The Black Hole

When last I wrote about the black hole that is our master closet, I was very proud of myself for having cleared out a good majority of Steven’s stuff and a little bit of mine. He was in Ireland at the time, so I had free reign to toss his crap. I had a hard time letting go of my things, I even lamented getting rid of my very dated Sue Ellen Ewing-style wardrobe with shoulder pads the size of Volkswagens.

 
Things were looking up back in 2009 but our stuff had babies and created a new black hole in 2014

When we moved from our previous home (a 5000 square foot jobber) everything that survived the purge came with us and more was added. A new black hole was born. We typically operated out of a teeny corner where our weekly wardrobes hung. We each guarded our little spots with invisible force shields and terrible diseases befell whomever encroached on the other. And god forbid a favorite item went astray because it was lost forever.

So it was for good reason that Steven and I dreaded clearing out our closet and we therefore left it to the bitter end. When the estate sale team showed up, we sheepishly pointed to our closet and said, “um, some stuff will be coming out of there.” They just nodded and moved on. haha.

We contemplated wearing hazmat suits, but in the end, we just dove in and got the job done. We found two baskets of neatly folded clothes my Mom washed when she was here a couple of years ago. Mom is the Queen of Laundry. She will go looking for stuff so if there is something you don’t want washed you’d better have it well hidden. By the time she leaves, we have more clean clothes than we have space for. Thus the baskets. She’s especially good at washing all those awkward-sized items, blankets and such, so we usually let those pile up when we know she’s coming for a visit. This time we saved it all for her and she got it done! My Mom rocks!

Our master closet is now the staging area for all the stuff going into Scoopy. So far, there’s plenty of room and we’re trying hard not to fill it up.

Preparations for the estate sale are well underway. I’m not sure they were expecting all those clothes, but oh well. They brought over some hanging racks. Most rooms are set up, so we’ve confined ourselves mostly to our bedroom. We have one little counter in the kitchen, so we’re pretty much surviving off Trader Joe’s prepared foods. Monday the team will come in to tweak, price and photograph the displays of stuff and one week from today, the estate sale will be over.

Our house has been transformed into a Home Goods-style store!

Also on Monday, Tara’s car is being picked up for shipping to San Diego. She still needs to load up her clothes, which are going in the car.

Once the house is nearly empty, the cleaners come in. This is one area we might have made a slight timing miscalculation. I am scheduled for a colonoscopy on this day, which means I’ll be preppin’ and they probably won’t have access to my bathroom. (“Um, sorry, could you do this room last??”) What was I thinking?

July 1st is a big day. Steven and Tara leave for to San Diego, Zac gets his wisdom teeth out and the painters arrive. We will eventually get moved into Scoopy, but there’s another U-Haul and a trip to Bellingham in our near future.

 
The evening of a long day of purging and the next day after trash pickup. So much joy!

As much as we’d like to think the day will come when we can just take a moment to relax, the truth is it will probably take us a while to decompress from all this intense activity. Until then, we are taking it day by day.

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UP NEXT: The Big Sale!

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