Little Pieces of Paper

            As my loyal readers know, Kim and I have been very busy. Aside from the bothersome medical stuff, we have been buying and selling houses – and moving. Since April 1 we have:

·      Sold a home in Saline, Michigan

·      Moved stuff from that house to an apartment in Novi

·      Thought we sold our home in Gainesville, Florida. Wrong!

·      Moved all the stuff from that house to three storage lockers in Michigan

·      Bought land on Torch Lake in northern Michigan, with plans to build

·      Bought a condo in Traverse city, 35 miles from Torch Lake

·      Move stuff from the storage lockers to the condo (this happens today)

·      Again sold our Gainesville house – closing today

·      Pack to move stuff from apartment to a storage facility near Torch Lake

·      Will move stuff from storage facility to our to be built house (in a year or so).

            You are probably wondering how we keep all of this organized.

            We keep everything organized by writing things down on little pieces of paper – the kind you get on those little pads we steal from motel rooms: the lists of what will be moved to where, the measurements of condo walls so we can place our furniture, several to-do lists with a few items crossed out, some dates to put on the calendar when we find it, names and numbers of new doctors and dentists, contact info for the tree guy, the well digger, the environmentalist lady in charge of permits, handypersons, decorators, mortgage bankers, title companies, condo management companies, magazines and utilities companies where I need to change our address, etc. These little pieces of paper are blended with floor plans from former houses, magazine photos, and all the financial and legal stuff related to closings.

            Here are a few actual notes from my desktop:

·      67x78   5’ x 6 ½ ‘   Queen   wall – pine cupboard   4’ wide

·      Laundry Rm   Counter 26’   Cabinet 24”   Dining room 13x13

·      Empire Blue  Woodmere   Annies on 72 

·      Desk    47x 24D   30 H   Maine Cottage

This is a bit misleading as I actually know what these mean. Not sure, however, which dining room is that size . . ..

            We have a large dining room table on which we have cleared some space to eat, and I have a pile of little pieces of paper quietly composting on my desk, along with a few bills.

            Kim is an organized person. She does not enjoy the clutter on the dining room table any more than she enjoys the boxes scattered around the apartment labeled “STORAGE” or “CONDO.” She has a massive notebook with all the information on the house we are going to build, and many of the papers have made their way into the proper folder in that notebook.

            In an effort to be more like Kim, I have a file labeled “Movers,” (related to a claim we filed for damaged goods moved from Gainesville) another labeled “Condo,” and one for the apartment we will soon be leaving. I jam the appropriate papers into these folders from time to time, and I can hardly wait to throw two of them away. And I have typed onto my computer a five-part to-do list (apartment, condo, Gainesville, Torch Lake, movers) plus an incomplete list of contacts in Traverse City. I have found that typing things onto lists gives me a sense of accomplishment – and it’s something to do while Kim is packing.

            Occasionally I get to delete something from the to-do list.

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