Packing, purging and starting all over…

Hubby and I recently sold our largish family home and moved to the city to be close to family. With the kids both launched and our rural location, things were getting pretty quiet.                                          

With a view like this, it was nearly impossible to leave.

But we did it, we spent the better part of two months packing and purging, with the ultimate goal of divesting ourselves of 75% of our worldly goods.

It was a very trying time. Every nook and cranny in the house needed to be opened, emptied and sorted. The minutia of everyday life examined and judged. Is it useful, valuable or sentimental enough to make the cut? I sold things, gave things away and threw a ton away. My mantra throughout this process was this;

“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.” William Morris

That being said, I had a lot of useful and beautiful stuff. So I had to add these criteria as well;

“Do you have more than you need of it?”

“How much do you like to dust?”

This last one helped eliminate the bulk of the “pretties”. They look awful covered in dust and they can’t be admired or enjoyed if they are stowed in a box, so out they went! The items, and there were many, that gave me a heart clench when I looked at them, I would think of someone I know that could use them and love them and that always seemed to ease the pain. It’s very tough work and I am exhausted. The remaining items were donated to a local wildlife rescue for their annual fundraiser. It really helped to  know things were going to a good cause. I just kept reminding myself; it’s just stuff and it’s always easy to accumulate more..in fact I believe mine may have been breeding on it’s own, because there were some things turning up that I swear I have never seen before!

 Through all of this, spring came and went. I never had a chance to set the garden to rights or say a proper good-bye. As we were hauling the final load out through garage, the new owners were hauling their things in the front door. I left with a feeling of things left undone and a certain amount of anxious dislocation. I am still suffering the effects of transplant shock, and if you think that doesn’t happen to people, I am here to say it most certainly does!

While we were shuttling the things we did keep into a storage unit in the city, we were looking at properties. We wandered everywhere, weighing the travel distances against our natural inclination to live outside of earshot of any other human being. (we lived in the country a really long time). So when this parcel showed up on our radar, we grabbed it.

10 acres all to ourselves and only 5 minutes to a grocery store! After more than 20 years of having the nearest store being a 20 mile round trip, it’s a dream come true.

Next up: Ground breaking tribulations…