Overwhelmed by Possessions and the Spring Cure

First business to note:  I have absolutely amazingly wonderful friends.  Friends who come over and spend hours moving furniture and packing up my mother's house while I wonder dazedly from room to room.  And they act as though they were delighted to do and tell me to let them know when I need them again.  Somewhat humbling.  Am I that good a friend?  I hope so.  I'm learning from them.

So Friday (my furlough day) was our day to prepare our house for things to be moved over from my mother's house.  Of course this became more complicated than we thought.  In order to move a cupboard into our media room we had to empty one shelf of cds....oops...one second thought...two shelves of cds.  This may not sound like much but if you know Ernie....uh, well it is.  Then of course we had to empty the cupboard which was filled with antique glass....move the cupboard (well Ernie and our neighbor Dave) and then fill the damn thing up again.

 

Many stacks and boxes and tubs of cds later we managed to stuff our small media room with even more furniture but I really like it.  Unfortunately in the process of doing all that, our living room began to look like this:

 

I had hoped to also get over to my mother's house that day but it was not to be.  The next day we headed over to the house, albeit an hour later than we planned, and I found myself unable to complete a sentence and bereft of all my organizational skills.  Two days ago I could have clearly said that we want to do this, this, this and this.  On Saturday I was just in a daze.  I didn't quite expect to be so out of it.  I just felt so overwhelmed.  Luckily my friends just kind of laughed at me and set to work.  Afterward it looked like this:

 

Finally we ran out of newspaper and we were down to just a couple of us and when Mel offered to get more paper I said, "oh why don't we call it a day."  I was exhausted and could have sworn it was almost evening.  When we got in the car to head home I realized it was only 2:00 in the afternoon. I was absolutely amazed...

Despite my spaciness I held up pretty well sorting through all my parent's clothes and linens, etc. sending some to the trash and bagging up the rest for Goodwill.  The only time I cried was when I opened the closet and saw my father's plaid bathrobe and my mother's wedding dress.  My mother sewed the wool bathrobe for my father before I can remember and I must have seen my father in it a million times.  When we were growing up sometimes when we were sick he'd let us wear it and it was always a special treat.  It's almost threadbare now but I must admit I put it in the 'to save' pile.  And of course my mother's wedding dress.  I walked out into the other room with it and someone asked me if I was going to save it.  I just kind of looked helplessly at them and my friend Boo said, "you just need to save it until you know."  I nodded and put it in the 'to save' pile.  I just needed people to tell me what to do.

There's lots more to do but this was a HUGE step.  Now we can go ahead and sell some of the books, get an estimate for Debbie's stuff to be shipped and move ahead.

The last few nights I haven't been able to sleep.....my mind swirling around all the STUFF we have and what to do with it.  I think that's why I'm so taken with the Spring Cure Eight Week Plan by Apartment Therapy.  Just as I needed my friend Boo to tell me what to do with the wedding dress....I need someone to lay out some organizational plans for me.  So....the assignment for last week---Week One----was:

- Make a complete list of repairs and solutions. 
I made a list...is it complete? Probably not but a list was made.

- Vacuum and mop the floors.  Mmmmm. 
Ernie mopped the kitchen floor, the bathroom floor and the media room floor.  The rest of the house's wood floors did not get done.  We TALKED about it....but too much else going on this weekend.

- Remove one item from your apartment and put it outside.
Removed lots of junk/old toys from the media room and threw them out.  When transferring everything from a cupboard to the table and back again so we could move it, pulled out about half a shelf full to donate.

- Buy fresh flowers. 
Yup.

- Sit for ten minutes in a part of your home that you never sit in. 
Does it count if I sat in a different place in my bedroom for ten minutes?  We rearranged our room to accommodate a dresser from my mother.  I somehow had visualized the room turning into a space twice the size.  That did not happen.  Huh.

- Look into earth-friendly cleaning products.
We already had some but did buy some more.

O.k.  So this week's assignments are:

- Fix one thing in your apartment yourself.
- Clean your kitchen from top to bottom and throw away old food.
- Buy a water filter and use it.
- Run your hands over every wall in your apartment.
- Clear space for an Outbox.
- Clear one surface and use the Outbox.
- Buy fresh flowers.
- Determine your style.
- Find a new recipe and cook one meal at home.
- Choose the date for your housewarming.