The long move has begun! Our lease ended on the last day of July, so we have been living at my parents’ house for about a week. It’s been a fun week, and a huge blessing to spend time with them before we go. Moving out of our apartment was bittersweet. I am excited to go and take the next step toward the Caribbean, medical school, and Africa, but at the same time it was hard to leave our home. Our first home together will always be a special place to me. I could hardly think of leaving it for the last couple weeks we lived there. What made it much easier to go was the packing disaster, the endless sorting, and the cleaning. Especially cleaning the roof of the oven. Yikes.
Before:
We couldn’t have a yard sale because my parents’ HOA only allows yard sales on two designated Saturdays each year. The only exception is if someone dies, and naturally we had no volunteers, so we decided to sell most of our stuff on Facebook. We sold almost everything! Thank you to everyone who bought something from us. We sold all our furniture, half our books, and most of everything else. Happily, my parents gave us two cabinets in the garage to store things like our dishes, our cookware, bedding, etc. I used to be so sentimental when it came to things. As a child, I rarely threw away anything that could be used in the future. I’m still a little sentimental– I keep gifts, I keep letters, I keep cards, and I keep photos. But when it comes to other stuff, I realize that if I am going to move overseas and be rather mobile for the next ten or perhaps even twenty years of my life, I can’t get attached to much. That’s how it goes when you’re an expat.
Even with that attitude, I found that we still have so much stuff! I think I’ve sorted through the same stuff seven times, and I have to admit that I’m getting tired of seeing the same things over and over. (I’ve had fantasies of lighting it all on fire.) Everything that is not packed right now has to consolidate into four suitcases and four carryons. Three of the four suitcases are already packed. Good thing I like puzzles.
Ben made a very delightful discovery last week. American University of the Caribbean has a classifieds page on Facebook. I’ve already claimed almost everything we need for our household! We’ll pick it all up and pay for it when we land. It’s a great way to save money. I think everything will be between $200-$300. We just dissolved our first home. Soon, we’ll be starting over again.
