the big move

We are incredibly sore – that is my wife and I are sore. With the help of some friends and a bobtail truck with a lift gate, we successfully moved the contents of a four bedroom house with a two car garage into a two bedroom apartment and a single car garage. The apartment looks good; the garage, not so much.

It is once again staggering how much “stuff” we have allowed ourselves to accumulate. (Remind anyone about the slow, subtle weight gain we talked about?) It is even more humbling when we consider all the items we gave away, threw away and sold. I thought I was doing well on economizing the garage space as we began to fill it. It looked pretty good even after the first truckload on Thursday. Friday was not so kind to me.

After emptying the attics in the garage and the master bedroom I realized my dreams of having it look like anything but a storage space were fading quickly. Last night put those vain hopes to rest for good. But there is a spot for the freezer and enough room to get to it and safely open it.

I think I will have a sign printed to be hung at the garage opening that will read, “Danger: Do NOT Sneeze or Cough in Garage - Life-threatening Avalanche may occur! Or I could put one on the exterior on the garage door that reads. “Open door slowly as contents may have shifted since this door was last opened!

(Where was our son during this move? He was at a basketball tournament Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Lucky, huh? Not to worry, he will spend the next several evenings helping clean the now empty house. Hope he didn’t have big plans for those evenings.)

This move has been a true reminder that there is very often “no easy way”. I have teased my wife and our kids about the need to move every seven years or so in order to purge some of the unnecessary accumulation out of our lives. Sadly, we are on track. Even sadder still, we throw away way too much junk every time we do move.

If only I could be confident that we are storing up that much treasure in Heaven.