Outside the box(es)

Switch day is coming soon!

This is how my six year old views moving. We switch to another house. Playing with boxes and the excitement of a new home to explore is great for a kid. Not so great for a mom who keeps misplacing homeschool supplies in an effort not to pack them, tries to fix a meal realizing she packed some now essential kitchen utensil.

Moving also brings the not so startling revelation that we have too much stuff. Way too much. So far I have sneakily taken five boxes of still usable but unnecessary things to Goodwill.

No one has noticed.

If my family realized what I was doing they would go into ''rescue'' mode. ''NO! Not that! I need that!" came their anguished cries last time we moved. I wasn't smart enough then to get rid of stuff undetected. This time around I am much wiser. While my husband is at work I take my daughter to Grandma's then I go home and get to work. If it is buried in the back of a closet or bottom of the toy box I have no mercy. If it is still in the box since the last move my decision making is even easier.

The stuff left over after packing is either essentials or expendables. Yesterday I found one legged Barbie, three stuffed animals, socks that didn't match and two umbrellas. If no one is here to plead their case for their belongings then its fate rests in my hands. Here in Nebraska I have about as much need for two umbrellas as I do a one legged Barbie.

Goodwill here I come. Again.