The Six Step Program

Step One: Pack up old house

Step Two: Clean/Fix old house

Step Three: Sell old house

Step Four: Find new house

Step Five: Clean/Fix new house

Step Six: Unpack in new house

It looks so simple all listed out this way. Don't get me wrong. I'm not so naive that I thought it would be a simple, stress free process. I did not, however, realize just how truly difficult this

would be.

First of all, how did my husband and I accumulate SO MUCH STUFF over the last five years?? When we moved into this house I thought we'd never fill this whole place up. I mean, really, two people, three bedrooms? That's gads of space no? Alas, we managed to fill every nook and cranny of this dadgum place. Our guest bedroom closet had me in tears TWICE. I thought the stuff would never end...and stuff I don't even know why we own (needless to say we've been filling up scores of trash bags). And the kitchen? FOUR blenders, FOUR!

Now that we've emptied the guest bedrooms, and as much of our common rooms as possibly possible we've begun the "touch-up" process. I say "touch-up" because I'm not certain you can call completely repainting multiple rooms merely a "touch-up." Overall we've been pretty good to the house. There is a bit of damage to the corners of baseboards from when our pups were puppies, but really, nothing major. I have learned a few things for the next house though. Never, NEVER repaint baseboard

s, ceilings, or doors. No matter how in style it is; no matter how much more complete it makes the room seem. JUST DON'T DO IT....unless of course it is your forever home (which we never had the expectation of this being). Never color kitchen cabinets, they take too much touch-up.

All of this just takes us to step two...and preps us for step three. Steps four through six are the real doozies. Trying to find a good school for my PhD that has good job opportunities for my husband is enough to give me stomach ulcers. I am a bit lucky in that my husband happens to be a very marketable commodity, and has a bit of cushion should things not go quite as smoothly as hoped. If this weren't the case I might well have already given up and decided to stay put (a thought that has crossed my mind on more than one occasion).

I'll try to chronicle the move here; list anything I come across that makes moving (in or ou

t)easier or less stressful and any huge mistakes I make along the way that could have been avoided.