Mindy Carlson

We are doing battle with the house and our own pack-rat natures. We’ve lived here for 12 years now and we have collected a lot of stuff.   Facing a move where we actually have to cart stuff *across an entire ocean plus part of a continent* we have realized we have a lot of things that we don’t want to take with us and that aren’t worth storing.  As if a sign from above, the church that houses H’s school is having a garage sale May 31st.  We are renting a table and we are carting things from various corners of our house to a central space and getting them ready to sell.

Some of these things are random items, like a riding toy, prints of woodland fairies that I never got around to framing and hanging, several unused tea pots, and a wooden Advent calendar.  Some are really substantial pieces like a book shelf, a glass top table, and a whole load of fabric that I will never use.

The hard part is dealing with the toys. The boys love their toys.  They have a lot of them, but they are usually in the same family of toys. Like all the little car and semi-trucks from Cars and the entire Thomas the Tank Engine collection.  Thomas and friends are going to Mark’s parents’ house to be stored for our grandchild, should there be any. (If there are no grandchildren we are cashing them in when they are considered “vintage” or “antique” and moving to the beach.)  We can’t really decide about the Cars group. Some other child will love them, but are we really ready to part with them?  Maybe we’ll just store them.

The  group are the Legos. And the question is how many do we take with us.  We have tens of thousands of Legos and the boys love playing with them (“boys” includes Mark 🙂 ).  I was thinking 2/3rds. Mark was thinking all. Yet another negotiation.

And really, this move and transition is all about negotiation. Talking and explaining and convincing.  And laughing.

I hear the next phase is swearing and sweating.   I’ll keep you updated.

But if you are in the area please come to the Community Garage Sale!  May 31st from 9am until 2pm. 3701 Spruell Drive 20902.