Towering tales

So we have decided that hands down, this was the hardest move we’ve ever had to do. A teacher at the girls’ school said, “local moves are the worst…they drag on and on!” YES, 100%! We spent 4 weeks sorting, packing and moving things. What made it so challenging was literally going through everything we have (and we have some things that have been in boxes for 5 years) and deciding if we were keeping it or not…was it going to the farm, the tiny house, the in-laws, the shed or the drybox (which is currently sitting on our future house’s lot). And then thinking through what we will need to access and when. If a snowstorm comes, having our “winter” tub in the drybox does us no good…it needs to be at the farm, somewhere, just in case. In addition, we think we made at least 10 goodwill runs, 1 Habitat for Humanity run and 4 dump runs.

Since I love a good labeling and organizational system 😉 we came up with a process (of course!) and documented where everything went! Thankfully our oldest finds this just as exciting as I do, lol! Everything was sorted into categories, labeled with its contents, then labeled again with its permanent location and finally, written in a word doc for easy access when I forget where I put something…which will absolutely happen very soon. I could go on and on about the moving process, but here’s my top 5 things that made things easier:

1. We used black bags for garbage and white bags for donations making it a little easier to know which bag was what.
2. We pulled everything out of the kitchen that we wanted in the tiny home and stocked that kitchen before packing up the duplex kitchen.
3. Our BEST decision…we hired my friend’s cleaners to come do a move out cleaning…one less thing to worry about when trying to get out at the end of the month!
4. We opted for a drybox on the property vs a storage container. ($300 of savings each month!)
5. Since our new washer and dryer is about a quarter of the size of a normal washer/dryer, I washed all bedding, all towels, and anything else that was bulky all the way up to the end of the day on the 31st of the month to buy me some time at the new place before I need to figure out how I’m washing that stuff. 😉

Here are some of the girls’ best/worst thoughts they experienced during the move:

1. BEST…Downsizing. Who knew we had so much junk? I didn’t really think that I had that much stuff that was unnecessary. But I had so much! Who really needs a notebook from 5th grade?
2. WORST…clothes. We had already packed away a lot of our clothes and we had church the day we were moving. So when we came home, all my clothes where already moved to the tiny house. So I had to wear my church clothes when we were moving everything.
3. BEST…having our own lofts! We’ve shared a room for the last 9 years.
4. WORST…getting rid of things! (Mom Note: towards the end – when all the little things pile up – we handed our youngest a big tub and said you can keep anything that’s left as long as it fits in this tub. Its now labeled as “Ava’s Treasures” in the Drybox. We compromised where we could!)

Here’s a few more pics setting up in the tiny house – including trying to fit a King size bed (and new frame that lifts for storage) in a 8×8 “box” of room!

Additional note…our oldest gave up clothes so she could keep all her books with her…we were quite impressed that she got them all in!

We’re officially 11 days in and a round of colds has been circulating through the tiny house – haha, never dull! Sound machines and fans are helping drown out someone’s cough, sneeze, etc. throughout the space. We’ve learned so much in the first few days and have had many laughable moments…another post for another day. 🙂 But so far, all is well friends.