Downsizing (Again!)

A few nights ago I lay awake in bed thinking about all the stuff we need to get rid of again in anticipation of a possible move to senior housing which may come up soon or may be far off.  We have a deposit down so we are on the list.  The place will not or cannot commit to how long it will take.  In any case, I felt overwhelmed by what we have once again accumulated or kept in the almost seven years we have lived in this apartment.  I wrote a list and then went to sleep.

So yesterday I went to work looking over what we had to get rid of.  Jim suggested we call “1-800  Got Junk” so I did and made a plan for them to come today to give us an estimate and take things away.  Suddenly last night we got a call that they were in the neighborhood and could they come by in 45 minutes?  Sure.  So we hauled several items to the door downstairs.  They arrived around 8 pm and looked them over and said it would be $249 to take them away.  I said if we knew it would be that much we would not have asked them to come.  They said what would you want to pay?  I said $100.  They called their manager and he agreed to that amount!  Jim did give them a tip for their efforts.  So the garage is a little emptier with the broken lamp and two broken lawn chairs gone.  And one old golf bag.  The old vacuum cleaner is out of the closet.  The broken suitcase is out of its permanent spot in the guest bedroom.  Plus several old electronics are gone—saving us the trip we were planning on to take to Best Buy to recycle.  

Now, there are all the books.  And the dishes and pottery in the china hutch.  And music.  And my old work items that I can’t seem to throw out when I think of all the effort it took to put them together years ago.  But we have made sudden progress and will be glad we have started to do so when our name does come up at Stonebridge.