doodledee

We've been spending the last week or so racing around trying to get everything wrapped up at the old house. You'd think that after 5 months of "trying to sell" we'd have built a fully detailed task level plan with gantt charts and identified dependencies for the "it's sold, now what" stage, but perhaps predictably, we have nothing of the sort. So now we're just winging it. And at this point, half of me is kicking myself for not doing more of this stuff back when it wasn't all cold and snowy out, and the other half is either too busy being kicked to complain or it recognizes that we did what we could at the time and anyone who thinks otherwise can kindly stuff a sock in it.

In reality, it's been somewhat cathartic to finish the move, if for no other reason that I'm getting rid of a lot of stuff. Take note:

• I've got a bunch of stuff that just needs to be thrown away. An old rug, some lumber, the old tub liner from when I redid the bathroom (don't ask). It's too much stuff to just put out at the curb, but it's not even close to enough to justify renting one of those garbage tubs. You'd think it'd be easy to find a way to get rid of stuff like this, but you'd be wrong. (Sure, you could borrow a pick-up and haul it way out to Burnsville or something, but that's not exactly "easy" in my book.) So anyway, in desperation, I posted a "please let me use your dumpster" on craigslist. And this dude replied and said "just call a junk hauler" and I was all "junk hauler what what?" and then I looked on the google and holy crap there are guys who will just come to your house and haul your junk away. How did I not know this? Genius.
• I've decided it finally time to wean myself off my cassette collection. Big step, I know. It's more of an emotional thing than anything else. All those hand written setlists and carefully organized drawers, but come on, I haven't listened to a single cassette in probably 5 years. I wrote to some of my deadhead buddies and asked how they got rid of their collections. I was surprised to find out how few of them actually had. One of the dudes was still holding onto like 2000 cassettes. No plans to dump them at all. Never listens to them. Crazy. In related news, I think that means it's time to dump my 4 cassette decks, too. Ugh.
• We've been gutting and goodwilling a ton of stuff as we pack/repack/unpack. The other night, a debate arose as to the merits of donating one of those personalized blankets from that store at the mall that sells personalized everything. We got two of them back when we got married. (Full disclosure: not on the registry. Also this: no offense if you gave one to us, we've gotten use out of them, we're just ready to move on.) So the question is, can you donate a blanket which is *that* personalized? I say no, she says yes. Hoffmaldo says you have to keep them 'til you die. That pretty much covers the gamut. He better not be right.
• Craigslist. Tons of stuff. Love it. People will take anything. An-nee-thing. Rubes. I kid because I love.

Finishing the move out proved my theory that we had accumulated way more stuff than I would have guessed. We weren't crazy overloaded - it was a small house, after all - but that doesn't mean we didn't have like 6 more jeep loads of stuff than I anticipated. In that respect, moving has been a good exercise if only because it gave us an opportunity to simplify. It also gave me an opportunity to recognize when the neighbor dude offers me a big pile of scrap lumber, that instead of saying "sure, I'll probably use that some day", I should say "no thank you", offer him a beer, and get him the number of one of those guys who will come and haul your junk away.