Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Welcome 2013! (And How I Got Here)

Happy New Year!  I bet today there are all sorts of blog posts from folks who had started blogging but got sidetracked away from it during the year (like me!).  I'm not making it a resolution to blog more, but I am going to try to be more on top of it.  

Obviously, the move in November threw me right off track.  It was a struggle in a few ways and so simple in many others.  As we left the house we'd lived in for the last 3 and a half years we worried endlessly about all the things we assumed we'd have to pay for.  Having heard numerous times that the management company was very unforgiving we couldn't help wonder what would be considered normal wear and tear, would we have to pay full price for the carpet replacement (which was certain to be needed in 2 rooms), even though the blinds were ancient when we moved in, would they try and hit us with that charge as well?  It was nerve wracking.  

I'm happy to report that after 4 days of exhausting (over)cleaning (my guys hated how much of a task master I was) we got charged....zero.  Our move out was amazing.  The final walk through took minutes, we turned over our keys and boom.  It was all done.  It's strange, you know, I've never walked away from a place we've lived and still lived in the same city.  When I got to pick Deac up from school (right across the street from the old place) I see it, with new cars in the driveway.  It's kind of trippy.  :)

As for the new place?  It's fantastic.  We lost a TON of space.  We had a little over 1600 square feet in the old house, plus a garage and a gigantic back yard.  Now we're in a 1000 square foot apartment, with a little patio.  You know what I found out?  Decluttering is not so hard when you have no choice but to decide what is worth keeping.  We wound up having 2 yard sales.  The first was a success and the second got me 30 bucks and I wound up giving the rest away.  It was a good deal really, someone hauled off all of my unwanted stuff in a matter of minutes.  That "free" sign is a bit of a miracle worker.  The movers came and packed and moved us and by the time everything was in the new place (boxed) we realized we hadn't gotten rid of enough.  Not wanting to pay for a big storage space we committed to paring down even more.  This was a little harder, since I felt I'd already gotten rid of everything I could.  Guess what, though?  We did it.  Well.  We have very little clutter, very little we don't need here.  Losing the storage space was hard, but we got creative.  

I'd like to say that moving forward I'm going to (for sure) have cute projects to work on, but it's uncertain for now.  The hubs is on terminal leave (wow!  so hard to believe his military career is done) and will be looking for full time work soon and I will have to start looking for something part time as well.  2013 is both scary and full of promise.  I do have a few goals in mind, though, so I'll be here, typing away, updating, decluttering (if it becomes an issue), thrifting, reviewing and planning.  

Welcome 2013!


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