Moving Day Madness

We did it! We survived the move from our last apartment home into our very first house! And not only did we survive, but the day went so smoothly. The Best Husband Ever enlisted the aid of a work pal to help with the heavy lifting, and his generous assistance was a huge help. You can see why -- this is what our apartment looked like on Saturday morning:

Jeepers that's a lot of stuff! And you can't even see the dog kennel, our desks, the filing cabinet, one bookcase, the bed, two nightstands, a dresser, two mountain bikes, one set of cross-country skis, two wire shelving units, a sewing machine, and an outdoor table with two chairs. Not to mention two closets' worth of clothing on hangers (I packed the folded items in bags, but we didn't feel like doing that with the garments hanging up already, so we opted to drape them over things in the moving van). At this point, we didn't have anything in the kitchen packed up either because we had run out of boxes. As you might imagine, we had our work cut out for us.

We got straight to work. After picking up the truck and the hubby's friend, the guys started packing the truck while I packed the kitchen. When I had everything loaded into my car, I emptied the freezer and tucked that into my trunk along with some plants then headed over to the house.

I felt quite chipper, as you might be able to tell from the photo. I actually enjoy packing and moving -- it's the anticipation and then the drag of cleaning that I dislike about the moving process. Once I'm in full out move mode, though, there's no stopping me. The two guys were quite hard-core as well.

I soon had my car unloaded and headed back to the apartment to pack up the last of the food. There, I was met by our two extraordinary helpers. These underclassmen women from the local University were participating in a rent-a-student fundraiser in order to pay for a trip to their Intervarsity chapter camp. We asked the girls to clean the apartment, and they did a magnificent job. When I returned barely three hours later, the place positively sparkled. It would have been cheaper to clean ourselves, but this way was so much less heart-breaking after a full day of moving. Plus it supported a good cause, and our landlords had only compliments about the apartment's cleanliness during our inspection. I consider it money well spent!

While our two volunteers were hard at work, I was . . . fooling around in the kitchen. When emptying the freezer, I found a Skinny Cow ice cream sandwich. Now, the one and only time we bought these frozen treats from Costco occurred at least four months ago, if not longer. And they didn't last long, either. So to find a misshapen sandwich squashed at the very back of the freezer was slightly unsettling and highly amusing to me.

That didn't stop me from packing the ice cream sandwich up and toting it to the new house anyway. I'm sure it's still good, just a little mashed. Speaking of food, I munched on this new energy bar, a creamy peanut butter Think Thin bar:

Check out those nutrition stats! One bar has 240 calories, no sugars, and a whopping twenty grams of protein. I didn't know how the bar could possibly taste like anything other than a hunk of dense protein, but it was recommended to me so I gave it a shot. It was delicious. It tasted like thick peanut butter smothered in chocolate. Dense and protein-y? Not on your life.

Okay, enough snacking. Back to the move. I focused on unpacking the areas of the house I considered the most important, so naturally I started with the kitchen. It took quite a bit of time and thought, but I finally got it set up.

I consider the pantry organization effort both my crowning achievement and a masterful work of art:

Have you ever beheld so satisfying a sight? I don't know that I have. After getting this done, I could go to bed and sleep easily. But of course I didn't (yet). Instead, I unpacked the bathroom.

Another vision of beauty! The Best Husband Ever commented that it felt like someone else's bathroom, it was so nice looking. (Yes, that was a compliment, even if it doesn't sound like it when set in writing!) I rather agree -- it feels like a bathroom in a posh hotel suite. Probably because we haven't used it yet, or had to clean it. I wonder how we'll feel after our first shower scrubbing!

The rest of the house is quickly coming together. I spent most of Sunday and Monday finding a place for everything. On Saturday night, though, the hubby and I didn't worry about perfect organization. Instead, we made the bed and then collapsed into it for some well-deserved snoring.