“32 years from now it won’t matter what shoes you wore or how many bundt pans you owned. It won’t matter what books you read, or how many rolls of film you took of your children. What will really matter is what you learned and how you used it.”

No, what will really matter is how you have saved it all and now it is stuck in every nook and cranny of the home you are moving out of and now you have to deal with it! 

It took us two full months to pack up our home, get it ready to sell and move 110 miles up north to be closer to our kids. It took two storage units, over 100 moving boxes, six trips to the dump, trips to the recycle center and hazards waste site, and a constant Goodwill box in the back of my car. It took a lot of work. 

I started packing in my office, thinking that would be the easiest. But the photos of my boys as children bogged me down until I finally just tucked them all in a box and labeled it “Sorry, I love you,” Mom. I moved next to the kitchen where I did a stellar job of purging (unless you count the three sets of dishes I held on to). Once I hit the bedrooms I was in liquidate mode and I threw out clothes like mad. If it did not “spark joy” it was gone. Most days I fell into bed so tired and sore I had no energy to question what we were doing. But I knew in my heart is was right.

I envisioned taking daily photos of boxes systematically all lined up, a journal of sort.  But that just didn’t happen. I was happy to have my phone to take photos here and there and not worry too much about documenting it in any kind of organized manner.

I did my best to keep up with our big vegetable garden and the flower beds. I even baked bread one day. I spent one day making the rounds saying goodbye to the people in our little community. The hardest by far were my rowing buddies at the gym.

Our sweet pup Baker was left on his own for the most part, constantly trying to help, taking things out of boxes, wanting a walk or some play time. So come evening we took to taking him to the dog park, where he could play and we could just sit and relax. 

We bought a new home and sold ours six days apart, something I would not recommend. It was stressful and also so exciting, because I could hardly believe we were really doing it. Our new home is just about perfect and I love being closer to our kids. I am so glad we followed our hearts.

On moving day our kids showed up to help, and they also brought everything needed to make dinner. They cooked the first meal in our new kitchen and it was grand. There was creamy vegan potato soup, fresh sourdough bread, homemade apple pie, pickled green beans, fresh flowers and coffee beans, in case I could not find mine by morning. 

We gathered around our table, surrounded by boxes and ate. I was dead tired and so very happy. We were home, no doubt about it. 

Xo, Cathy