Someone once told me — the first rule of moving is “If you don’t LOVE it (L.O.V.E, Love, love it), get rid of it BEFORE you move.  Don’t pay to move s.t.u.f.f., only to throw it out on the other side.”

So Peter and I have been putting everything to the LOVE test, as we pack.  If I don’t love it enough to give it the “Wrap in Paper, Roll in the Bubble Wrap, Tape it Up, and Tuck it securely in a Box” treatment — it’s gotta go!

The letting go has been remarkably easy.  I wondered if I would be attached to my s.t.u.f.f. — but I haven’t been.  I’m experiencing an existential “lightening” of my life through the sifting and sorting process.  I believe Peter and I will live a “lighter” life when we land.  That thought makes me incredibly happy.

Another bonus to sorting and eliminating our “unloved stuff”…..(can’t manage to call it trash, yet)…others have been finding value in it.   Week after week, as garbage day approaches,  we have been placing things at the curb.  (Perhaps the curb is the one place that screams “free” – without a sign).  Folks have been coming around and picking it up.  First it was the metal seekers, the recyclers.  Taking anything metallic they could find.  Then the flea market finders came along.  Now – it’s come down to those items that still look nice, but don’t fit us anymore.  I think the neighbors are into this game of Trash-to-Treasure.  A few lamps, a bakers rack, our patio table, and our old kitchen table with 4 chairs…..they barely lasted 30 mins and —- Wooosh — Gone.

Enjoy them folks.  I will choose to imagine a little girl somewhere, with her coloring book and crayons spread out all over that table…..coloring away with a song in her heart and on her lips.  <3   #ChooseHappiness365 (156/365)

Ciao for now….Diane