1.04.2009

Major Cleaning Out & Packing Up

So, as we are about to embark on gaining a lot more square footage, we are also assessing what we already own and whether we really want it to be incorporated into our new space. I don't want to pack up anything that I don't want in the long-term. This weekend we sold a couch from our basement and some metal shelving units from our garage on Craigslist. I adore Craigslist for buying and for selling large items, and it's entirely free! We'll be selling a lot of other stuff in the next month or so including our kitchen appliances (not the fridge) and some miscellaneous pieces of furniture. If you can, have a major yard sale before you embark on any major renovation. Not only will it free up space for the workers, but it also feels great to make a little cash and have a little extra space.

We're also packing up anything we'll need for the next 5 months at our rental house and anything breakable. It's a good idea to take everything off the walls and take down any shelves that could fall as a result of heavy vibrations. We're only bring the bare minimum of furniture with us so our furniture from our living room, master bedroom, and my daughter's dresser as well as a twin mattress (the big crib - bed transition is going to happen at the same time!). We're bringing our dining room table but probably not our buffet or china cabinet. We'll also tie up our dining room chandelier as high as it will go and wrap it in bubble wrap to protect it from unexpected hits. We aren't taking our guest room furniture, except for a single dresser for the baby's stuff which will likely start accumulating in early April (no, we aren't going to find out the sex).

Jim also hung plastic on our screen porch so that we could store some extra non-valuable stuff out there such as yard toys, yard tools, etc. Some of this stuff will be moved to our rental in the early spring. We just need to get it out of the yard and garage for now.

I should probably be packing right now... Oh, and we are having a huge pre-construction/post-holiday party here on Saturday night with 50 of our closest friends. Yes, we're crazy but at least we don't have to worry about people spilling things on the floors!