Movin It In, and Moving It Out: Marriage 101

*about half of what eventually went to Salvation Army on Greensprings Monday morning.

Last Saturday afternoon, John and I began meshing our life together--literally.  We retrieved the last of my things from the apartment, which was basically everything other than my furniture.  It took forever to get all that packed up and brought over to the house in two loads.  John admitted he thought I had way less stuff than that.  *evil cackle*  We placed things, reorganized and cleaned out huge trash bags and boxes full of items to go to Salvation Army.  It lasted through Sunday night until we finally reached a quitting point.  We are not quite done, but came along way in the course of 24 hours or so.

I will admit, overwhelming was an understatement.  I really didn't know where to begin, but figured my clothes were probably a good starting point.  We had been with John's parents at Talledega that morning to watch Mr. Scotty drive (like John did)-- and Mrs. Jane, who is notorious for being clutter clear and has the ability to toss things without any emotional attachment, really pumped me up.


My mantra for the next two days was "What would Jane do?"  John was fist pumping.  

Before we unloaded the car, I looked him in the eye and honestly declared that "I have a hard time staying task oriented.  It's a character flaw." In the sense that I would normally start on one box and then flight to another, then another, without getting anything done.  John promised to do his best to keep me on track. 


I was determined to be aggressive with my closet.  If I had not worn it this year, if it was worn out, dated, or too small, it was GONE.  And YALL, it felt SO good.  I was just chunking, and I am not a chunker by nature.  I have an extremely large t-shirt collection, and that was probably the hardest.  I tossed tons of college and sorority tees, but did keep a few.  I tossed my original pair of Rainbows, which was kinda hard.  John was hard at work doing the same thing (I think he knew he needed to set an example).  He did wander back to where I was aggressively chunking stuff and he had a Budweiser Keg tap in his hand.  

"I can't get rid of this," He stated with a very serious expression on his face.

I looked at it.  

"Why the hell not? What are we going to do with that?"

"It came from Gallettes."  

"Are we going to put it in some sort of shadow box?"

"We need to."

You pick your battles in this thing they call marriage.

John disappears for awhile and comes back.  He has my fish vase from TJ Maxx in his hand.  

"Can we cut this loose?"

I pause and analyze.  

"Sure, because I'd rather keep my blue foo dog and Petunia."

We were compromising!  Look at us handling things in such an adult fashion.

John retreats and then returns.  This time he has a lava lamp.


"I know you won't let me keep this, but we have to plug it in ONE last time," he declares.  John plugs in the lava lamp which swirls these beads around tornado style.

"John, that's neat, and I'm sorry to see it go."


Fast forward to the kitchen re vamp, where John is boxing up extra kitchen items we don't have room for and rearranging things.  I am on a "break" and munching on an apple while taking in his progress.  I notice my gingerbread man pan (from Mindy) in the box that is destined for the attic.

I take a big bit out of my apple. 

"Oh no, not my gingerbread man pan.  If he goes up there, how can I make a gingerbread man at Christmas?"  

John glares at me, probably thinking that Christmas comes once a year or something stupid like that.


"If you keep that in the drawer, and I have to move it all the time to get other things out, I'm going to get mad at you," says John.  He narrows his eyes.  "You can keep it out as long as you make a gingerbread man at least every 2 weeks."

Light bulb moment.

"GREAT idea!  It doesn't have to be a gingerbread man every time, just a regular ole person, and it can be Sugar Cookies, or chocolate chip, or Brownies and I can make it be different people AND post it on the blog!  As in--GUESS who this is?!"  

John's eyes got big and he slowly placed my gingerbread man pan back into the drawer.  I continue to hover over him munching on my apple until he gives the stink eye, like get back to work.  I hid in the bedroom and finished my apple away from his disapproving eyes.

It's going to be long life.