January Recap

On By Suzanne@PictureRetirementIn month in review, retirement

Malcolm celebrated his 69th birthday this month. It wasn’t exactly a celebration, just an acknowledgment of sorts. I sang “Happy Birthday…” while packing boxes. Yep, we sold the house. Before we had time to list it with a Realtor, a neighbor knocked on our door with interest. Long story short, our move date is March 1st, and although we are on track, there is still a lot to do. The birthday celebration will have to wait.

I asked AI to generate an image of a moving van with Happy Birthday Malcolm written on the side and this is what I got. Hmmm… I chuckled, considering it an appropriate visual to represent our lives right now.

This move is almost as hard as the one that started it all 3 1/2 years ago when we moved from a 5,000 sf home. Last April, when we moved into my MIL’s house we ‘merged & purged’ and delayed decisions for things we weren’t ready to deal with. Well, the time has come to face the music.

Multiple trips to donation centers, lining the curb with discarded items for pickup, boxing and wrapping pieces for storage, and finally, deciding what to take to the new rental. We fully expect to be there for one year, possibly more as we contemplate the next move. We will be traveling for several months during 2025, and won’t need a lot but we will make the place cozy.

We have rearranged and eliminated items from our two storage units, making room for furniture that won’t make the final cut for the rental, but will be needed if/when we build the new house. Preserving the good stuff makes more sense than starting over.

Organized Chaos

While we are grateful for the extended closing date (mid-March), since it allows us to pace ourselves and work a few hours each day, it also means functioning among the clutter. At the end of each day, I want to cook a meal in our kitchen (already getting difficult) and not trip over a box on my way to bed. Small goals.

The larger goal, and the one that really matters is to be organized for the Movers who will take some things to storage and the remainder to our new townhouse. Logistically, it isn’t ideal, but it is what we have to work with considering we are not going ‘scorched earth’ with our belongings.

Other Stuff

It hasn’t been all about selling the house and organizing the move this month. We took some time to have dinner with friends, I attended a Mahjongg tournament (for charity), shot family photos on the beach (for a client) and we put the final touches on our Spring trip. We will sail on April 1st from Ft. Lauderdale to Lisbon, followed by an extended stay of about thirty-five days. After Portugal, we will travel to France, Italy, Germany and Switzerland.

Truly Bizarre

Florida made national news recently. No, it was not another sensational report about the massive influx of new residents to our state, or our politics. Nope, this report made everyone smile—SNOW! There hasn’t been an accumulation of snow like this in Florida for over 100 years.

The counties colored pink are where the snow happened and the little blue dot is where I live – hours away from all the fun. We had temperatures in the low 40’s and lots of drizzly rain, but sadly, no snow. After six cold, gray days and more coming, I am in desperate need of sunshine. I don’t know how some of you guys live in this for months on end.

These photos are from my brother’s property. The little one with the big smile is his youngest grandchild. Simple pleasures…

Lost in the weeds of our wanderings??….catch up by reading these posts, or just ask me, ‘What the heck?’ in the comments.

A Year of Living Older

Merging and Purging

She Cried Uncle

Downsizing, the Big Purg and Beyond

48 thoughts on “January Recap”

  1. Hi Suzanne – Happy belated birthday to Malcolm and what a lovely birthday present – selling the house without all the hassle of a real estate agent and their fees. I laughed at the AI ‘truck’ and don’t envy you all the packing and storing – but it’s part and parcel of the deal and I’m sure you’re getting good at it! Happy travels and I’ll look forward to your updates and pics as the year progresses.

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    1. Leanne, I will pass on your birthday wishes to Malcolm. Receiving a few calls from friends was the highlight of a very hectic day. Yes, selling without the encumbrances of Realtors was a blessing. Packing and sorting are getting a bit old, and we will do it again before settling down. Hopefully, the rental will suffice until we find a new ‘forever home.’ Have a great week.

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  2. It’s all part of the adventure. I used to move every year, looking for the perfect place. Then I married a guy who stays put and we’ve lived here over 30 years now. I kinda prefer moving!

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  3. Good luck with the moving! Your trip abroad sounds fabulous! I think you are wise to save things which may be needed later. Enjoy the journey of fresh starts and travels!

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  4. Suzanne, congratulations on selling the house! I don’t envy you having to move again. We’ve been in the same house for almost 43 years. Just the idea of moving makes me nightmares. Your travel plans sounds wonderful.

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    1. Hi Beth, moving about is starting to get ‘old.’ Hopefully, this will be the last before we find our ‘forever home.’ In the meantime, we will travel as much as possible. My mom has lived in her home since the 60’s and would never consider the possibility of moving. I get it.

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  6. I know all about the moving thing. After six months, we are starting to feel “at home”. I’m not one that likes the clutter so I tend to put packing off, but my husband is the opposite. He’ll put out something he’ll be using sometime the next week!! Drives me crazy as there’s no reason to have it sitting out so long. Oh well, a minor complaint.

    We’ve been experiencing the cold weather in Florida. We’ve been here a week now and have spent all of it in the condo. We even turned on the heat!! But it looks like better days are on the way. Since we’re here for 7 weeks, we have plenty of time to enjoy the good Florida weather.

    Have a fun trip. I don’t know if I could travel for that long period of time. I can come here for 7 weeks because we’re planted, only moving around during the day. But sounds like you’ll have a great time!!

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    1. Hi Linda, for some reason, I am not getting notifications when you post. I just went over and subscribed via email. Maybe that will fix things. Anyway, I loved your new home post. I noticed that comments are closed, so I’ll say Congratulations! from here. About the fuzzy bottom photos. That happens when you add a caption directly to the photo. If you delete the caption, you will get a clear picture. WP hiccup.

      It has been gray and ugly for too long this January. We turned on the heat yesterday for a little while just to break the chill in the house. Next week things should start to warm up again and you will get to enjoy your visit.

      Re travel, we will be on the ship for 14 days, followed by 8 days in Portugal. Then, we will bounce around 5 days, 3 days, etc. I always swear we aren’t going to do that again and then we do. Oh well.. Thanks for stopping by.

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      1. I’ve been having weird issues with Jetpack so that could be why no notifications. When I have time, I need to figure it out.
        Not sure why comments are turned off. I never do that unless some setting is making that happen. Sometimes I wonder if blogging has become more than I can manage because of the technical problems. Oh well. Thanks for subscribing with email.

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      2. Linda, click on Dashboard, then Appearance, then Settings. Under Discussion Settings look for Comments. Under Comments see Automatically Close Comments Older Than ___ days. I have mine set to 365 days. Maybe yours has defaulted to a low number.

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  11. Happy birthday to Malcolm! Apparently, we share the same birth month and year. Congrats on selling your home without too much hassle. Of course, now all the work begins. I don’t envy you; we’ve lived in our home over 30 years (where did the time go?) and, even though we try to keep clutter to a minimum, I can’t imagine boxing everything up for a move. Yikes!

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    1. Janis, you are wise to keep clutter to a minimum. Here is a great article on Swedish Death Cleaning that you might enjoy. We are still far from this, but the idea is to do better. Thanks for the birthday wishes. I will pass it on.

      https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/home/organizing/a43826147/swedish-death-cleaning/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=mgu_ga_ghk_md_pmx_hybd_mix_us_17703649415&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiA-ty8BhA_EiwAkyoa31PKKrT52R3kS_dQxQ5KAMYuajxwy2HoXaiYUCw1Tj0zcotiGjkWDBoCE04QAvD_BwE

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      1. Thanks! Although I’ve heard of SDC and understand the general idea, I may pick up the book (Kindle, of course… I don’t need another book 🙂 ). A friend’s father recently passed away and left his four kids a house containing over 70 years of stuff. It was overwhelming to look at… and I was so relieved it wasn’t my problem to handle.

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  12. Suzanne, that AI moving van image is hilarious!!! Congratulations on selling your home so quickly and without having to list it and show it. But there’s still all of that packing and sorting…no way around that. It seems like you’re making great progress, and you have such a delightful adventure ahead with your trip to Lisbon and beyond. We’ve been in Gainesville for a couple of weeks and it has been COLD. But fortunately, we’ve had lots of sunshine, and the temps are much better this week, so lots of biking and kayaking ahead!

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    1. Hi Laurel, I did not enjoy those cold, gray days. Yesterday was sunny and today promises more of the same, so we should be returning to normal. Selling the house quickly was surreal. We are counting the days until closing.

      I’m glad to do the work and purge a little deeper. Malcolm says my favorite words are ‘pitch it.’ It has been an eye-opener regarding our addiction to consumerism. Having three and sometimes four of the same item is shameful.

      Enjoy your time in Gainesville. I am seeing lots of Manatee photos from the springs up there.

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  14. Ha, the weather you describe (grey, cold, drizzly) constitutes most of an English year! An American exile stationed in London once said to me…..”in London it only rains once a year. Starts in January, ends in December”. Anyway, good luck with the move(s)!

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    1. Phil, no wonder you guys stay on the road!!! Grey, even rainy days don’t bother me when we are traveling. Everything is shiny and new regardless of the weather. When I’m home, I need sunshine, every day. Thanks for sending ‘good luck’ we will need it to get through this.

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  15. Moving is never easy even though you two have had more practice at it than we have – I dread one day having to do something about the 38 years (and counting!) accumulation of stuff in our home! Good luck with it all, although I sense from all you say that you’re pretty much on top of things, despite the challenges 🙂

    I saw photos of all that snow on a friend’s post on Facebook. He lives near Tallahassee and he and his family have been delighted by it, but I think are glad to see the back of it now.

    Your planned trip sounds very exciting and I’ll look forward to following your adventures in Europe. A shame though that you won’t be coming anywhere near me in London – maybe another time!

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    1. Sarah, check out the article I referenced for Janis. Doing everything you can now will make the ultimate move so much easier. We are not getting younger and unfortunately, life will get harder. We still have a long way to go to make it easy for our daughter, but we are making progress.

      We considered London as a ‘fly home’ point, but that didn’t work out. Maybe next time.

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  16. Sorting through household stuff, memorabilia, and assorted “just in case” junk is… tedious. We’re doing that on a somewhat erratic schedule because eventually we will decide to downsize. I’ve been involved with three older relatives who left their mess for the young ones, and I won’t do that to anyone. Still, not exactly enjoying the letting go process as much as I thought I would.

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  17. Ally, the letting go part is hard. We kept things we shouldn’t, but since this is not our final move, we put those in the ‘just in case’ category. We will purge again when we shift the contents of the storage units into the ‘right size’ house. Hopefully, that will happen within the next two years. The trick is to stop buying STUFF. Sounds simple, right? Good for you for starting the process and taking your time. One closet at a time…

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  18. Happy Birthday to Malcolm! It is hard to know sometimes what to part with, and what to keep! It sounds like you are doing a very good job, keeping your favorite things, and letting go of the rest. It is good to make room for new dreams and new adventures. Happy planning for your upcoming trip, and the best of luck with moving!!!

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  19. Hi Linda, ‘making room for new dreams’ is a beautiful way to summarize this move. Thank you. We are making good progress on the trip planning and now have most of the pieces in place. We like to leave a little wiggle room for misadventure. 🙂 Have a great week.

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  20. Amusing AI production. I wonder why it thought the van portion should be perpendicular to the vehicle? Good luck with the next move. You could write a how to book about all this.

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    1. Tracey, that was my 4th or 5th attempt with the van image. It cracked me up.

      Malcolm and I could go into the moving business, so writing a book would be the next best thing. Today he built a crate to store the chandelier. It is masterful. I’ll include a photo in the next post. Thanks for dropping by and have a great week.

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  21. I love the truck. 🙂 I think after your big trip you might consider writing a book about surviving a move multiple times while giving tips of purging because I think you must have it down pat now. Wow. I hope you build or find the perfect spot after this move and can settle in for the duration. I’ve moved eleven times in our married life, but the last one was 18 years ago, and after I purged I have not bulked up with stuff. I look but normally don’t buy just because I think of purging while I look. 🙂 I hope your trip is great and you have a relaxing and marvelous time. Happy birthday to your hubby.

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    1. Judy, even with all the recent moves, we have not moved eleven times during our marriage. Wow! I hope we will eventually discover the perfect place to live out our lives. In the meantime, we will stay in a rental and travel as much as possible.

      You are smart to avoid being bulked up with stuff. We haven’t learned that skill. Have a wonderful week. I loved your ice landing photos.

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  22. Suzanne,

    Moving turns me into a bear so, I’m glad that’s behind me for now. So happy for you that the sale went quickly, and you have time to pull it all together…then take a lovely trip. When we moved to our dream house, we left all the boxes and went to the Canary Islands. Coming home wasn’t ideal, but at least we were mentally prepared for the unpacking. Keep us posted on how things go in the days ahead. Joe

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    1. Joe, with luck, we will have about 2 weeks to settle into the new place. I imagine we will come home to a few boxes to unpack. But, like you said, we will be mentally prepared for the unpacking. We sincerely hope the next move will take us to our forever home and we will be done with moving. Stay warm.

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  24. Happy Birthday to Malcolm – tell him 69 is nothing – things don’t start falling apart until at least 75. You guys are amazing – I don’t remember being that flexible when I was 69. Truthfully I don’t remember much about 69.

    Your postings always stimulate Linda and I to talk about downsizing- it probably won’t happen until we are forced to.

    We have tried to follow your example on our current Caribbean cruise – learning to chill.

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  25. John, we are counting the days until April 1st. Fourteen days of ‘chill time’ is exactly what we need. We still have to get past the closing and move into the condo (there is still no CO), but we are hopeful it all works out. Plan B isn’t pretty. Our best to you guys.

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