The emotional process of packing everything one owns

I've made some incredible progress in The Packing of The Things for Storage. I mean, you cannot believe the tiny little busy work a Virgo can get herself into when she is in the right space. Like sorting LEGO. And not just a little bit, but so that ALL of the tiniest pieces each are in their individual sorted drawers, like this:

And this:

And this:

Which is a close-up of this:

Yes, really. I do that. It's cathartic in a weird way, and it helps me think. I can think about how I will manage taking this entire house and condensing it down to four categories:

1) Goes with us in the RV
2) Goes into storage
3) Goes into the estate sale
4) Goes into the recycling bins/trash

And the really fun part is, I really am not sure exactly what will fit into the RV, so other than some really obvious bits like necessities and such, I'm not entirely sure what will be in the first category. And the first determines the second, and so on.

But what I DO love about the moving process and downsizing like mad is the part where I literally comb through every bit of everything we own and PURGE like the wind. Like the wind, I tell you!

It's quite an emotional process at times - at times I just get into a groove and am in a zone of, "Let it go! Out damn spot!" and it can be exhilarating to see what is leaving, especially after holding onto certain things for YEARS.

Other times I agonize over letting go of certain things. "What if I need it? What if it's a mistake? What if I regret it later???" My fabric was one of those, but oddly, my yarn stashed decreased by 2/3 without issue. Go figure. And then there are those photos you find here and there, or old letters and cards, that send a person into a kind of melancholy nostalgia. THAT part is bittersweet to say the least. And realizing things I thought held value really don't (for me), and it can be easier and harder to let them go than I thought.

And then there is the realization that even in total overwhelm (how on earth am I going to go through ALL of this and decide what goes??? HOW did we get so much stuff AGAIN???)...I can make progress, and lots of it, if I just take one piece of it at a time. One section. One box. Just something. Anything. Eventually it becomes more an more until at some point, I WILL have gone through every tiny thing we own and have decided what I can let go of. A LOT of it.

It's kind of fun when the question is: do I want to pay to store this? Is it worth it? SO many things become a no! Maybe not so much for my sweet boy, who wants to store allthethings he has, but it's okay - the stuff I am getting rid of of mine more than makes up for his bins of plush and wooden trains and boxes of LEGO. I mean, more than half of my fabric! And just all those things I would ONE day use for a project (but never actually did). And three bins of yarn! And SO many craft supplies! And sewing notions!

But I digress. Message here is: purging feels GOOD. Knowing someone else will sell it for me is even better. Well, if I can reach anyone. Apparently Estate Sale season is in full swing, and I'm late to the party!

It's okay though, I'll find the right company to handle it all. Right?

Everything is Awesome!

My family are HUGE LEGO fans. I mean, we pretty much embrace almost anything LEGO, and we have invested so much money in LEGO sets, videogames, apparel...yeah, we're fans. We're such fans that they know our family at our local LEGO store, and we get little special favors at events on occasion.

And remember how my kiddo is a huge plush collector, and has this awesome insanely large plush collection? And how he loves having plush of his favorite characters? 

Well, after we saw The LEGO Movie, we were lamenting that LEGO doesn't make plush...and Unikitty is a character that was born to be a cute cuddly plush, right? SO *I* made her into one, because Kiernen and I both wanted it to happen, if I'm honest. 

Everything is Awesome!

She stands 18" from bottom to top of her horn, and is Unikitty through and through. 

From the side

A close-up of her face. For being all rectangles (and a few circles), she was NOT as easy as I thought she would be to make! But she was worth it! 

Just ask this happy fan!

Maybe I'll make the other versions as well, one of these days. I'm thinking about trying to make them a bit smaller and more portable. We shall see what the Spoons allow!

where wrong turns lead we will follow

There is this fantastic little thrift store a few blocks from us - we call it the Hospice Thrift, as all the proceeds are for hospice care and it is staffed by elderly women who are quite proud and particular. The prices are fantastic, and they never sell junk - nothing broken or partial  - they run it like a boutique and everything in that store is in good condition or better.

The other day Kiernen and I were about to go to the bank and the library - which when we come out of where we live, are to the left. This was my only errand, so I was surprised to find myself pulling out of our lot and turning right.

"Why did I just do that?" I said out loud to Kiernen. "I'm going the wrong way. Oh well, no matter, I'll just turn left ahead and double back."

So I did, and we were then driving up the street toward that little thrift store. It came into my head to go there, since we hadn't been in awhile and sometimes, you just never know, there are treasures waiting to be found. I needed some dowel rods for a project - perhaps they'd gotten some in? I asked Kiernen if he was interested in stopping there, and he was. I fleetingly wondered if they ever got LEGO in their store, but seriously fleetingly. I figured not - LEGO is expensive, and people who own it know its value. Old sets can be resold on Ebay for more than a person paid for them, after all. And lots of folks just plain saved them from their childhood for their kids.

Kiernen's Lego, for example, consists of pieces from my own original Lego set when I was three or four, plus additional Lego my brothers added to it growing up, plus so much new stuff. His kids will have the Lego collection to end all Lego collections, especially if we keep going at this rate.

Thought tangent aside, we got to the thrift and went in. As we approached the toy section, I noticed an unopened Bionicle box sitting on the shelf. Or Kiernen noticed it. One of us saw it and I took it down and handed it to him. $4! A steal for a 2004 (I think) Bionicle - and I also remembered Kiernen had been wanting his own Bionicle.

"Cool!" I thought, worth the trip. We looked around in the little 25 cent toy bin and looked on the shelves...and then I saw it. A LEGO Creator set. $5. I'm not one to turn down cheap Lego - an opportunity to add even more Lego to our collection? Great! I was happily showing Kiernen, then we were looking around at the rest of the stuff, when I noticed something I hadn't noticed before: a large bin on the floor with a huge clear plastic bag inside it. And it was full of...are those Megabloks?

No. It was marked $40 and it was completely full of genuine Lego. I didn't even think about it - I untied the bag to make sure, but it was true - it was almost ALL Lego. Kiernen is no fool - he knows his mother is a huge sucker for a deal, and a huge sucker for Lego, and a huge sucker. Ha! I kid. And I really am a big softie when it comes to stuff like this. I didn't have many toys growing up because my mother didn't have much money, so I completely overcompensate for my own lack of toys in childhood by making our home into what really resembles an awesome toy store.

Kiernen said hopefully, "Are we buying this, Mama?" as he helped me untie the bag and go through it to confirm that it was, in fact, Lego. (We are snobs and purists when it comes to building toys, thanks in large part to having actually purchased a Megablok set long ago - and never since.)

When we got the set home, we poured it all out to see what we'd actually  gotten.

Looks like about 9 different bases (whoa!), 2 big bags of LEGO, plus the medium bag of LEGO Creator. Cool!

 A close-up of the first bag - looks like some castle stuff:

 Bag two looks like some kind of underwater set...

 

The LEGO creator bag with miscellaneous pieces:

  

We poured it all out on the floor to see what's there.

Whoa! Click any photo to embiggen and see more detail.

 

a whole ship already built from the underwater set: 

 Parts of a castle:

 The LEGO creator pieces all poured out:

Some kind of ship that isn't actually LEGO:

Then later, I went online to see what the sets actually were, because it looks very much like we have two full sets - and I mean the big sets - plus some assorted bases and pieces. MSRP on EACH of these two sets is around $90. Not including the Creator set, NOT including the Bionicle. We bought over $180 in Lego for less than $50. The deal seeker in me is elated. The kid in me is screaming with joy. The me in me is totally blissed out.

Oh, and the sets themselves?

Royal Knights Castle and Neptune Discovery Lab

The directions weren't included, but Kiernen now knows we can look up directions online, which we have, and are building the castle set currently. He is truly delighted in this new score, as am I.

All for having taken a 'wrong' turn and deciding to go where that led us.