Things are happening FAST

Poor Left Brain.  He doesn't like change much to begin with and has been dealing with the house turned upside down and in total chaos as I sort and toss things, setting them up for the moving sale.  I'm used to doing this kind of thing when he's gone, he's not had to be here during the storm before.  At least now he knows it's not just magical fairies coming in to take care of business.

The house was totally trashed - I mean the kind of trashed that people would be shocked to see...and they where.  Miss M stopped by with her son Brent to take a look at some cookware for him and her mouth almost hit the floor.  All she could say is "I've never seen your house look like this".  There were little paths to follow through the rooms and piles everywhere, bags everywhere.  There was even a section of the floor covered in clumps of cat hair form where we started to shave She Devil down to remove the matts she developed while in Texas.

I had set up everything in the studio and dining room for my moving sale on Wednesday.  Then we found out that a group of realtors was coming through on Tuesday, the day before the sale.  Hold on - changing course!  Everything got moved out into my stall of the garage and set up there. A lot of extra hauling, but it worked out.  This wouldn't normally freak me out, but we're leaving on Friday to visit the kids and watch Emily's volleyball game on Saturday.  Then there is an annual banquet for the Friendship Association we need to attend on Sunday as Left Brain is president and I have several boxes of Russian things to donate to them.  So this means I have to have the house pulled together by Friday noon before we leave.  I do enjoy pressure - must be why I love cooking in my pressure cooker.

Today I had some friends coming over to take a look through and pick out things they might want.  It was embarrassing to have them walk through the house that way, but what are you going to do?  It's just the reality of transition.  It really helped that they purchased some of the larger pieces and got them out of the way, including a large stuffed tiger.

Later that morning another friend and her sister stopped by to say yea or nay on the selection of goodies I thought she might enjoy.  Afterwards we packed up her car (only forgetting two boxes - my fault) and headed to Pickerman's for some long awaited soup.  I missed them so much while in Texas.  They had to do a car shuffle and so I stopped at the storage unit.  Even though I know exactly where it is I drove right past it and had to back track.  Grrrr.

But, I got everything out of the van and situated in place and went to meet up with everyone.  I delivered a quilted wall hanging to one of the ladies and we all enjoyed a leisurely lunch with much conversation and laughter - good for everyone's soul.  I took a container of the loaded baked potato soup home with me for supper.  There's just not a lot of cooking getting done lately with all the flurry of cleaning and purging.

Before heading home I took a moment to listen to my messages.  I prefer being phoneless so I can be attentive to my friends and relax.  The first message was from Margie who earlier in the morning had done some shopping.  She had left two bags of office trays.  I told her I'd mark them as sold and save them for her sometime next week.  The other message was from Left Brain (out on a driving job) telling me that one of the real estate agents would be at the house at 5:00 to show the house to a family.  Yikes!  This was at 2:00.

So, needless to say, I hustled my booty home and dug in fast and furious.  I cleaned the living room floor (including much of the cat fur she left after the shaving) and rearranged the furniture to make it look more open and spacious.  Then room by room I cleared things out by shoving them into drawers (which many were emptied by donating stuff to Goodwill) and tucking things here and there out of sight. I just know I'll never find them again!  She Devil helped immeasurably by sleeping on the bed while I got things done.  Otherwise she loves to lay at any crossroads, right in the middle and flip her tail back and forth just daring you to step on it.

After hauling box after box of things out of the house and into Left Brain's side of the garage, things were clear and you could see the floor again!  Then I managed to wrestle a very tall (and heavier than I imagined) bookcase on my furniture mover and got it out the door...to the steps.  Hmmm.  I tipped it forward and lifted it (very carefully) back onto the mover and into the garage where it is now set up and ready for sale.  Whew!

I did a quick run through of the basement and decided I really couldn't do much down there right now - it would just have to stay a mess.  Then I vaccumed all the floors and moved the dining room table and chairs back into the dining room (after removing the leaf - thank you Karen) and took a large table out of there and into the studio because...well, it had to go somewhere.  I removed many of the photos and quilts from the wall to open up the wall space.

The job was finished at just before 5:00.  Thankfully they were running about 15 minutes late so I had time to catch my breath and look like I was just relaxing in my chair by the fireplace.  If they looked closely they would realize it was exhaustion, but I think I pulled it off.

So, now the house is fit for showing and I only need to keep it clean everyday - that will be a new experience!  And I can find all that stuff I hide and chip away a little here and there on purging more stuff.  There will be another hefty load of trash going out again next week.

So, as I write this the house looks pretty good, but still needs a good cleaning.  But it is passable for now.  So, I think I will go sit in the hot tub (boy am I going to miss that!), pop a couple of Aleve's and go read in bed.

Long Live the Queen of Miracle Cleaning