Categorically Speaking

The inside of my head is like a circus, filled with drunk people and toddlers, all vying for my attention while I stand on my head and spit pennies, tame a lion and try to start a bonfire with a fork.

Its exhausting. It started in Morocco. While we were travelling by van through the vast southern part of the country, my mind was spinning. Questions, thoughts, feelings, more questions. Planning. Check in: “am I crazy?” It was not the most relaxing time. Now its getting worse.

This is HUGE. Having said that – I’ve managed projects much huger-er than this. Its still the unknown beginning. The part where you need to just need all the big scope questions to start getting answered so that you can build a nice Gantt chart that you will just hang on the wall and execute against. I’m still planning. Not ready to execute. But alas – execute I must.

First job : sell the house. No problem. This morning we made a list. Stuff that needs to happen to the house to get it ready for sale. 911 call to my beloved Mike. (Yup, the red truck is coming back folks. Contractor in the house).

Now I know at least one person in my life who will mock me for being a list person. But lists are going to save my ass on this adventure. So there are a lot of lists.

Here is a list of what’s happening with everything I own. I need to make piles, lists and start recovering boxes (because I saved the most awesome moving boxes for exactly this day, and then lent them out recently because “I’m not going to need those in the next 8 months.” Loser).

Here are the categories that every item in my house must be assigned.

1 – personal, valuable, doesn’t leave my sight (jewelry, passport, coffee maker, dog etc)

2 – garage sale – to be packed up and stored until the Spring unless someone comes over and sees it and wants it

3 – stuff I want to sell that will either be viewed in person or posted to Facebook

4 – garbage, recycling, curb, or dump (I know thats 4 things but for my sanity I need to shorten the list by consolidating)

5 – personal and kitchen stuff that will move with me to my rental home

6 – stuff that goes to Morocco and I’m not entirely sure which comes first – Morocco or rental move. hhhhhhhhhhh.

7 – things for Sandra

8 – things for Daisy

9 – big stuff  that needs to be sold and gone

10 – big stuff that needs to be sold but remain here during the sale period

11 – big stuff that needs to move to my rental before the sale so it can get gone

12 – neighbours stuff being stored in basement to go back

13 – neighbours sisters stuff that is being stored in my basement that needs to go to neighbours place. (?) (I hope)

14 – then there is the garage

Line drawn. If it doesn’t fit into these categories, it doesn’t exist. Each item in my house has a path to the door. Not all paths are the same. Some have two layovers. Some none. Some I can do myself. Some I need help. Some things need to be done before other things can then be done and there is a very specific order of operations.

Honestly. Wouldn’t it just make more sense for me to go back to being “that bored and boring single girl who lives in the giant house all alone and has no social life to speak of while she slogs away at doing things that are virtually meaningless in order to make a little cash that will then go towards property taxes and rising hydro bills?”

HELL NO. Bring it on!

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