"In this sticky web that we're all in, behaving decently is no small task." -- Novelist Stacey D'Erasmo

Thursday, June 30, 2016

We're Drowning in Boxes!

     As I've mentioned several times, B and I are in the process of downsizing. It must be a hot real-estate market out there because we, literally, sold our old house the first day it went up for sale. The moment it was listed a woman drove by the house with her dad, stopped in front of the yard, walked up the driveway. Two days later, at the broker open house, the woman and her husband insisted on coming along with their real-estate agent. And that very night they made a full-price offer.

The living room
    
     We were lucky. (Or, as my cynical friend remarked when I told him what happened, we underpriced the house.)

Our bedroom

     All this was fine. The problem? Nobody told us that when we sold the house, we would actually have to pack up everything we own . . . and move out!

More bedroom

     So we have made numerous trips to Goodwill to drop off unwanted possessions, many runs to the recycling center to offload old files, papers and books. We've gone to Best Buy to return old phones, computers and other electronic goods. We have browbeat our kids to come and clean out their stuff from the basement. B's older son recently bought a house in New Jersey, and so he arrived with a U-haul and loaded up furniture and garden equipment, and cleaned out our tool room.

Santa surveys the basement

     Meanwhile, we scoured all the liquor stores for used boxes, and we have purchased carloads of new boxes from Lowe's, Home Depot, U-haul and our local storage place. (Don't go to the storage place for boxes; they cost three times as much as Home Depot, at 77 cents for a small box and $1.29 for a medium, which doesn't matter if you're buying a couple of boxes, but we have purchased thousands of boxes, tens of thousands of boxes!) "Let's save a few trees," I've suggested to B. But still, she needs more boxes.

Boxes. Boxes. We're drowning in boxes!

     So from these photos you can get an idea of what our house looks like at the moment. But wait! We have a new place. Just temporarily. We're going into a one-bedroom condo. It's small, but we're just going to live there for a year while we travel and "shop around" for our retirement destination. So tune in next time to see what the new place looks like.

19 comments:

DJan said...

You aren't kidding! That's a whole lotta boxes. I'll bet you will feel much better once you've downsized and learned how little you really need. A lifetime of history in boxes. Well done! :-)

Anonymous said...

I don't envy you. One of the main reasons why we put off selling our own home is due to the packing! I know my day will come, but in the meantime, it's costing me $10,000 a year (to maintain the home etc) just to store all my stuff! If you know what I mean? LOL.

Best of luck!

Carole said...

What a great opportunity to clean out the "stuff" you don't need. Kind of forces the hand. Now if only I could do that with my basement, without the pressure of trying to sell my house!

When we sold our previous house 11 years ago, we priced it $20,000 higher than recommended by our realtor. We sold it in 3 days! Just fate I guess, that someone drove by, saw the sign and wanted it. Good luck with your move.

lee said...

Congratulations! We lived your experience last year! We mostly packed up and moved out of 4000sqft suburbia to a 2B 1200sqft apartment in our new locale before listing the house. Two offers first week. We didn't mess with replacing anything old, just spruced up interior paint and minor repairs. 4 kids only wanted to take a dab of stuff so we called in junk haulers to clear out the rest. Enjoying our downtown urban rental so much, we renewed the lease an extra year. I may never own again--whee!

lee said...

By the way, our older cynical neighbor said exactly the same offhand thing about pricing. We lent more credibility to our seasoned realtor and her analysis. She was right on the money!

retirementreflections said...

Your photos look familiar. We had an embarrassing number of boxes in our last move (October 2015). When we unpacked, a friend suggested we sell our used boxes on Kijiji. That worked like a charm--we sold all of our boxes within two days of posting. Good luck with your move.
Donna
www.retirementreflections.com

Barbara said...

Congratulations. That happened to my sister once. They listed the house and had little response. The second time they listed it, it sold right away. They had to live with my mother until they found a new place. I'm glad for you two. Yall are really off on your adventure now.

Barb said...

Welcome to my world, only my buyers wanted a closing in less than two weeks. I put the stuff we were keeping in three rooms, let the kids come and get it, and them opened up the house for a weekend estate sale to all comers with no offer refused.

It sounds like maybe some of this will go on a truck to storage?? If so remember the last things on the truck will be the first things in storage so if access is needed...

Sounds like you priced it just right. No haggling wars or offers back and forth.

Still the Lucky Few said...

We live in Canada. The market has been red hot here for months. In fact, people are bidding on houses. Great seller's market, but not so good if you are buying. This might mean that prices are going up, so keep an eye on homes you may want, and monitor the prices. You may need to jump in quickly!

Karen D. Austin said...

Wow, you are having an adventure. Our teens moved with us from KS to IN, but we got a slightly smaller home (3,000 sq.ft to 2,500) expecting that maybe they will move out. Maybe (They are 18 and 15 right now.) We had 5 viewings and 2 offers the first day we showed the house. I had 30 days to get a place for us to live. I made at least 15 trips to Goodwill over six months. Where does all this stuff come from? I felt like a conspicuous consumer. Enjoy your upcoming year of travel and house hunting. All my best to the both of you during this chaotic and physically demanding time.

Sarah Coleman said...

My life was destroyed when my husband sent me packing, after 13 years we have been together. I was lost and helpless after trying so many ways to my husband back to me. One day at work, I was distracted, not knowing that my boss called me, so he sat and asked me what it was all about, I told him and he smiled and said it was no problem. I never understood what he meant by it was no problem getting back my husband, he said he used a spell to get back his wife when she left him for another man, and now they are together till date and initially I was shocked hearing something from my boss. He gave me an email address of the Prophet abuvia which helped him get his wife back, I never believed that this would work, but I had no choice coming into contact with the sayings that I get done, and he asked for my information and that my husband was able to propose to throw him the spell and I sent him the details, but after two days, my mother called me that my husband was pleading that he wants me back, I never believed, because it was just a dream and I had to rush off to my mother's place and to my greatest surprise, was kneeling my husband beg me for forgiveness that he wants me and the child back home, when I gave prophet abuvia a conversation regarding sudden change of my husband and he made clear to me that my husband will love me until the end of the world, that he will never leave for another woman. Now me and my husband is back together and started doing funny things he has not done before, he makes me happy and do what it is suppose to do as a man without nagging. Please if you need help of any kind need, please contact Abuvia Prophet for help. His email is prophet.abuvia@gmail.com his website is prophetabuviasolutiontemple.webs.com

Janette said...

I love Itsdeductible! Life is good when the boxes help shrink your stuff!
Enjoy the hunt!

Celia said...

Wow. Congrats! I did this two years ago and my house sold the first day before the sign went up. I was not packed up. Great plans the two of you have made. It's amazing how much stuff I really didn't need anymore and now don't have to take care. Here's to making new memories you two!

Sally Wessely said...



That is great news - the part about selling the house. The packing and moving part, not so much. Seriously, congrats on the house sale. I"m happy for you. It will all come together soon.

stephen Hayes said...

Erma Bombeck said it best: war is hell, but moving is worse.

Anonymous said...

I guess most of your boxes will be in storage, so you will be able to live comfortably in your 1 bedroom condo. Good luck to both of you.

Olga said...

Flashback to last summer for me. I actually still have a couple boxes to unpack.

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