Moving

We moved to Shell Beach almost 3 years ago and at the time swore we would never, ever, never move ourselves again. And that lasted until we moved again. We are now in the midst of moving ourselves to a home that is being finished. We have a rather interesting dilemma. We need to be out of our current house on July 6th, in order to begin our road trip the following day. Our trip is going to last for quite a while and so we needed to have our stuff stored for several month. Finally decided that the best thing to do was to use a storage container that could be dropped our house, stuffed by us, and then stored in a secure facility until we needed it delivered. It sounded perfect at the time, at least until I started to load it. There are only 3 sizes available, 7′, 12′, or 16′.  So I figured since we were tossing most of our furniture, one 16′ container would be enough to hold what left. WRONG, I forgot the fact that we have enough small stuff to fill a small department store.

Well, after loading about 2/3 of the pod, I came to the realization that there was no way we would fit all our stuff into that thing. This is after a month of filling our trash can and recycle bin to the top with items that we no longer needed. Our problem was that when Helen’s parents passed away we ended up with a few of their items. Well maybe more than just a few. We had already filled one storage 10’x10′ storage room with their furniture, but also a bedroom in our house and some of the garage. We had A LOT of their things. And after carefully going through the things, we now have fewer of our things which we replaced with the more time tested (worn) items from her folks house. So at the 2/3 point we had to go searching for another storage area. So we began our search in mid June, so the nice thing about a college community is that many of the kids go home for the summer and things are a little less hectic for us residents, we will for the moment pretend that there are no tourists. The bad thing is that they fill up all the storage spots with their gear while they are gone

So after much searching Helen find s a 5’x7′ storage room, so I tell her to reserve it and immediately begin calculating what things I will be discarding because we have no place to put them. So as I begin to fortify myself to say good bye to my Santa Maria style grill and my smoker (both to big for the storage room) Helen calls the storage yard again and miracle of miracles they have a 5’x10′ storage room! I’m ecstatic and teller to reserve it immediately, which she does and we tell them at the beginning of the following week we will be in to fill out the paperwork and give them a check. So over the weekend I realize that I will have to decide between my 2 children, the smoker or the SM Grill, I only have room for one. So I finally decide that the smoker is going to have to go (but after the 4th of July barbecue). While not happy with the decision, I know it’s for the best and the smoker is doomed.

UNTIL we go into pay for our new bigger too small storage room and Helen asks if they have anything bigger and lo and behold, they have a 10’x17′ available which we take immediately and I am now ecstatic, I don’t have to give up any of my kids, I am officially in Barbecue heaven.

So it looks like we have enough space to store everything, it just means we have a lot of stuff to go through when we get back….