Sorting our lives into boxes

We have decided to make a hasty (yet well-planned) exit from this home for a few important reasons:

1. Wilderheart's new job is starting soon, and we want to keep the family together as much as possible.
2. The fate of our home is unknown at this point, except that one way or another it won't be ours in a few months. We have no reason to cling to it. In our hearts, it is no longer ours.
3. It's been a long winter and we figured that turning our lives inside out and disposing of 3/4 of our belongings would break up the tedium.

We had a one week mad dash to store, donate, sell or trash everything we own. Well, we made it about 50% of the way on that, but Wilderheart's start date was moved back a week, so we also have an extra week to make things happen.

We have a storage unit here in town so we don't have to drive far. Since we'll be mobile for the next several months, we figured that this was as good a place to store things as any. And we aren't storing a whole lot. The only pieces of furniture we are keeping are an antique dresser and Morgan's crib. Everything else we have has been handed down to us or purchased second-hand. We don't have any strong attachments to any of it.

Clothes? Not a problem, either. Books? Somewhat more difficult, but we promised each other we'd buy a Kindle as soon as we can save for one so we can carry a library on the road with us. Books that really mean a lot will go in the storage unit.

The real difficult items to sort are those dozen or so boxes of odds and ends that we have kept through out our lives to remind us of moments in our past, like a box full of bookmarks that refer back to a chapter we may want to revisit some day. The space shuttle pencil sharpener from my visit to Orlando at age six. The hedgehog dog toy we took photos of against the backdrop of various tourist attractions on our trip to New Mexico. The keychain from my senior prom.

Those are the little treasures with which I cannot bring myself to part. They don't take up much space, but some day, after a lot of living and a lot of travel, my children will ask me about my past. Those bookmarks will come in handy.