I'm in!! And Chaos reigns!

Well, not in, exactly! But my daughter has signed an hour's worth of paperwork in my name!  She has picked up keys for the apartment, mailbox keys, parking pass, and gotten a pile of paperwork. She also did a quick walkthrough of the apartment, but on Sunday or Monday she and my son in law are going back to look deeper and clean themselves (that's my daughter, and she didn't get it from me)!

She has alot of information for me, not all of it relevant (because all most of the common areas and activities are closed for now). 

Meanwhile friends, chaos reigns in my little corner of this house. Yes, we are at that place. Both sewing tables in the office studio are now stacked with things to pack as I go through shared boxes, pull photos and paintings of walls, and walk around rooms choosing what I am going to take. Funny, I always thought I would send my son off with HIS share of Christmas decorations and Christmas Village, his own ornaments and so on. Instead it's mainly the other way.  Who knew?

Since one or two dressers are emptied, and one has boxes stacked in front of it, my clothes are.....wherever they fit. On top of shelves,  and on top of the file box and sewing machine that have been moved to a dresser in my bedroom since they will travel in the car. Because both those sewing tables are othewise occupied,  I have no desk. I sit with my large tablet on my lap, and plug in all my devices on the nightstand in a surge protector I pulled from the bedroom.

My bedroom has three extra large boxes into which I am throwing donation bags and all those shoebox type organizers with lids that I now use for craft storage but that take up too much space to move, as well as an old suitcase with books to donate. Fortunately I've made a clear path around my bed, out the door and to the bathroom, so I stay in one piece.

I started to take pictures of the chaos, but then decided that was just too much. I will take good photos of the rooms once they are finished, packed, and waiting for the movers. My immediate goal is to have the studio finished by this weekend (as in tomorrow, not Sunday). It will have the furniture and all the boxes to be taken from that room (which will be most of them). The closet will hold things I am not taking on this trip like my serger, and some memorabilia perhaps. But everything else will be swept and cleaned out, and donations put away. My sister will use this as her home office after her period of orientation with her new contract job. I don't mind leaving stuff for my son to deal with in my bedroom as much, so that will be the second week (I dont want to box up clothes until the last minute anyway, and the donation pickup is on the 9th). 

A wall full of packing materials in front of the (not going) china cabinet. An an abstract done by my sister years ago!

I would be being less than truthful if I did not admit that there is still packing everywhere in the house, including piles of bubble wrap envelopes to be used on dishses and other breakables.  But I am seeing an end in sight!  I will be sharing a list of what I took, what I left in the house for son, what I expect son to pack and bring later, and what I got rid of (not that much), as well as what I will need in the first few months next week, for those who may be interested. 

And now onto the second cause of chaos around my Casa.  We (my sister, they, actually) have a dog. She's a rat terrier mix, at least that's what we are thinking. She's been fostered for 9 months and is adjusting very slowly. Isn't she adorable?  Even hiding her head? But friends, she is a climber, and just t0o damned smart. She slept on the sofa last night. Sometime around three am she climbed up the sofa, through the barrier of appliances/cake taker/ect on the counter and pushed through, walked around the counter, knocked the butter dish onto the floor and then either jumped off the counter or wandered back down the sofa and around.  And ate the butter.  At three am.

Since all those appliances and the cake plate are going with me, they're gonna have to come up with a new, much better dog barrier. I wish them luck.