I am glad I finished my November writing goals early because a fair portion of this week was occupied by work and helping my grandmother move. She was living down in the Puyallup area, which is about a forty-minute drive in each direction from where we live. Other family members used to also live in Puyallup, but they moved away this year, so she wanted to be closer to us.
We took her to look at a few options and then compared locations and prices. She decided on one and wanted to move before the holidays, but the final repairs and paint would not finish until after Thanksgiving, so we planned the move for the last day of the month. The early snow falling here complicated matters. We did not want to pay for December at her old place, so she had to move that day. While the movers we booked could still make it, the price would now include a hazard fee.
My dad and I arrived at her place early. She had done a fair amount of packing in the preceding weeks, but there was still much of the food and cleaning supplies left on shelves and in cupboards. We busted out the boxes and bags and got to work, expecting the movers to arrive at ten am. The appliance also needed to be disconnected, since she had purchased those relatively recently. They were too big for her new place, so we planned to have those dropped off at my sister’s house and we will sell them.
Because of the weather-related traffic, the movers did not arrive until eleven. By then, we had most of the final items packed, the appliances were disconnected, and we were ready to take out the stuff we would transport in our truck. The two men took a look around and got to work.
It took them over two and a half hours to get everything packed from her two-bedroom retirement apartment. The process makes me want to clear out some of the clutter in my house; but who has time for that? We drove the forty minutes to the new place and started unpacking. She is losing about two hundred square feet of space. Most of it is bathroom space, but with all the boxes, her living room looked like a storage unit at the end of the day.
We focused on getting the bedroom clear enough to sleep in, then we went out to a much-deserved dinner with the rest of the family. It was still snowing, but the stuff on the ground was mostly slush, so we were able to drive safely. My sister and I are headed back over today to help with more unpacking and moving furniture. Hopefully, she will feel settled soon enough.
Have a great weekend!
Tiffany Shearn 