I had good intentions when I headed out to CO. My main goals were to help Ryan finish packing, maybe enjoy ourselves a little bit, co-pilot and do my share of driving on the way back, and knit and listen to audiobooks along the way.
I accomplished some of those intentions. We did have all the packing finished by the time the moving truck arrived last Friday morning. We did enjoy ourselves; John fished almost every day, we ate at our favorite taqueria, Ryan and I went to The Loopy Ewe and we went on one of our favorite Fort Collins hikes to Reservoir Ridge looking for musket balls (and found some).
I did my share of driving, but I barely knit a stitch and we didn't listen to any audiobooks despite my careful consideration of listening materials, knitting projects, and our intentions. Ryan and I talked a lot, but with the crazy high speed limits on Route 80 (80 mph in Wyoming, and 75 mph for most of the other states we went through), neither one of us was very relaxed while driving and we needed to keep our attention focused. We drove five hours on Friday and got to Nebraska, but Saturday was a terrible 17-hour day on the road. We couldn't find any hotels with vacancies despite checking 16 of them in South Bend and Elkhart, Indiana. We were lucky with the 17th hotel, and got what was probably the last room in Elkhart around 1:00 am. We were determined to get home on Sunday, so we spent a mere 12 hours on the road that day and then and fell exhausted into bed in NJ on Sunday night.
Ryan is a minimalist, but we still cleaned out and donated 11 bags of stuff to Goodwill, and packing up everything in his house gave me a new appreciation for all of the stuff/crap that is in our house in NJ (and let's not forget MD)! One of my intentions going forward is to really clean out over the next year. I've already been putting things in the Goodwill box as I notice them, and there will be many, many more boxes in the future. Hopefully I'll be able to pave a road to a far less cluttered house and not one in the other direction.
So what are your own good intentions and how are you sticking with them?
Ryan is so luck to have you and John helping out. Packing up a house is a major effort. My current good intention (because you know, they change ALL the time) is to keep up with the cleaning. After thoroughly cleaning some areas this past week I realized how neglected some of them were and it was just gross. And get rid of a lot of stuff.
ReplyDeleteThere's nothing like moving house to get you to really clean out all the crap! I'm sure Ryan really appreciated all your help and your company on the drive back east (as stressful as it was, imagine having to do that drive alone!).
ReplyDeleteYou were so close to me when you were stuck near Elkhart (I'm less than an hour north. . . )! I'd have been happy to host you all at my house . . . And there is nothing like cleaning out someone else's excess "crappe" to make you think more about your own. I'm so glad you were able to wrap everything up out in Colorado -- with time to spare to enjoy Fort Collins one last time. XO
ReplyDeleteI decluttered massively in my old house and I can honestly say I moved more stuff that could be donated...it's a process and a hard one for me!
ReplyDeleteYou guys did a great deal in a short period of time. I bet you are all in need of some down time. My intentions are always to declutter, but I never seem to get to an endpoint. Since my husband and I combined 2 households 20 years ago, it is a never-ending project for me. I would like to get down to only essentials someday, but it will probably never happen. Have a restful weekend, Bonny.
ReplyDeleteThe Eternal Collection of Crappé is the bane of my existence. And living with an even bigger collector means the struggle is real in this house. Our arguments almost always revolve around the crappé!! I wish you luck on your decluttering journey... maybe I don't need a "word" next year... but rather a year of decluttering! lol I am happy you are home and safely!
ReplyDeleteClutter & accumulation are a part of life (anyone's life) and it's good to practice de-cluttering from time to time! Having watched my sister & her family over the past 9 years, purging the VAST & INCREDIBLE quantities of STUFF that comes with selling/giving away almost everything in order to move to South America, back to North America, then to Spain, and now to Peru... it's just ongoing & never-ending (especially with teenage boys!). "Minimal" and "essential" are wide open to interpretation, too. For example, I consider YARN to be essential; my sister does not. ;)
ReplyDeleteWow. Those are long days of driving!
Sounds like you were extremely successful helping to pack and move. My house is super packed with so much stuff. I try to walk around and eliminate things all the time but it never seems any emptier!
ReplyDeleteUgh, I'm sorry for the extra long day of driving. It's great that you made it home so quickly, though, and managed to stick to your intentions, too.
ReplyDeleteYou accomplished a great deal in a short period of time. Those long days in the car are not my favorite. When we travel on I-80 I set the cruise on 70 mph and watch everyone fly by. My good intentions - well like Vera - mine change frequently. I intend to do some conditioning exercises every day and don't always succeed. The other intention is to knit down the stash and we all know how fast that one goes by the wayside.
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