What's in Your Closet?

 

 

I am not sure why I thought I was going to have more time after having the house ready to put on the market.  I am also wondering why none of you pointed out that I may in fact be delusional and need to hang up my fairy wings and step off my unicorn.  It has been crazy around here!

We put the house on the market and had almost 20 showings in 4 days.  Keep in mind that I have three kids and a dog.  That was an adventure!!  We received 5 offers.  We are waiting to close at the end of the month and have gone out 4 times to look at homes.  It was so much easier to pick a house with no kids.  You could focus on the house and the neighborhood.  With kids you have to think about the house, the neighborhood, the schools, nearby activities, check for registered offenders, etc. etc.!  We did find one finally after being outbid on our first choice.  We are now packing. 

Where did all this stuff come from? 

I loved moving in college.  Everything you owned fit in one vehicle.  You threw some crap in garbage bags or luggage and tossed it to your friend out the second floor window, carried down your fish and microfridge and you were good to go.  Even when you get married and get your first apartment you barely have enough to fill the closets and cabinets and you sell your second hand furniture before you move into your first house.  Then you have children...

And you ask yourself...Where did all this stuff come from?  Did we just get so busy with the kids that we didn't notice that our closets were about to spill out into the rest of the house?  I am pulling things out of closets that I have not seen since we moved in.  And before anything goes into a box, I am asking myself...Do I really want to move this?  We just had a yard sale and I have three more boxes to go to Goodwill.  And this is after we staged our house and filled a 10X5 storage unit.  And no, my house does not need to be on hoarders.  I think that I need to research becoming a minimalist.

The longer you live, the more and more stuff that gets stuffed in your closets.  Pulling these items out and packing them is a roller coaster ride in and of itself, but then you add the "other" stuff stuffed in the closet that comes to the surface as you pack.

 

I feel like my closet "stuff" is going to suck me into another dimension or deliver the beast like that closet in Poltergeist.  Moving is stressful.  It ranks right up there with getting married, losing a loved one, having a baby, and getting divorced as on of the top stressful events that can occur in one's life.  Add to it a four hour daily commute, stressful job, end of school, swim team, ER visit with our youngest, health issues, camp, expensive vet visit, etc, etc. and the adults in the house are starting to lose it.  The kids might be losing it to.  We arrived at a restaurant the other day and my oldest forgot his shoes.  I think my life could be a tv drama or comedy depending on the day.

This is so not what moving looks like! We find ourselves yelling often, not being patient with each other or the kids, not connecting emotionally, and generally not having any fun. We hardly speak, fall into bed exhausted, snap at each other, and are not having much in the way of horizontal connecting either which puts both of us in a bad mood. 

I know this all will pass and life is good...blah, blah, blah.  I get it, no really, I do! Cleaning out your closets sucks, but is a necessary and freeing experience.  There is crap in there that you hold on to thinking that you need it and find that you don't.  There are things that used to be important and now just aren't anymore.  There are things that you aren't even sure what they go to, where they came from, or why you still have it. 

Does one woman really need 8 bottles of lotion?  Do your children really need 11 baseball caps (4 of which no longer fit)?  What in the world does this little doohickie thingie go to? Do I really need all this emotional baggage that I have stuffed in here?  I would say no and hopefully this stuff can stay here and not follow us to our new home. 

Until then: We will just fake it till we make it:)