You're OUT! You're IN!

I tend to forget in between house moves how empowering it is to designate the future status of EVERY ITEM IN MY HOUSE. This chair - OUT! This glass - Definitely IN! This piece of art - OUT! OUT! OUT! Wellllllllll okay, IN!

But this move brings into play levels of decision making never before encountered. Previously the OUT and IN method (or IN and OUT if you happen to be a West Coast person and hamburgers come to mind) worked pretty well. This move not so much. Everything in the house goes through my stringent sorting process -

• Move to NYC (only one van-load though so choose wisely)
• Move to college student's newly leased campus apartment
• Move to my sister's - Lucky stuff! She incorporates it into her home.
• Move to storage
• For Sale to friends
• For Sale on Craigslist or EBay
• For Sale to Half-Price Bookstore (see recent announcement of store expansion to better display recently acquired DVD's, books and board games in The Mr and Mrs Y. wing).
• Donate
• Trash
• Pawn off on some unsuspecting member of the neighborhood by leaving it on their front porch in the middle of the night*

* I promise to only resort to this on May 24th, the last night before I turn the keys over to the new owner. I can feel panic mode setting in about that time and anything left, well, heaven help my neighbors as they open their front doors to find toilet plungers, gift wrapping paper, a variety of kitchen spices, and a hat from the wax museum in Taluca, Georgia (HAD to have it).

Here are some of today's IN and OUT decisions:

The glasses are OUT. Every member of the extended family had their own glass when they visited us and we spent time by the pool in our development. We have not lived near a pool since 1999.

The bookmark collection is IN. I rarely read "real" books anymore but someday someone is going to say "You used these for WHAT?"

It's OUT (donation). A lovely lady I used to work with made this. The memory that comes back to me about Vada is that she agreed to sit over a dunk tank and let people throw a ball at a target to drop her into the water. She was dropped alright but the dunk tank had been placed on concrete. Therefore the broken tailbone. Sweetest lady ever. I know someone who decorates in pink will love it.

The romance cards to each other you can never give away, throw away, or donate. These are the things that delay your move by hours though. How do you stuff them in a box without reading, reliving, and rehashing?


Anyway, the packing/moving job begins in earnest right after we return from NYC next Sunday.