We’ve spent that last 2 weeks packing and boxing up everything we want to put into long-term storage and today’s the day we’re moving it. At first, Mick, our Irish Setter was concerned about all the boxing up and then I guess he just decided it wasn’t worth the effort and just watches us pack, and pack and pack. Michael has rented a U-Haul truck and hired two teenage friends, Asher and Marybeth, to help us get everything into the truck and packed away into storage.
We’ve got 90 boxes, most of them are small so they are easy to carry – 30 boxes have art or photo’s in them, then there’s 20 boxes of inherited pieces – china, silver, crystal, etc., another 25 boxes of pieces Michael and I have collected, plus selected books, our personal photos (4 boxes), essential files, hard to replace tools and winter clothes. We only have 4 pieces of furniture – hand carved camphor chest, Asian breakfront, large Buddha, and a Chinese altar table. There’s also my bike and fishing poles that we plan to take to the Outer Banks with us.
Everything I’ve read says don’t store ANYTHING you can replace and we’ve tried to stick closely to that.
Loading went pretty easy – 4 people makes a BIG difference, especially when 2 people are strong and young. I drove over with Asher and Mick in the car to do all the paperwork and Michael and Marybeth followed in the truck. It was hot so I brought Mick into the storage facility – his first taste of what will be a lot of unfamiliar places. He did well ‘helping’ with the unloading by lying and looking handsome. His first trip on an elevator and standing on a moving cart!
We loaded the space pretty randomly other than placing same sized boxes together so we could be efficient with the space since we won’t need anything until everything comes out. Only had a few boxes earmarked to be in front to be available to pull out later – like the winter clothes and files that might need to be accessed. When we left, we still had some space, thank goodness, because we know we will need to make a final trip when it gets closer to our departure date.
Getting home, we have a lot more room in the house but I also see how much stuff we have left that will need to be sold. I remember when Emilie was appraising our art we talked about doing an estate sale but weren’t sure there would be enough to sell, Emilie said you’d be surprised – and we were!
Next step – plan and execute the estate sale.