the week after we sold our house, i was driving in our neighborhood and noticed some new neighbors were moving in a few blocks over from us. they were busy moving boxes from two giant semis into their new garage. there were so many boxes.
all those boxes. they had tons of boxes. i needed boxes.
i screeched on the brakes, pulled over to the side of the road, tore a sheet of paper from my planner, and jotted a quick note:
Welcome to the neighborhood! We are moving out in 2 weeks and would greatly appreciate your empty boxes. Please call me if/when you have boxes that we can recycle. Thank you & God bless you. -Eryn 987-6543
i folded it, quickly prayed, and stuck it in the new homeowner's mailbox.
a few days later, she called me and said we could have all of their empty boxes. dozens of boxes! and bubble wrap, wrapping paper, and foam sheets. what a blessing! it took 8 trips from our house to theirs and back to pick up all of the boxes.
and then i started packing.
while my husband was at work, i packed. my mom came into town to help me by both a) entertaining the kids while i packed and b) packing while i run errands. i could not have done it without her help. it's amazing how comfortable we got with all of our stuff after living here for seven years. fortunately, i don't have a problem with purging. i'm of the school of thought that if we don't use it or we don't love it, we don't need it anymore. i did A LOT of purging.
while packing, my mom came up with this method of remembering which cabinets and closets we'd packed:
by the end of the week there were hot pink Post-Its all over the house. which drove me a little bit crazy, but i didn't complain because i was just so thankful to have her help.
and then the PODS came. PODS are portable storage units that are delivered to your house, you load them up, and then they are taken away to a storage area, and delivered to you at your new destination.
when empty, PODS make really fun playspaces for children whose toys have been packed away.
my husband loaded our things into the PODS and likened it to Tetris. it took him two days to load two PODS. and when there were pieces of furniture that wouldn't fit into the jam-packed PODS, he rented a separate storage unit that we also ended up packing full.
the logistics of moving is hard work, y'all.
and then, when the house is empty and our voices echoed, the reality of it started to set in.
there were some tears. we were up past bedtime, skipped dinner, and drove far away to our temporary living hotel, saying goodbye to that empty house.
at the end of moving day, though exhausted, overwhelmed, and hungry, we were all together and we made the most of it.
moving day rock stars: niece, daughter, mom, me, husband, son, brother
three weeks in this hotel room and then we move into our new house.
we moved out of our house, but i know this to be true about HOME:
