More moving "stuff" and unpacking

Doug has done all the posts so I thought tonight I would put in my two cents even though I don't have photos. We really should have taken a couple of pics but since all we have done for the past 13 months is move and unpack photos really didn't seem interesting.

Here is a brief overview of moving stuff. In March of last year we decided to move to Branson, Missouri but purchase a condo here in Oregon as a second home since most of our family and business are in Oregon.

So I started packing and sorting my house to clear it out it make the house look better for selling and to divide our belongings between Branson, condo, or garage sale. We rented a storage unit to store all the stuff we were moving from our house while it was on the market.

In June with our house still on the market, Hillary was home from Kazakhstan for the summer and ready to plan for a repeat of her successful garage sale of 2005 to fund her next year in Kazakhstan. The donations for her sale started to pour in and with our house of the market we couldn't store the stuff at our house so it all went to the storage unit which was filling quickly with all our stuff and now garage sale donations. This meant time to rent a second unit but they only had second floor units available so not only were there many many trips to and from storage and it was on the second floor and I had the task of keeping Branson, condo, garage sale all straight.

In the mist of all the crazy moving we purchased a condo in Tualatin but it needed to be completely remodeled and updated. We hired the work out but it was still lots of shopping, coordinating, picking colors, carpets, cabinets, appliances etc.

In the mean time about the same time our house sold we were having Hillary's garage sale which of course meant hauling everything back from storage units to set up in our garage for the sale.

It was during this time we also decided we would not move to Branson but to a much smaller house in Tualatin to downsize and simplify our life. We decided to keep the condo and rent it furnished because we had so much furniture and thought maybe even Hillary would move to the condo when she returned in summer of 2007.

Since I had so much stuff I would be needing to get rid of I decided I would have yet another garage sale at our new house after we moved. With another garage sale in our future Hillary and I sorted all her left over garage sale items and made many trips to Goodwill. Everything else went back to the storage units for the next sale.

We had movers to move us but it was still such hard hard work and still so much sorting to do. We asked our adult children no longer living at home to come get all their stuff so more moving and sorting for Tucker, Marina and Hillary. Marina's stuff went to storage since she didn't appear to get her stuff, Tucker and Jenn packed up their stuff. Poor Hillary currently has stuff at our house, at our storage unit and under Kimberly's house since we didn't have the room.

The condo wasn't near ready the buyers of our house agreed to let us use the storage shed at our old house for the furniture that was to go to the condo.

Trying to fit into our smaller house has been an ongoing challenge and I still have aways to go. We moved in August and I had a garage sale in September. You are getting the picture.. this involved many trips from our two storage units to our house. The sale was a total flop. I was way too unorganized and not into it.

Oh yeah I almost forgot my two month September - November side moving I was doing just in case I wasn't moving enough. I purchased a storage unit full of books.(This was at a different storage facility than our personal belongings units) It was the inventory of a used book store that went out of business so I was also taking books to the large used book store here in Portland that buys used books, I was advertising the books on CraigsList and meeting people at the storage unit and selling some that way. so more and more packing and unpacking of books. At this point my family members thought I was pretty much nuts but I was actually having fun with my books. I made a little money of the books are paying the storage unit rent.

So after the garage sale it was many trips to Goodwill and to and from storage units again. At some point in the early fall Marina showed up for her things.

In late September the condo was finally ready to move in, so I called a couple of my brothers and nephews and moved furniture from the shed at our old house to the condo this turned out to be easier said than done and several doors in the hallways of the condo building had to be removed. I am not moving the couch from the condo it stays with the condo for future renters or buyers. I had to go through all the boxes I had marked "condo" to sort our personal items I was going to leave at the condo when I thought we were the ones going to be living there. I even purchased bedding and linens so it was really a 'completely furnished" rental.

At this point I was down to one storage unit (plus the unit full of books) and a garage full of unpacked boxes. I shut down and simply quit unpacking. Doug has taken some stuff from our garage to the storage unit and I occasionally unpack a box or two.

In December we finally got part our home office furniture (our old house had a great built office so no need for furniture). It was great to finally get our computers of boxes and/or tables onto real desks. I had room to unpack a couple boxes of our books. In February we got the rest of our book shelves for our home office. I hate to admit it but they are mostly still empty because I simply can't seem to get motivated to move and unpack any more boxes!

From December to March Doug spent most of this time looking for new office space for The Watch Prince. We have a very unique need of warehouse, office, and retail space at a reasonable rate without a 5 year lease. We are opening our first retail showroom and didn't want to be tied into a 5 year lease if the retail store front idea doesn't work. Anyway he leased a space so another move.

During this time Doug's sisters and I were making many trips to Doug's dads house to help him move and clean out. He was sorting and giving his children anything they wanted from his home so more boxes and stuff found its way to our house. His house of 30 years was for sale and he was also downsizing and cleaning out. His house sold in March so more moving packing, garage sales,tears etc and all the emotions that so with moving an aging parent from their home.

We moved our business from Sherwood, Oregon about 10 miles away in Beaverton, Oregon March 30 -31 It was a hard move and I left right in the middle of it to spend 5 days in Kansas City when my darling grandson, Isaac was diagnosed with diabetes and was in the hospital. It was taken us a few weeks to get settled in the new space and our employees to get used to their new commute. We had a few bugs to work out but things are going pretty well. The showroom isn't open yet but should be in a couple of weeks. Doug had decided we should have a, gulp "Garage Sale" at the new office because we have "too much stuff" and excess inventory. Sooo...yesterday we borrowed a truck and moved stuff from our garage to our storage unit and./or our new office, stuff from the storage unit to the office, pick up our tables and racks that had been used for Grandpa's garage sales and took it all to the new office for next week end garage sale. So this week I will be cleaning and sorting at the office and at home to prepare. Which brings me to why I started this terribly, horribly too long blog this evening I had a huge accomplishment this evening I wanted to share with you. I had decided that between now and Friday of this week I would unpack a minimum of one box each day. I will find more more the garage sale and I might actually someday be unpacked. Well tonight I not only unpacked one box, not even two, I unpacked three boxes!!! Which is huge for me with my mental block about unpacking another box! I refilled one box to take to the sale and threw away about half a box of stuff but these were not just three little boxes I got unpacked but three BIG boxes. I am so proud of myself I just had to share it!!