A yard sale is not necessary before a move, and many people choose to just give away what they no longer need. But I kind of enjoy the whole thing, and my kids do too. My oldest has been saving her chore money for weeks now. Her dad is going to take her out and see what sort of deals they can find while I sell our unwanted stuff.
I also don't usually do a yard sale this early. Since I don't know what my new house will look like yet, I may have to sell a few additional things right before, or even just after, the move. But since our neighborhood is putting on their annual yard sale, I wanted to take advantage of all the traffic it will bring.
What sorts of things am I selling? Well in the few years that we have been here, my little one grew out of her stroller and her bike trailer. Her baby hangers no longer hold her cloths, some old board books and "baby" movies are going. Some old plastic storage boxes, an old weed whacker, and a few other odds and ends. And since I don't have a whole lot to sell, this one will be pretty easy. I just need to clean up a few things, slap a few price stickers on everything, brew up some iced tea, and sit out and enjoy the day.
I do want to note that we are selling our big houseplant too. When a company moves you, they won't take plants. And if you think about it, it makes sense. Your plant would be packed away in a dark, hot (or cold depending on the time of year) truck for days with no water. And the company does not want to take responsibility for them dying. Of course you can always move them in your car, if they mean that much to you. But quite honestly my house plants don't mean that much to me. As long as I can move the pot, I can always buy a new plant. So I sell them every time we move.
Update:
Our yard sale was a success! We sold about half of our stuff within the first half hour! I sat out for another couple of hours trying to get rid of as much as I could, but at some point my pile was too small for anyone to bother stopping to check out. So I closed up shop and went out looking for my own good deals.
The girls found some pretty cool toys for dirt cheap and they had fun riding around the neighborhood on their bikes with Daddy. The plant went to a good home. The weather was awesome! And I even got some weeding done.
After it was all wrapped up, my next stop was the Goodwill. Whew, I am glad that's done!
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Worried Suspense
On this particular move we have the rare experience of knowing when and where our relocation will be, and have know for quite a long time. But that is not always the case.
We were living on base housing a few years back. We knew there was a move headed our way. My husband was finishing up his Master's degree along with twelve of our closest neighbors. I know, this sounds really strange. An entire street moving in and out of their homes all about the same time? Seriously? Yeah. It is odd, but that was the circumstance.
We all knew we would be moving after graduation and shared with each other each step of our process. Everyone's orders came trickling in over a two or three day window. Our street was abuzz with curiosity as we learned where each of our neighbors was headed.
Well my husband was kind of a workaholic at that time. So of course he did not come home any earlier than he normally did on the evening that the majority of the orders were handed out. The street was buzzing as everyone stood out in the middle of the street chitter-chattering about their future base. Who got a "good" base. Who knew about this base or that. Who was happy about it, and who wasn't.
I of course was calling my husband, impatiently excited about the final verdict. Where were we headed? But while I was listening to everyone else's news, my husband was standing in the parking lot by his car at work, stunned. He was trying to figure out a way to tell his city loving wife that their future home was going to be Omaha, Nebraska.
I have to admit, I was not overly excited about moving there. I grew up in a metropolitan area that, at the time, had roughly a million inhabitants. I could not even wrap my head around living in a small town in the mid-west. Of course my stereotypes and ignorance were getting the best of me. Omaha is actually a decent sized city. Much larger than I envisioned that first night after hearing about our future home. And as it turned out, neither one of us had much to worry about. So far in this military journey, Nebraska has been our absolute favorite station. And I would move back without hesitation anytime. So it just goes to tell you, bad news may actually be the best thing to happen. Look for the positive in each experience and who knows what you will find.
We were living on base housing a few years back. We knew there was a move headed our way. My husband was finishing up his Master's degree along with twelve of our closest neighbors. I know, this sounds really strange. An entire street moving in and out of their homes all about the same time? Seriously? Yeah. It is odd, but that was the circumstance.
We all knew we would be moving after graduation and shared with each other each step of our process. Everyone's orders came trickling in over a two or three day window. Our street was abuzz with curiosity as we learned where each of our neighbors was headed.
Well my husband was kind of a workaholic at that time. So of course he did not come home any earlier than he normally did on the evening that the majority of the orders were handed out. The street was buzzing as everyone stood out in the middle of the street chitter-chattering about their future base. Who got a "good" base. Who knew about this base or that. Who was happy about it, and who wasn't.
I of course was calling my husband, impatiently excited about the final verdict. Where were we headed? But while I was listening to everyone else's news, my husband was standing in the parking lot by his car at work, stunned. He was trying to figure out a way to tell his city loving wife that their future home was going to be Omaha, Nebraska.
I have to admit, I was not overly excited about moving there. I grew up in a metropolitan area that, at the time, had roughly a million inhabitants. I could not even wrap my head around living in a small town in the mid-west. Of course my stereotypes and ignorance were getting the best of me. Omaha is actually a decent sized city. Much larger than I envisioned that first night after hearing about our future home. And as it turned out, neither one of us had much to worry about. So far in this military journey, Nebraska has been our absolute favorite station. And I would move back without hesitation anytime. So it just goes to tell you, bad news may actually be the best thing to happen. Look for the positive in each experience and who knows what you will find.
Hurry Up And Wait
The first step to a move is getting issued orders. This is the official paperwork that states where you are moving, when you are moving, and to what unit your spouse will belong. This single piece of paper is the God of a PCS. Without it you can't do anything.
The beauty and the curse of Orders are this. Once you have them, the move is on its way and the wait to know where you will be living is over. You can start exploring the town that will become home for a few years. You can start making appointments for moving companies. You can break it to the kids. You can announce it on Facebook! You can do it all.
The curse is the couple of months before Orders are issued. You see, the rumblings of a pending move are hard to ignore. There are emails and forms that the military member has to fill out. The Air Force loves their paperwork. So for a couple of months you know you are moving. But you do not know exactly when. And in nearly every military move, you do not know where you are going. So until orders are actually in hand, you can't get anything done.
That is where we are currently at. My husband has filled out all the paperwork and has even been contacted by the folks in charge of issuing his orders. We are to expect them in the next couple of weeks. We are fortunate enough to know where we are headed this time around, so at least we have been saved from that little bit of worried suspense. Even so, the waiting can be hard.
The beauty and the curse of Orders are this. Once you have them, the move is on its way and the wait to know where you will be living is over. You can start exploring the town that will become home for a few years. You can start making appointments for moving companies. You can break it to the kids. You can announce it on Facebook! You can do it all.
The curse is the couple of months before Orders are issued. You see, the rumblings of a pending move are hard to ignore. There are emails and forms that the military member has to fill out. The Air Force loves their paperwork. So for a couple of months you know you are moving. But you do not know exactly when. And in nearly every military move, you do not know where you are going. So until orders are actually in hand, you can't get anything done.
That is where we are currently at. My husband has filled out all the paperwork and has even been contacted by the folks in charge of issuing his orders. We are to expect them in the next couple of weeks. We are fortunate enough to know where we are headed this time around, so at least we have been saved from that little bit of worried suspense. Even so, the waiting can be hard.
Monday, March 5, 2012
Piece of Cake
Whenever I tell a Civilian (aka a non-military member) how often we move, I get a number of reactions. Horror. Pity. Fascination. Envy. But always, always! there is curiosity. Many people have never had to move their entire household to another state. And the sheer enormity of that task sounds daunting. One of the first questions is usually, "Do they move you, or do you have to do it?" And when I answer, "Oh, they pack and move our stuff," the person I'm talking with usually has a physical reaction. Their shoulders and back will move in such a way that it looks as though a weight is literally being lifted off their shoulders. Like, oh no big deal! They move you! That's a piece of cake!
HA!
Well although a moving company comes to our house and puts everything we own in boxes and ships it to our gaining base, moving like we do is anything but a piece of cake. The amount of work that goes into a move is daunting, and tiresome, and at times overwhelming. So I thought it might be interesting to document our next move. You can decide for yourself whether or not a military move is a piece of cake.
HA!
Well although a moving company comes to our house and puts everything we own in boxes and ships it to our gaining base, moving like we do is anything but a piece of cake. The amount of work that goes into a move is daunting, and tiresome, and at times overwhelming. So I thought it might be interesting to document our next move. You can decide for yourself whether or not a military move is a piece of cake.
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