Everything at once

Everything at once

So today was picture day, pictures taken to sell the house. Everything had to be picture perfect, all at the same time, everything, all at once, everything. I was up early, my OCD was fully operational as I was fussing over every little thing. I like a clean house and it's usually kept that way, mostly. I usually don't make sure it's ALL super clean at the same time. I like to tackle a few rooms at a time, then I move on to another project. Sometimes I get involved in projects outside the house, then I let the inside go a bit. But I get back to it because I like things clean.
For this level of cleanliness I needed a list. Not just one list, many lists. I enjoy my lists. I get a great deal of pleasure crossing things off my list, and when that list is done-it's trashed. Then a new list starts. For this move, my first lists had long term projects on them. Cleaning the garage, painting the house- those things take time. As time went on the big projects got done then smaller projects needed some attention. The point is I've gone thru many lists to get to this point. I don't think I could have done this without lists.
We were ready for the photographer an hour before he got here. Good thing because one of the vehicles wouldn't start. We needed to jump it to get it started, that way it would be moved and out of the way for the pictures.
Pictures themselves were easy. We just needed to stay out of the way. It only took a half an hour.
Afterwards Mr. UAW and I didn't want to touch anything. It needs to stay this clean, only we still need to live in it. So I guess our "new normal" will be picking up after ourselves. All. The. Time. Let you know how that goes...

Update...
Here it is 10 days since I wrote the above. Keeping the house this clean really isn't much of a problem. I just have to remember to ALWAYS pick up after myself. I thought I was pretty good at that but have come to find out I have a few problem areas. Picking up my clothes seems to be a problem and I leave shoes various places around the house. But now that I know...I've been working on it. There are other things that I really like about keeping the house this clean. I've forgotten how much I like to make the bed in the mornings. For years I didn't do that because it's rude to make the bed while someone is still sleeping in it. That's what happened when I got up very early in the morning to go horseback riding or running or swimming before I went to work and Mr UAW was still sleeping. But now that I'm home all the time, I can make the bed.

Busy selling things

Mr. UAW officially retired 22 days ago. He ran a small landscape/lawn maintenance business from home. With no jobs to keep him busy, he was wondering what he would do with his time. We took a vacation shortly afterwards, so that got him into a different routine. Then we came back but he wasn't bored. It was time to sell all of his extra tools and equipment from the business. So we cleaned them up, sorted thru things and put them on Craigslist-with his number as the contact. That has kept him busy. Almost everyday he's been dealing with buyers. And it's good because we can't take all that stuff with us when we move. And it keeps him busy. Win, win all the way around!

Sorting thru

What to keep and what to get rid of is an interesting process. Add into that process two different people's perspectives of what is important and you can come up with some interesting discussions. But the main objective is to compromise and lighten the load. Notice I put two things in my one objective. The process is getting easier as time goes on, we have been working on this for a good 18 months now. It's a very freeing feeling to let go of things. As we retire we look forward to not having the responsibilities of the work world, I can see how that thought process carries over to the rest of our lives. Taking care of all our "stuff" takes energy, energy that I don't need to be using. I feel like I can better use my time and manage only what I decide is important to my lifestyle. There are plenty of things written that tell you how to lighten the load, repack the baggage, how to declutter and organize, and why you should do so. I'm not about to tell you how to accomplish that or why you should, you can research that out yourselves. But I can share how it feels...liberated and released to walk the next steps in our trail.

Big Picture

We've been working on moving for 2 years now, and we've lived in the same place for nearly 35 years. Thirty-five years of marriage, raising 2 girls, 5 dogs, 3 horses, too many rabbits, many hampsters, 3 guinea pigs, and 2 chickens. We've added a master bedroom and a half bath to the original house. Landscaped the yards. Remodeled the kitchen 3 times. Painted the house, inside and out a few times. And all this in the first 25 years we've lived here. You see we did all that to the house, then stopped, rested, and enjoyed what we had done for about 10 years. Or maybe a better description is we neglected things for 10 years. So now that we decided to move, there are a few things that need to be done-okay, quite a few things that need to be done. It's a good thing we gave ourselves 2 years to get ready for this move. The addition, remodeling, and landscaping was still good-it just needed to be cleaned up a bit. And we have accumulated a few too many things thru the years. So it starts again, the repainting, cleaning, sorting, garage sales, cleaning, planting, fixing, cleaning, buying, reorganizing, cleaning, decluttering, rearranging, cleaning....and now we are almost done...maybe...

I need to remember the "big picture" here. We are retiring and will enjoy a new life together. We will be in a new area and explore new places. We will be discovering new things about ourselves. I remember riding my horse and discovering a new trail. I didn't always know where it would meander, or where it would end up but I sure enjoyed the journey. At the end of the ride I always felt a sense of accomplishment. The years of riding and experiencing new trails brings about a sense of looking at life and knowing that there are a lot of things that I can accomplish, that it just takes a few steps forward and there's a new world out there to explore. I learned the skills necessary to ride safely thru an ordinary ride or one that had some "wild" elements to it. I gained confidence thru it all and learned that I was able to do more than I thought I could. That confidence building experience helps me whenever I have a new challenge set in front of me. So I look forward to our new journey and all the adventures that it brings. The "big picture" is more than what I see before me now...I can't wait to see where this trail will take us.