The Big Clean and Sell

What do I think of all day as I clean out closets, store boxes, buy paint, spackle holes and in general try to make the house more presentable and sellable? Usually I'm very task focused. I'm a good purger once I put my mind to it. Our destination is still unknown. We could be anywhere from Japan to Ecuador next year with everything or nothing in between. In the mayhem of packing and selling I become so focused on the "next item" that I often forget why I'm actually doing what I'm doing. It becomes all about what do we actually NEED to live Right Now?

There is just SO incredibly much to do. For every closet I clean out there seems to be another box of items to go through, pick through and decide. I love the way my house feels clean even though I haven't cleaned in weeks. I love that the kids don't seem to miss any of the toys that I donated to goodwill. Everything including our future feels freer and more open. That's what I think on good days.

However, the "high" of getting rid of things came to a grinding halt yesterday when I sold our Kitchen Shelving system on craigslist. Maybe it's because this unit is one of the only real adult purchases we ever made (it's not from Ikea, it's custom built for our house and we paid full price...two things we rarely do). I remember buying it and storing all our pots, pans, food and pantry items on it. I have loved the way it's been a constant part of my kitchen for the last three years. I realize that not allowing myself time to process all the little kick-knacks that have already been given away or sold (all those cute baby clothes and items) finally caught up to me with this one sale.

Those shelves were one of the first things we bought in our first house that we owned. Getting rid of them means That we are one step closer to actually getting rid of our house which for all its faults I have come to love. Getting rid of our house means we are a step closer to the great unknown of next year. It means goodbyes to friends that I love and most of the time feel like I can't live without. Today that made me sad.

 

(because they deserve to immortalized on my blog)