Well, we are all moved into our rental house and mostly settled. It's been a whirlwind the past 4+ days....
On Friday evening my mom came and took the kids to get them out of our way for the weekend. They couldn't wait to leave...I kept telling Rylee this was the last time she would ever see this house, but she didn't have an ounce of concern. And I knew Wyatt had no idea what was going on...that he wouldn't be coming back to that house. I was SO WORRIED that he would cry for "home" in our rental house and it would break my heart. Once the kids left I was a little sad...just knowing half of our family had already left the house for good.
On Saturday we spent 12 hours loading our moving truck. We had a couple of neighbors help for a little bit and we had no idea it would take us so long!! In the first 90 minutes we got almost all of the boxes loaded into the truck and thought for sure we would be done by noon.....instead it was 8:30pm. James kept rearranging things in the truck to make sure we could get everything in.
I reflected a lot while we were moving out. Some things I took note of:
1. No matter how clean you think you are...you're not!! At least I'm not. Here I thought I was an amazing cleaner this whole time, but as our things left the house and I saw how dirty the floors/walls/cupboards were I was pretty grossed out. It made leaving it a little easier. I will remember how important it is to clean EVERYWHERE at least once a year!
2. That house was just way too big. Even when it was empty, it still felt full to me because there were so many rooms and so much space to double and triple check to make sure we got everything....and to clean. James said the same, thing..."Why does it feel like there is still so much left to pack, even though there isn't??" Having lots of space is nice....but unnecessary, way more work and a little overwhelming! And the more space you have, the more stuff you seem to buy....
3. We have a lot of stuff...and it's just stuff!! Ugh. I have been decluttering like crazy for the past year and a half and thought for sure there just wasn't another thing I could get rid of. But, as we were loading that truck all I could think was, "Everything in this truck is for sale...all of it....someone just come take it ALL!" I even stopped for a minute to think what I would miss if it were stolen out of the truck....and I honestly could not think of a single thing that even existed in the truck...it was strange! It was like a mental block, but I think it was a good thing....it reminded me that it's all just stuff. When your things are in your house, in their "spot", they are useful or hold some sort of meaning....but take them out, and they are just materials. Also, half of our things are just being kept in boxes in the basement for the time we will spend in our rental since we don't have room for them all....which makes me feel like most of those items aren't even necessary to keep..... hmmm.....
4. Home is where your family is. Once the kids were gone, never to return, something just didn't feel right in the house. All of a sudden, it didn't feel like "home". I began to see it as just materials. This is sad really because we spent so much time and effort building that house and it contained so many memories. But, this empty feeling did make leaving a little bit easier.
Saturday night James and I spent our last night in the house the same way we spent our very first night there....sleeping on the floor in the living room. We were too exhausted to be sad about our last night. When we woke up though, one last time to the view that we will never be able to replace, it was a little sad. As soon as I pulled away from the house a couple hours later I just focused on the future ahead. I knew it wouldn't do me any good to sulk about what I just left.
We showed up to the rental house and did a quick walk-through with the landlord and my gut sank realizing I was going to be living in a less than ideal (for me) house. It smelled horrible from the previous tenant's dog and all of the wear and tear of the house just jumped out at me. It was so hard to move our stuff into this place and even think about calling it "home". I wasn't sure how I would make it through the next few days, let alone a year!
Fast forward to yesterday. I woke up, first of all to sunshine which always makes me happy, to having the house put together and settled. We got to enjoy the day rather than spend it unpacking, cleaning, organizing, etc. James was still home from work yesterday and after mowing the lawn we finally got to walk over to the park near our house. It was SO NICE to be able to do this! Before, we had to drive 10 miles to get to a park. After naps, we went to a 2nd park (one without swings even...a mama's dream!). We also went for a walk around our neighborhood....and made a quick run to Target. Yesterday I was able to partake in the things I was looking so forward to with this move...being in town and having so much to do! My mom, who lives not too far away, even came over and watched Chicago Fire with me last night! It was a much better day!
Also, I started to see the rental house a little more positively yesterday. It started when the cable guy told me this is the nicest rental house he has ever seen. I took a look around and thought, "you know, aside from the wear and tear, it really isn't terrible." We were able to get rid of the disgusting dog smell too, which was a huge step forward for me to be able to see this place more positively! I think I actually really love our bedroom (even though it doesn't have a master bath and the kid's dresser had to go in it). We are having a hard time sleeping though because we aren't used to noise. We even woke up to blue lights flashing through the window in the middle of the night our first night (we live in a neighborhood with college students, so police stopping by in the night is probably the usual).
I'm even slowly falling in love with how tiny this place is. Last night I vacuumed and mopped every single floor, cleaned the bathroom, wiped down the counters, table and appliances in the kitchen....all in under 30 minutes. It took me that long just to vacuum in my old house. Granted, we had already done all of that when we moved in...and it was pretty clean when we showed up to move in....but, still...I will clean this place every single day if it only takes 30 minutes!
The kids love this place! When Grandma brought them over on Sunday, Rylee came running in screaming, "I'm home, I'm home!!! I'm so happy to finally be home!!!" I have never seen her so excited for anything in her life!! Wyatt, who I was very nervous wouldn't like it, was happy to see his bed and all of his things and hasn't seemed concerned one bit. Whew!! They really love the yard and having sidewalks and so many dogs to watch walk by! These kids' reactions have proven to me that home truly is where your family is!
On another note...the subdivision we bought land in added us to their email list and told us they are starting Friday night bonfire nights that we will be able to attend and start meeting future neighbors....that's super exciting!! I think I will love that place. But for now, I am going to make the most of living right in town in my tiny little rental house :) ....even though I have 3 different curtains hanging in the living room that don't match and we are using a card table and folding chairs for our dining.....Hey, when you move to a college town and rent a house amongst college kids, you have to blend in, right??? However, I don't think we will be changing our wifi name to anything as vulgar as the one that popped up on my list of nearby wifi networks....yikes!
Have a great Wednesday!!
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