It's Dim, But There Is Light Ahead

My extremely helpful, reliable and tenacious friend who has been helping me pack for the last four or five days left a little while ago so I figured it was time to take a break myself and wind down for the evening.

At the beginning of the week, I was feeling VERY discouraged. I spent three days in the house - which looked like a whirlwind had made its way from room to room - with only my efforts making any progress in packing, sorting and disposing. Then the cavalry arrived. Our friend, who was over every evening and throughout every weekend while we were packing originally, came by and started helping once she was able to shake free of an illness and some scheduling conflicts. Another friend has come by in between studying for final exams and has helped out as well. The most progress, however, was made over the last four days.

Thursday night, yet another friend came by and helped sort through the garage. It didn't look like we did much but we managed to set aside and separate items to sell in a garage sale and items that still needed to be sorted. Friday, I moved several shelving units out of my office and various storage spaces toward the garage. Friday evening, we positioned the shelves and unloaded boxes to set up for the garage sale.

Saturday, I opened the garage about 6:30 am and started moving larger items and whatever wouldn't fit on the shelves out to the driveway. The sale went very well. I made enough to pay for the fuel to go back home (plus a little extra) and managed to unload several bulky items including a LARGE entertainment center, several small shelving units and a portable dishwasher. Our tenacious friend showed up about 7:30 and went right to work packing inside the house while I ran the sale. Another friend showed up sometime later and helped count clothing items for donation (So far I've donated nine lawn and leaf size and 12 kitchen size garbage bags full of clothes to local charities and I have five more lawn and leaf bags that are ready to go).

About 1:00 in the afternoon, my mother and sister arrived from Kansas City. When my sister told me mom was coming down, too, I knew my prayers had been answered and there would be a chance that I would actually pull this off. When it comes to packing, sorting and cleaning, these two ladies are each a force to be reckoned with on their own and I had both of them. They accomplished in 24 hours what it would have taken me two weeks to do on my own. They were AMAZING!

Once the sale was done, we cleared the shelves, boxed up everything that was left, and have even placed two or three more large boxes in the garage for donation. We'll take as detailed an inventory as we can and I'll call the Salvation Army to come get it all (they pick up). Someone did suggest that I recommend they bring an empty truck.

At this point my to-do list looks something like this:
- Sort and pack the remaining items in my office
- Sort and pack remaining items in kitchen
- Sort and pack remaining items in master bedroom
- Sort and pack two boxes of clothing in my closet
- Sort and pack remaining non-donation items in garage (probably the worst of it)
- Deliver boxed items and remaining furniture items to Oklahoma City for storage (may require 2 trips)
- Retrieve my vehicle (I'm borrowing a pickup truck)
- Attend mandatory unemployment meeting 9a-4p Tuesday
- Pack the clothes and other items I traveled down with
- Pack boxes and loose items I need to take home into car (this may be a challenge)
- Set thermostat to 78 degrees
- Turn off inside water valve
- Turn temp on water heater to vacation setting
- Turn off lights
- Lock door
- Hit the road

I'll be busy tomorrow and very busy Tuesday night but I think it's gonna work.