Packing the mess . . .

ARGHHH . . . .

Well, we have been packing non-stop!! Does it ever end? Remember those 15 hour days Jay was working at Cosi? Well, I'm not sure he truly realized how long this would take – the packing part that is? Those long shifts have been replaced with long shifts at the house cleaning, organizing, and packing. We started this process months ago, thank goodness; otherwise we'd be more overwhelmed than we are now. The bedrooms have probably been the easiest to pack, as all the stuff in them belongs to us, so it's just a matter of sifting through the mess. Other areas of the house are common areas between us and our in-laws, so they are a little more time consuming in packing because we have to decide what is ours from the beginning, what is theirs from the beginning, and what has been acquired over the last 4 years 11 months and decipher who the rightful owner is at this time.

The kids' rooms are almost packed – Mackenzie has maybe a book box of stuff left to pack, Zack's is still a couple of boxes away, and Cassie-well she's been working at the zoo the last two days so her room is not quite cleaned and organized enough for me to go in and pack. I told the kids that we would pack their room once they went through all their stuff and decided what could go away. I told them to use the approach, "If you haven't used it or played with it in the last 6 months and you don't think you will when we get there, please donate it!!"

As many of you know, we love thrift store shopping for clothes, furniture, books – well just about everything in our possession is second-hand. So, once the kids had sifted through the majority of their stuff, Jay & I went in to finish the job. The next question was, "Does it have sentimental value?" If not then we decided it too could be donated. After working in Mackenzie's room, she had well over 4 medium size boxes of clothes, clothes, more clothes (she picks up things from the thrift store and gets hand-me downs from big sis & friends), purses, books, and just a few toys; and 3 medium boxes of trash. Her snow globe collection itself took up 4 medium boxes for the move. Zack didn't have as much clutter, I think he only had 2 medium boxes for donate and 2 medium boxes of trash, and his lighthouse collection too took up 4 medium boxes for the move. Now Cassie is still working on her room – so far she's only had 2 medium boxes for donate and 1 medium box of trash.

So far we have donated 17 large boxes, 7 large trash bags, 3 small electronics (?), and 1 printer.

Well most of the stuff has made it to the house from our storage units – one is completely empty and the other houses our sectional sofa (thank you Marshall & Amy), flat top stove (may sell later since the house we're renting has one), our 7.5 ft. air hockey table (have suggested selling & have gotten 4 resounding NOs), and a dining room curio cabinet (from my in-laws, which we are probably going to have to leave behind because a) lack of room on truck & b) no place in the house for it).

Anyway, as you can see from the pictures, the garage is almost full. So, I started envisioning all this stuff in the garage going into the 28' ABF trailer. Jay & I measured the belongings in the garage and panic set in . . . I don't think it will fit in the trailer, because, in the house, we still have 7 dressers, 3 tall bookcases, 3 short bookcases, a 7 ft. dining farm table w/benches, 5 twin mattresses, 1 queen mattress/box spring set, 4 beds/bed frames, a piano, 2 nightstands, 2 computer desks, 1 office desk, 2 armoires, washer and dryer, and too many boxes to count. OH NO!! Now what?

Well, we did some research yesterday, to have ABF provide additional trailer space (which would require another trailer) it would cost an additional $1,300 – don't have since we have depleted all our savings over the last couple of years. So the most likely scenario is to rent a u-haul 6'x12' trailer, which is only (like I have this laying around) $542.00. Plus, we have to have a hitch installed onto my Caravan, which we want to have done anyway, so that cost of $289 (OUCH!!) we will absorb, but here's hoping we get a little more assistance with the moving expenses.

It's amazing how much this has cost so far and we haven't even left the state. The numbers are astonishing considering we are doing this on our own and trying to keep the costs down. Instead of buying our supplies from U-haul or another storage/moving supply place, we've been buying boxes & packing paper from Home Depot (way cheaper) and packing tape from Sam's Club, but we still have spent $263.56 on supplies – here's hoping we don't have to buy any more. The ABF trailer is $2,188 (which Jay & I did separate quotes online and mine was $2564, so we went with his – not sure why the discrepancy). Then the U-haul trailer is $542.00. The gas is estimated (according to http://www.fuelcostcalculator.com/) Jay's will be $145 and my van will be $215 (before towing a trailer) to go from Cols to Omaha to Bismarck. Then we still have hotel expense ($89 + tax) - have you ever tried to find a pet friendly hotel, let alone one that will allow a 130# St. Bernard - which we are only doing one night because we will be staying with family for a couple of nights and food on the road. It adds up when you are moving 1,210 miles from home; we will travel 1,422 miles as we will be routing through Iowa so we can see my family for a couple of days.

Anyway, we are busy purging and packing. I have several items from my home school library (over 2 large boxes full) that I am donating, well actually giving to be taken to Learning Tree co-op so families can make good use of the stuff. I can't wait to get settled. I'm so sick of packing and I definitely don't look forward to unpacking. Here's hoping our roots will be planted for a long time.