Thursday, September 4, 2008

Phew - I'm glad that decision is made!

Since I previously griped in this blog about not being able to pack because I knew nothing about the house we'd be moving into, I thought I would take a moment to announce that, now that we have decided on a house, I am happy and motivated about my packing. I've always enjoyed packing more than I've enjoyed unpacking. This move will be our 13th move in 24 years of marriage, so I think I know a little about my strengths and weaknesses in this area.

I'm a great packer of breakable items, and rarely experience loss in this area, in spite of moves in containers onboard ships, with my boxes of stuff loose in the hold of a Honduran cargo boat, and even one move along a dirt path by wheelbarrow!

I'm good at figuring out how to make the best of my limited supply of boxes. For this move, all of the books were stacked by size, wrapped in plastic bags, and tied with strong twine. It's gonna make reorganizing my bookshelves a bear, but it sure did save on boxes!

I'm amazing at finding ways to make a house work, in spite of it's flaws. I know that sounded pretty conceited, but I've had a lot of experience in this area. Over the years in the US and Honduras we've lived:

  • in two small mobile homes, parked one in front of the other (one was used for storage), which didn't have electricity or indoor plumbing.

  • in two side-by-side houses. Neither was big enough for our family, so we had bedrooms in one house, and daytime activities in the other.

  • in a 3 bedroom house with teeny tiny bedrooms (we put up a tent on the roof, so our college-prep daughter would have a quiet place to study), and not even one bit of storage space in the kitchen.

  • in an unfinished 8000 square foot home, which Allen had built but hadn't been able to sell.

  • in the upstairs classroom space of a community center.

Our main challenges in the upcoming house seem to have to do with the lack of a yard, and the fact that there's not much space for the containerloads of stuff we sometimes receive. Since Christmas is coming soon, we'll have to deal with this issue before too long.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congratulations, so is it the house with the office's inside? Well I hope all goes smothly for the family and you.

Beth said...

Trish
I'm so glad you have a space to go to! I wish I could be there to help you unpack. I too spent a lot of time moving from one place to another. And I am good at packing!
But I also like to unpack and get everything settled. Maybe some of your kids will have the "gift of unpacking." Is there a spiritual analogy here? I don't know but I'll keep thinking about it! : ]

Trish said...

Yes, we are moving into the house that is currently set up as an office. Sorry I didn't make that clear in the blog. I think it was mentioned somewhere in the comments, and didn't think about the fact that not everyone would have seen that info.

Hey Beth - probably Rachel will be the one with the "gift of unpacking" as she is kind of thinking of being an interior designer . . . making this house into a home would be a good challenge for her.