The beginning of the end

We're continuing to work on clearing things out of the house. And I use the words "continuing" and "work" very loosely. As always, just walking in the door is exhausting and I don't usually get very much done. I'm better at jobs that take me away from the house, like Goodwill trips and selling/delivering things.

So far the books netted us $42. The four garbage bags of clothes and 40 or so boxes of nice dress shoes yielded just over $30. And that was Buffalo Exchange and Redlight *combined.* I hate those places. I don't know where they get all the crap they sell because I have yet to meet anyone who's had a successful time trying to sell them stuff. Whatever. We Goodwilled all the clothes and the shoes will go to a consignment shop. They're nice shoes. Traci continues to weep that her feet are not size 9. Ironically mine are, but the majority are not things I would willingly put on my feet. I did take a few of the less tortuous shoes for dress up emergencies, such as my upcoming interview.

Today we got a storage space which means that Traci will be putting everything she wants to take to D.C. into it. It's the beginning of the end, because without most of the furniture, beds, art, pictures etc, it really won't be mom's house anymore.

Every time she comes over, Jess asks if I want to take home the canvas print of the three of us that I got mom for Xmas a few years ago. And every time I say, "No, not yet." I think it's become the last signal of "home' in that house for me. I'll probably wait till the last minute.

Today we took the big change jar to the bank which was much more lucrative than the clothes selling. And I took a bike jacket mom bought and never used back to the Bike Gallery and had them order me a Showers Pass rain jacket that I've needed for months now.

I can't get past the irony that I now have money to get all this stuff I've been 'needing' but every time I hand over my credit card, I just think how much I'd rather be broke and have my mom back.

To top it all off, Traci found a mug in the cupboards today that says, "Mom- without you, I go all to pieces!" Yeah, I don't think we'll be keeping that one.