Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

I just wanted to post something quickly today since it is January 1st! Guess what my New Year's Resolution is? You got it! My big resolution is to finish unpacking!

Here are a few smaller resolutions:

1. Make more muffins
2. Find other uses for muffin tins - ideas anyone?
3. Reduce my tin collection by half
4. Organize all my craft supplies to fit on the intended shelves

And in case you were wondering, here are a few things done lately:

1. My younger daughter's winter jacket found, thankfully still fits
2. Many school supplies organized by type
3. My iron found after I borrowed my mother's
4. My 10-cup coffee maker found which my mother used when she had company
5. Lots of boxes recycled, some left where someone moving might find them
6. More room for the kitties who are enjoying racing around the apartment
7. Some items I had for other people have gone to those other people

More has been done, but I have got some stuff to do before I head to bed.

Again - Happy New Year!!!!!!

Flea Market was NOT Helpful

On Sunday morning I left my house with high hopes. I was going to unload most of the tins, and sell some of the other wares as well. It was to be decluttering heaven. Instead, the flea market was not helpful. Not only did I not make a profit, I came home with almost everything I set out with. You may be wondering how many tins I sold - twelve! Somehow, even though I sold those twelve I have more than I started with. My mother found some tins that my father had bought on eBay years ago, so I took some of those as well. I think that out of twelve tins, seven were one that my father purchased.

On top of not having a successful day, I came home to wild kitties. They are not used to being alone so long, and they don't particularly care for it. They are not allowed the run of the house when we are gone for more than an hour or two. As you may have imagined, they came bounding out, spending the next twenty minutes or so careening on slims paths between boxes. So I fed them their canned food which slowed them down for a few moments.

Hercules I Am Not!

Yesterday I made a potentially dangerous discovery lurking above eye level - a box. "A box," you might ask, "isn't what this is all about?" Yes, this blog is all how there are too many boxes because I am too much of a pack rat. This one box was scary because I had to reach above my head to get it, and, un-beknownst to me, it weighed about 30 pounds.


Who would do such a thing? Who would put a 30 pound box that high with a weakling and a child in a house? I don't know, but I have a likely suspect - one of the movers. I had some not-so-brilliant movers who may very well have put that box up high. I did have some other helpers, including some movers to finish the job when the first ones mucked up the packing of the storage units, but they didn't really bring more than a couple of things into the house. Not only was it too high for a heavy item, since there were many light tins on the bottom shelves, heavy things should have been put on the bottom shelves or on the floor. This should have been a no-brainer.


My advice to anyone planning on hiring some not-so-brilliant movers - don't! My advice to not-so-brilliant movers - wise up and don't put heavy items high up where people can get hurt getting them. Just imagine what would have happened if little kittens had been lurking when the darn container of doom dropped to dining room floor! If I had not been careful, this could have turned into "Disaster in the Dining Room", and made this a gloomy post that even Hercules wouldn't be able to fix.

• Flea Market Report: I have more than 4 boxes full of tins for Sunday
• Found: most of my silverware and my large frying pan
• Unpacked: a box of books, kitchen items
• Nearly Full: the Elfa shelves
• Still Curious: Starkit and Jettkit

Back to Business!

It's been quite a few days since I posted. The heat was terrible last week. Even though I don't think it hit 90 degrees, it was miserably humid. One night I had gotten enough windows open and had the place almost cooled off when a familiar smell wafted through the windows - skunk!

I took my younger daughter to a model horse competition last Saturday - a two hour drive stretched to more than three in a traffic jam on the way out, and since there was other stuff going on the same day we didn't get home to long after midnight. It does seem lengthy to keep saying my younger daughter so I will give her a name - Ree. It's not her real name, but a nickname she likes.

The kitties are well. They are the only ones enjoying the boxes. When we finish unpacking we will have to buy one of those big cat towers; it's too bad that they are so expensive. It's not enough that they eat one of the most expensive kitten foods around - Wellness - and that they have one of the most expensive litters on the planet - Kitten Attract - we will have to get them an expensive tower. I guess the food is a good investment as they are healthy and growing well. The kitty litter is worth every penny because one of the kitties confused the bathtub with the litter box for a couple of weeks. She uses the litter box now, but we keep the bathroom door closed so she doesn't get confused again.

As to the unpacking, perhaps your interested? Slow and tedious, due to the heat last week, the long, long drive, and just generally being busy. Yesterday I started going through all the tins that are out on the Elfa shelves that are supposed to hold craft items. I am taking some to the flea market, I have put some small ones inside others, and put things in some others. As I make room on the shelves I put boxes of craft items up there. I can make a lot of room this way; I have a large collection of tins.

It's going to be very hot today, but we have some new fans so I will do my best to work on unpacking today. I have to get to the flea market Sunday, because the drive Saturday killed the whole idea of getting up at 5:30 AM the next morning and getting on the road by 6:15.

Where Did Monday Go?

I woke up early because I had to go somewhere. I thought I would be back early enough to do a lot of unpacking. Boy, was I ever wrong! One errand turned into several, and a couple of those were at least three hours long. I came back a couple of times during the day, mostly to marvel at the kittens' energy levels.

I'm not sure what the kitties did for entertainment while they were alone, but tonight they have been wild. They have been running, wrestling, running, wresting, and sneaking into rooms they are not invited into as soon as doors are open a crack.

• Unpacked: not much! Not even the "Baking Essentials" box
• Unpacked: a bag of my younger daughter's books, a crate of tins, separated into keep and sell, some of my younger daughter's accessories & a pair of shorts I was wondering about
• Unleashed: kitten power

Some Success Today!

Today was better than yesterday as far as getting boxes unpacked. I completely emptied a couple of boxes, and partially emptied more so that I could consolidate some items. The kitties have been having fun, and my little black tiger (yes, black tiger) got shut in the den for about an hour today. She knows how to find the darkest shadows.

Whoops! I just heard boxes go tumbling in the dining room. This can't be good.

Luckily the kitties are okay, and the stuff is as well, although now I have another box that's a jumble inside. Back to today's unpacking....

• Found: a couple of boxes of my younger daughter's model horses, model horse accessories and stuffed horses (amazingly bringing a smile to her face)
• Unpacked: some tins, an odd assortment of comic books, & small vintage items
• Unpacked: a pair of pants & a t-shirt that should have been in the laundry long ago
• Unpacked: videos & controversy as my younger daughter resists selling anything
• Packed: tins to sell at the flea market tomorrow, although I had to take out a couple when I found them on eBay for a lot of money ($43.99 for one of them)
• Packed: my car for the flea market, mostly with stuff I have in my mother's garage

It's late; time to hit the hay!

What's a Pack Rat to Do?

Let me introduce myself - my name is Joanne and I am a packrat. I am a bon-fide, genuine, dyed-in-the-wool, third-generation packrat. Being a packrat is emabarrassing enough, being one and moving is mortifying. From the looks of it moving's not much of an accomplishment; there are dozens of boxes here and two portable storage units with more of my stuff. I am going to unpack at least one box a day. This blog will be about what I've unpacked, and where it goes next. Please join me as I try to unpack, and hopefully unload some of my stuff.

:-)
Joanne