We're Finally ALMOST Settled!

Over the past two weeks, Scott and I have packed up one house, moved almost two hours away from my hometown, and half-unpacked into our much smaller new house. To me, no matter where you live, it's always called your "house." Whether you live in a brick house, a mobile home, a travel trailer, or a tent, I always refer to it as your "home." So to be clear and honest, we moved to my new house, which is actually a teeny tiny 2 bedroom mobile home.

When the idea to downsize was first thrown around, the only thing I was throwing was a tantrum or a hissy fit. I did NOT want to downsize, and I did NOT want to live in a tiny mobile home. I, for one do not have an issue with living in a mobile home, as I've already lived in two myself. The real issue I have is the way mobile homes somehow manage to not allow you to really do much cute decorating. They are all pre-made with flower wallpaper in the kitchen and paisley in the bathroom and some speckle kind in the bedrooms and den. Lovely, yet totally not the cutest in the world. And in this world of mansions on pinterest, I wanted our new place to be one where I could make the cutest decorations and craft my way to an awesome house. Unfortunately, I've been unable to make my paintings match the flower wallpaper in the kitchen (I think I may paint over it in the near future) as of yet.

Once I gave in to the actual "idea" of moving and I agreed to move to this tiny place, I felt my anxiety rise daily. We lived in a three bedroom, two bath house and we were already bursting at the seams! How was I going to downsize my precious things? Well, even now I really can't tell you how I did it, but I know that I did give away a LOT of my things and clothes, but I can also lend you the keys to the TWO storage places we rented to hold all of OUR junk we refused to part with. The plan is to continue to unpack and rid ourselves of even more junk, and hopefully we can downsize further to only  have one storage unit. 

Then, moving weekend(s) came and went and I moseyed around the house packing this and that. The final moving weekend came and we were down to crunch time, and I didn't have nearly enough packed. Needless to say, things were thrown into boxes, a million trips were made to drop off boxes, empty most of them, only to bring them back and refill them again with more stuff. And when you're emptying boxes in a hurry, you kind of fling it here and there just to get it out. And Scott was my not so neat flinger.  

Once most of the stuff was moved out of our old house, my mom drove to our new house with a load of stuff to help us out. When she got back, she explained that our house was extremely messy and that they just had to dump things out of boxes to get them to re-use, so I shouldn't freak out when I finally go to it. I prepared myself for WWII and that's pretty much what I got. I couldn't get the mile high pile of clothes on the couch into the closet, because I couldn't even get to the closet for the boxes and piles of stuff on the way and blocking the door. It was like walking into a Hoarder's Hell. Boxes and junk piled higher than me. And this was where I was going to live. 

Needless to say, my crippling anxiety about the situation and Scott's mother graciously allowing us to stay with her for a few days to escape allowed me to determinely unpack one box at a time. It was like, "One down, a million more to go." Slowly, I started to see a little progress. Then a little more. Now, I'm happy to say that I'm fully stretched out in my living room floor typing this, and if I look ahead, I can only see one half empty box (now we're not going to look behind me...) I still have several good days worth of unpacking, sorting, throwing out, and organizing to do, but hopefully we will knock out a lot of that this weekend.

Last weekend, Scott helped me clean out one whole side of his mother's shed, and that is going to be my new workspace! (I am SO so excited about having an "office" away from home.) My fingers were getting antsy to create something, so I made a napkin holder and a jewelry box in about an hour just to get my feet wet a little! I will finally have a place to use my tools and to get away from the house for a little while! I am really anxious to have this house unpacked and just to focus on what the day brings.

All in all, my house doesn't look so tiny. I've seen it empty, I've seen it filled to the ceiling, and now I'm watching it unfold into a real home. I'm glad we downsized, because I was able to rid myself of a lot of useless clutter, and we both needed to do that!  Would I do packing differently and start earlier? Of course. But this move was needed, and we're closer to the kids and Scott's work. He gets home earlier, and I have him with me earlier, which we both enjoy. Downsizing is scary and it still makes me cringe... but I'm learning that sometimes it's for the best and a great way to have a fresh start. We won't live here forever, and we're not sure how long we will stay here, but for now, this is home.