Since Amy asked…about my move and my “pre-move prep ticker”:

I live in military housing that is slated to be demolished and replaced with newer housing. I could do a lot of complaining about this here, but maybe I’ll save that for another post. It’s not my house, so there’s not much I can do about it.

Half of my neighborhood has already been relocated to another neighborhood of new housing that is about 3 miles away. Both neighborhoods are on post, but it takes about 10 minutes to get from one area to the other because the speed limits are generally 30 mph or less and there are stop signs and traffic lights along the way.

There are about 25 families still here waiting to be moved. We have been told that today, April 10th, the keys will be available and we can begin to move our things in. Private movers have been hired, and they are responsible for moving all of our stuff, including packing it. Anything we decide to move will be for our own convenience. I plan to move everything in my kitchen, because it will be much easier than sorting and unpacking all those boxes. I also plan to move the drawers and their contents to all the dressers the day before our move so that our clothes won’t get packed away.

My move date has been set for April 27th – April 29th. I was at the house yesterday and it looks done (doors were locked, I peeked through the blinds), except for the house number. Other houses on that block are NOT done yet, though, so I don’t think I’ll be able to get the keys until they’re complete (maybe another week). All of my other neighbors live in 2 other blocks, and those look totally done.

The big problem is that we were told the movers can move 4 families per week. We are being told that all families must be out by the end of April. Perhaps as many as 5 families will have Army movers come and take their stuff, because they are moving away this summer. But there are probably 20 families who are supposed to move in 20 days. So, I’m a bit skeptical that I will actually move by the end of April. I’m going to push for it though, because Fritz’s First Holy Communion is May 14th and I will not move any later than May 8th (or they’ll wait until May 18th).

Since I have movers coming, all I need to do is organize and get rid of things. I have listed every room and broken the room down into “tasks”. In my bedroom, I have 2 closets, 1 dresser, 2 end tables with drawers, one small storage table and a cedar chest. That’s 7 seven tasks. Completing a task means that I have gone through that closet or dresser and pulled out everything that doesn’t belong there and organized what remains. In the kitchen, I’ve listed each pair of cabinets as a task. Some tasks are 5 minute jobs, and some – like the fridge – will take an hour or more to do (I’ll scour the fridge as part of my spring cleaning).

Yesterday I dropped 2 bags of clothes off at the thrift store. I have some toys and books to donate to the babysitting at church today. And I really need to get my tax info to my dad today. Talk about unloading excess baggage!