It all began the year we got married. Mike rented a condo with his mom. They couldn't agree who should have it when we got married, so they both moved out. We moved them out. It was a local move, and neither of them had too much stuff. Most of Mike's mom's things were in Las Vegas with his Dad. She was only in town for the 4 days she worked. It was a relatively painless move.
Soon after, Mike moved his stuff into the duplex we were to live in. Then, a couple months latter, after the wedding, I moved in. In less than 3 months we moved out and into University housing. We only lasted there for another 4 or so months. We bought our first home, and I thought it would last for years.
Less than 2 years latter Mike was accepted to medical school in Washington DC. That was when the hoarding began. I started scavenging for boxes. Costco, the grocery store, book stores, and even sporting goods stores. I began my collection. It slowly grew over the next couple of months as we began packing up our little home and all of the items we had accumulated for our new little boy. We moved ourselves to the DC suburbs to a small apartment at the end of the metro line. I carefully salvaged as many boxes as I could and stored them on our little balcony. We lasted almost two years in that place before our growing family needed something a little bigger.
I began scavenging again. We had several friends who had recently moved who were also box hoarders who happily donated to our cause. Costco, home depot and other stores also contributed.
We moved again to a little condo with an attic. All of my boxes fit beautifully carefully stowed in the rafters. I continued to collect knowing that in less than 2 years, we would make another move.
We finished medical school and bought a home in Kansas. We moved and used every box we had and more. They had become precious, and I couldn't get rid of them.
We had a large basement with lots of storage closets. In went the boxes. I took a short break from box scavenging during our 4 year stay. The were put to use regularly as we remodeled, painted and outgrew clothing and shoes.
But I knew the move was imminent. I pulled out my beloved boxes to start packing so we could show the house. I began scaveninging again. Friends saved their diaper boxes, car seat boxes, and any other strong box that came their way. I hid them under the stairs. The rest came out once we had a contract. We didn't have enough, so I made several trips to Home Depot to purchase more boxes.
We made our move to Iowa. We had only started to unpack when disaster struck. Our house we had rented flooded and was growing mold. To make it worse, a worker had sandblasted lead paint all over the exterior and the dust and debris were everywhere. We had to move again.
That was in September. Now we are settled...until July1st. When we will move again. But this time, I'm not packing the boxes. We will have our first corporate move.
Now we just have to figure out where we will go.
The boxes though, are on the curb!
I totally had to laugh at this and the memories of moving. We are such box boarders. My storage room is almost nothing but boxes. Garth tried to throw some out just yesterday and I stopped him quickly as they were strong and in great condition, lol.
ReplyDelete