There comes a point where you just know it is time to move out of your home. The first three months they pretty much treat you as delinquent. In fact, even though I knew I would be moving out into one of my rental properties so I could homestead it and possibly afford it, they told me I had to be behind three months in payments and have it listed for sale three months before they would talk to me about a Deed-in Lieu. So I moved after two months, leaving the house empty.

My son flew in to help my other son move me in a weekend and with the help of a U Haul we got most of me out. The residue that didn’t fit took me several months to move out and some i just left. My intentions were good, but it was so hard to go back and actually debilitating after awhile. Cleaning a house you are abandoning feels very different than fixing up a house you are selling. Either way it goes, in my case, was going to be a big loss. The house I was moving into was a wreck, and I was worried everyday about earning enough money to pay my bills with real estate. I had to pretty much block out what was happening as I went about showing excited first time buyers potential homes.

That was a lot like going to a friend’s wedding when you are separated yourself. You feel somewhat conflicted with your value system. You still believe in marriage, yours just isn’t in the best of shape. I also found it really difficult to have my home on the market during the time I was there. I didn’t feel as good about showing it as I had previous homes, and it was a bit chaotic as I tried to pack.It was time to leave.

When the time comes to move, you have to start choosing what you can take with you. Often our first move is to a family member’s, a smaller house or apartment, and there may not be room for everything you have in your home now. Is there already a washer and dryer? Can you take the piano your son has been learning to play? What to do with all the extra furniture you spent years accumulating? Worse than that are things you bought that perhaps are still on your credit cards? I don’t even know what happens with Rooms 2 Go or furniture paid on time….do they come and get it?

You have no money for storage spaces, you are wishing you had joined the neighborhood garage sale a month before, but you were still hoping you could stay at that point.More things get tossed in huge garbage bags to be sorted later. Its the most disorganized packing you have ever done.Perhaps because you are losing your mind in the process? How can you stay organized when life is upside down and topsy turvy at the same time? Multiply this times the number of family members looking to you for calming answers….I only had a dog but was constantly aware of how much more painful and difficult this would have been had my sons still been under my roof!

And people wonder “why did they leave all this stuff in the closet?” It’s kind of like what would you bring if your house caught fire and you only had minutes to grab the important stuff. If we look around and the people that matter and the animals are with us it’s a success….we just pray we will never remember or need all the things that didn’t make it.