotional reading them and was so happy that I had saved them and they had not become victims of my t h r o w a w a y i t i s.

I felt like I was making good progress. We would be living in our guest house and so, I had to separate the things that we would need for our time there. A few kitchen items (although the guest house has no kitchen), clothes for the next few months, toiletries, make-up, and so on. Unlike moving to another permanent residence, we had to remove all of our window treatments and blinds because we were replacing the windows. That was Jerry T’s job, and it was a big one. I am anticipating that most of the old window treatments will have to be replaced because of window size changes. Something that we didn’t budget for. 😩

 

The number of boxes and tape that we used was massive. Every couple of days we were going to the U-Haul store for more supplies. I was basically filling boxes to the brim. The only things that I wrapped were china and glassware from my dining room cabinet. Everything else was packed with the attitude of if you make it back in one piece – hooray – if you don’t – okay!

One very poignant thing happened while packing up our guest bathroom. This particular bathroom was the bathroom that my mom, who passed from Alzheimer’s in 2013, would use when she came to visit. When I moved a stack of hand towels in the linen cabinet, toward the back was her locket. This was a necklace that she wore all the time. I cannot tell you how shocked I was to find it. I was overcome with sadness, nostalgia, happiness, and disbelief all at the same time. It was like a little piece of her was still there.

 

The last time she stayed with me was in March 2011. I am sure she put that necklace behind the towels to hide it, believing someone may steal it. This happens often with Alzheimer’s victims. They feel paranoid and believe their things will get stolen, so they may try to hide or protect them. I just want to believe she left me a gift. To think it had been there all those years just blows me away.

After all, was said and done, it took about three weeks to get everything packed up. The kitchen and closet took a lot longer than I expected. Toward the end of our packing, Jerry T and I noticed we were feeling sad. Maybe it was knowing that most of our things and our comfortable home were going away for the next few months and our daily routine was about to change. Luckily, the sad feelings didn’t linger. We were just ready to be done with this phase of the remodel.

Our moving day was February 1st. We were really lucky to have beautiful weather that day. I left all of the storage rental stuff to Jerry T. He rented a storage unit that supposedly would accommodate a five-bedroom home. I planned to label the sides of each box with the contents and have them lined and stacked up along the sides of the unit. That way, if I needed something, it would be fairly accessible.

 

Do you know that saying about the “best-laid plans”? Well, that’s basically what happened with the storage unit. The five-bedroom size was more like a two-bedroom 😳 . Everything is stuffed in there like I stuff myself in my SPANKS – tight with no room to breathe. Luckily, we’ve only had to retrieve a couple of things: our suitcases and some fabric for Abby. The latter involved Jerry T climbing over boxes and squeezing through tiny spaces. I wasn’t there to witness it but the visual of it makes me laugh out loud!!

 

The reality of finally having everything stored away gave me a huge sigh of relief. On the other hand, the thought of unpacking it all puts me in a cold sweat!

NEXT BLOG POST… Remodel On Big Timber Road – Life In A Tiny House