Packed & Ready

How much stuff you have is a function of two things;  how large your space is and how long you have inhabited this space.  Once upon a time there was a man who lived in an igloo  It was a modest igloo with one room and a nice entrance.  In the igloo the man had only the items he needed  A sleeping bag, some clothing and a small bit of food.

One day the man was motivated to expand his dwelling  He added several rooms.  Even a second story (if you believe a second story could be added to an igloo).  The amount of stuff in his igloo began to blossom.  With roughly 180 square feet of frozen dwelling he had room for a kitchen with lots of food, a stove, many more clothes and ground pads to insulate the icy floors.

A simple story but it illustrates the point.  When it came time to move out of our 1200 square foot apartment where we'd lived for 4 years the process was a little cumbersome.  Most of the time was spent sorting and debating - do I trash, donate or keep.  Over and over again for every little item.  After a tiring week of sorting & packing we were finally ready to load the truck.

I need to pause here and add a little of the trip plan.  Packing was not just a matter of throwing all our stuff into boxes.

Our plan has 3 stages - the road trip, the ski bum leg and the final settlement.  We'll spend 3 months on the road beginning in Canada and heading south through Montana, Wyoming & Colorado.  Along the way we'll select a landing spot for the ski bum leg.  A proper place to make some turns this winter.  We'll continue into the southwest until winter truly arrives then head back to the ski resort of our choice.  After the ski season we will finally settle in Hood River where my Brother lives.

If you can imagine the logistics it isn't easy.  Of all our stuff we had to sort out what we'd need for the road trip, the ski leg and everything else goes into long term storage.  Everything has to be packaged and accessible so we can get what we need when we need it.  It just wasn't a simple packing job.  We'll leave it at that.

And finally the shuttling of stuff.  Three cars and a moving van that need to go to two separate locations and only 2 people.  We drove the van to Hood River along with one car.  Loaded a storage unit.  Then picked up a willing driver (my Dad) and drove back to Issaquah to finalize the apartment and then shuttle the remaining cars to Richland where would live until winter.

It's finally done.  All excess stuff is donated or trashed.  Winter stuff is queued up in the storage unit.  Cars are safely stored with my folks.  And we have only one vehicle with a handful of necessary items for hiking backpacking and a little fishing.

We are both very relieved that this phase is finished!  And that we are finally liberated!