It’s Been Awhile

Published on by macjam47

Yes, it has been quite a while since my last post, so let me explain.

No, I haven’t given up on blogging or stopping by to read your posts.  We’ve had an incredibly busy several months.  In early summer we decided to move – to downsize!  I know, we did that before, but we moved to a large ranch with an equally large basement that we finished.  What were we thinking!  It meant double the work, plus gave us a large storage room (yes, I said storage room, not storage closet).  So our downsize turned into an upsize.

Downsizing meant sorting out what we could conceivably take with us, a very time-consuming process.  We had to deal with what furniture to take and decide what we could live without in that large storage room.  So we sorted, threw, and donated throughout the house.  Whew! But we still had way too much STUFF! We then decided to have an online auction through www.ebth.com.  They came in and sorted, tossed, donated all that we needed to get rid of, and photographed all that could be sold. Wow! Our sale was very successful.  They sold furniture, decoratives, exercise equipment, lawn care and gardening items, and more.

Downsizing also meant we needed to sell our home, but since our new home wouldn’t be finished until mid-November, we didn’t want to move until it was completed.  We had to find the right buyer.  No moving twice.

So we moved out of our large home and into a very small home in an over 55 community on November 18th, the Friday before Thanksgiving (no basement to store STUFF, no lawn to mow, and less to clean).  Our rooms were filled with furniture and boxes piled to the ceiling.  We had paths between boxes to move around.

Now, I had two goals in mind. The first was to have everything out of the boxes and the boxes out of the house by Thanksgiving (6 days). As we unpacked, we found we were once again sorting, throwing, and donating.

The second goal was to decorate for Christmas over Thanksgiving weekend so I could do my Christmas shopping and wrapping, baking, Christmas cards, and enjoy getting to know our new neighbors at their many social events, all while having some quality time to spend with family.  Mission accomplished!

Now that everything has found a home in our house, I need to go back and sort and pitch and donate once again.  But even with all of that, I have more time for reading and blogging and checking in on various sites, that is until our new grandchild makes his/her appearance into this world on or about April 1st.

2017 promises to be a good year!

49 thoughts on “It’s Been Awhile”

  1. Hi M! I’m totally behind in reading blog posts and posting myself so I totally get what you mean about it being a busy time. That’s so cool that you had an auction and even cooler that is was a big success! My parents think about downsizing and it’s great to hear these motivating words as change can be scary. Hugs

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  2. Happy New Year, Michelle. I know “downsizing” all too well. I feel like I’ve been doing that ever since I moved to DC in 2008. Then my desperation to get out of this area (knowing I’ll probably have to pay for a cross country move [again]) makes me KEEP struggling with what else I can possibly get rid of.
    I hope you are settled in and enjoying your new home. Mega hugs.

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    1. Thanks Teagan. We are enjoying our new home, but every day I find something we don’t need or don’t have room for. The path to the donation center is well worn. Love and Hugs.

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  3. Hi Michelle, nice to connect with you and thank you for following. I hope you’ll enjoy browsing my website / blog (I’m not altogether sure what it should be categorised as!) I hope to post about once every one or two weeks, subject to getting the writing done first – my priority. I’m looking forward to browsing here – nice to see it’s a family friendly blog. I hope that anything I write, whether in my fiction or on my website, is suitable for anyone from 12 to 112. I tend to browse in the evenings IF i’ve hit my target – other folks’ blogs / interesting articles I’ve bookmarked are the ‘carrots’ I award myself. Interesting to hear your experience of moving – I’m very conflicted about the whole idea – I keep swithering about it, it’ll be good to hear how you get on.

    Margaret

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    1. I’m looking forward to many visits to your blog. Moving is not on my list of favorite activities, but now that we are mostly settled in, I am enjoying the much smaller space. So far, though, it hasn’t yielded much “free” time. I’m still rearranging, sorting, pitching, and donating. The builder’s troops have been making visits for our 60-day inspection and are sending workmen in to tweak odds and ends. I have managed to do some reading and catching up around the blogosphere, but I am still way behind in those activities. We live in a lovely neighborhood and the doorbell has gotten quite a workout as neighbors have dropped by to welcome us. Though quite yummy, they have to stop bringing baked goods.
      Welcome aboard.

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    1. Thank you. Yes, it was a lot of work, but it kept me busy from morning till night. There was a lot of lifting and carrying of boxes, so I was exhausted each day and slept like a baby, waking to start again. It was fun, and getting into the heart of the move, I found it isn’t at all difficult to let go of “things” we accumulated through the years. Now that we are in our new home, I am still sorting. I don’t think I’ll ever be a minimalist, but it is refreshing to open up spaces around the house. Happy travels and best wishes for the new year.

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  8. Welcome back Michelle. I have missed you. That EBTH website looks a fabulous idea. Hubbie and me have been living in apartments now for more than twenty years and I still remember the uplifting feeling when we moved from the house. Although the typical Australian house has neither attic nor basement, it is amazing the amount of STUFF one accumulates, and it was such a relief to unburden myself of it all. Even so, every year I go through and remove anything that has not been used in the last year. I think I have just about nailed it. I had a dinner party the other night and was missing one object. Something I would never had got rid of, so I can only imagine it has been broken, as there is nowhere else in the apartment for it to hide!

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  9. Welcome back Michelle! Glad you’ve got yourself sorted in time to begin a fresh new year. Congrats on your coming grandchild, and wishing you a very Happy and Healthy New Year. ❤

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  12. Congratulations on your new home! I hope you have much happiness there. I’m glad to see you’re back to blogging, and I look forward to your posts in the new year. And pictures when the new baby arrives!! Lots of good wishes and blessings in 2017!

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  13. I’m not surprised you’ve been so busy. I’m sure it will work out for the better and make life easier later. Enjoy your new place (I like the sound of the online auction place). Take care and happy New Year!

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  15. Michelle, Good luck in your new home! I read your post with great interest and wanted a little more insight into this “downsizing” which sounds very much like accepting of the . . . let’s say. . . More mature years of life, which I myself am not doing a very good job at. (I threw my make up mirror in the the trash the other day, thinking it must be defective; there was an old woman looking back at me every time I tried to use it.) “Downsizing” terrifies me. I’m living in the same house I grew up in and in which I raised my kids and It’s way too big for 2 old people. I hope your future blogs will include some of your adventures in the 55 + community and some insight into a smooth transition for those of us who are just behind you on this new road. Good luck to you and looking forward to you next posts!

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    1. Thanks, Linda. It is a big decision to make to downsize. My advice is to make sure you are ready for it. Aging has it’s downsides for sure, but since I’ve decided to embrace it, those wrinkles, instead of being ugly, now stand for a long life, well-lived. I do plan to have more posts in the future as we adapt to our new surroundings, friends, and the whole idea that being old is truly a lot of fun.
      Happy New Year. Love and Hugs.

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  16. Hello Michelle and a Happy New’s Eve to you and yours! I follow Chris, The Story Reading Ape’s Blog, and that led me to you! I have been looking for a Reviewer for my second book, Garrett’s Bones and my first book Delphi Altair, Strange Beginnings. I don’t know what your favorite genre is, but I have heard that it is important when looking for a reviewer. Also, I have not engaged in promoting my books whatsoever. I entered my books in Writer’s Digest this year. I didn’t get an award, but I did receive a lovely commentary. I will follow this comment with my contact information. K. D. Dowdall Post Script: My husband and I have just been through “down-sizing” and I for one am so glad that is it behind us. 🙂

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  18. Great to see you back, Michelle 🙂 and happy new home! We downsized to this last move and isn’t it liberating? Hope 2017 is a wonderful year for you and your family. xx

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  19. I did miss you Michelle. It’s nice to see you back and hear about what you’ve been up to. Best wishes for 2017. Sounds like there’s excitement in store for you. Enjoy!

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  21. It sounds like an awful lot of work. The thing that’s hard about this sort of thing for me is making all those decisions. It tires me out. I’m not moving, but I should do some more closet cleaning.

    I’m curious about your new home. I hope you’ll put up some pictures of the new neighborhood.

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  22. I have really missed you, Michelle. That moving is hard. I know! Congratulations on the new home and simplifying your life. Good for you guys. So glad to have you back! 😘❤

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      1. It’s on Amazon as of today! squeal! The Kindle portion should be ready on the 3rd. I’ll have a formal announcement then. Wait until you see the calcite pendants that Irene from Irenedesign2011 created. The readers can purchase their own fairy stone like Abby wears in the book. 😲🦄

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          1. Oh my goodness! Thank you so much. Please go to Colleenchesebro.com and look at the post that’s first. It explains all about the jewelry. Irene did so good! You are going to love it! Happy New Year. Thank you again. ❤

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  23. Wow…and I thought I had been busy. Whew! We will face that when my husband retires in a couple of years. I’m just glad that he’s finally cleaned out our garage for now. Glad you are back online and looking forward to your visits.

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