Pack em up and move em out
Today the packers come to pack up each and every item in our house. Friday, they will load the truck with all of our household goods and take them away. Friday night, we will have one last camping adventure in the living room complete with our tent, air mattresses, snacks & games. Saturday morning, we will hand over the keys to our landlord and hit the road, Jack!
I want to find some time to sit down and write a post about how our daughter has handled all this change, and how we’ve been able to help her through this transition. That’s been a lesson in itself, and we’ve been very proud of her!
We’ve already taken all the pictures off the walls, taken apart bookshelves, and sorted most things. Last night we took apart Emily’s loft bed. I wasn’t sure if she would be upset at the change in her room, but she actually embraced it! She was thrilled that her mattress was on the floor because it meant she was allowed to jump on it! Silver lining, indeed!
Today we took apart our bed, and are starting to pack up the minivan with all the stuff that’s coming with us so that the movers don’t accidently pack it. We are taking enough of our things to live for up to a month just in case there is a delay getting our household goods delivered.
We’ll be spending 3 days/2 nights on the road, stopping to have lunch with a couple of my good friends along the way! Then, once we arrive in our new town we will spend 10 days in a pet-friendly extended stay hotel. 10 days because that’s how long the Army gives Hubby to find a place to live. It’s like paid time off that doesn’t count against his regular leave – very cool!
We chose this particular hotel because it actually has a full kitchen, rather than just a mini-fridge and microwave. This will allow us to save money on food by not eating out for 10 days. It also has a door to the bedroom, so we can put Emily to bed on the sofabed and we don’t have to go to sleep at the same time she does – either we go to bed early, or she goes to bed late. That will keep us all rested, well-fed and happy! The Army is awesome and gives us money toward lodging for those 10 days that we are looking for a place to live. This hotel will cost us a bit more than the Army is paying, but we decided it was worth a little out of pocket for the benefits it will provide. It’s easy to suck it up for a day or two at a Super 8 (which we will use on the way there, I’m sure), but for 10 whole days we want a little more comfort. Since we have a cat, that also limited our choices because we needed a place that would allow us to bring her.
After that, we’ll move into our new apartment but it’s possible that our household goods won’t get delivered right away, so we want to have the basics to live on there too.
We’re taking changes of clothes for several days, snack foods, some food from the pantry, a pot & pan for cooking, our Vitamix because we are smoothie addicts, our coffee pot, toaster oven, and some cooking utensils. That should allow us to cook most things. We’re also taking Emily’s most favorite toys, homeschooling supplies for a couple weeks, some towels, sheets, and our air mattresses for sleeping on. We’ll just use paper plates and napkins and kill a few trees to make it easier than packing easily breakable dishes.
So around 2 weeks from today, we should be in our new apartment waiting on our household goods delivery. Then the unpacking will begin!