Moving is the easiest part!

Most of those reading this will already be aware that Joyce and I recently sold our home of 30 years and have made plans to relocate to the wonderful city of Guelph. We have embraced the de-clutter process through a systematic series of checks and balances that resemble the hockey-card phase of my youth ... "need 'em, need 'em, "got 'em" ... that is providing for some heart wrenching decisions concerning not WHAT is going, but WHERE it's going.

After 30 years in the same home, we have acquired quite a load of memorabilia, what with both children being Uber active in a variety of activities, the swag and trophies of my 30+ years coaching/teaching, and the amassed treasures of raising a family. Our present place is not that large at just over 1220 square feet (113 square meters), but it has provided us with plenty of room over those years and is now far more than what we need. We understood when we decided to test the real estate waters that selling would require some emotional collaboration as we prepare to downsize our lives, and we agreed to give condo life an honest try, if only for a year at minimum. The condo that we have signed a lease on is almost the exact same square footage as our home at 1200, but we're convinced that it's accomplished with some sort of mirage or smoke and mirrors because there's no way they're the same. Regardless, the de-cluttering is nearing full power right now.

I'm sure that those who really know me, and my love affair with my Nikon, can appreciate that we have loads of photos commemorating all those fantastic years when our kids were navigating their school years, but you may not know that we have actively chosen to compliment those photos with a host of knick knacks that augment the vibe of our family. Lengthy discussions have taken place about what was making the trip, what was going to someone else's home, what was being donated to a charitable cause, and what was destined for the landfill. It really isn't a surprise, but none the less amazing, that what we view as treasure seems to be less so in the eyes of others. Coming to grips with trashing things viewed as perfectly useful is causing serious angst in this guy's chest. I've found a few willing buyers on Kijiji, with other items soon to hit the FREE-jiji list, and the continuous stacking and clearing of items filling our garage feels like a figurative ebb and flow of the tide.

One of the major jobs to free up some space happened on a recent Saturday afternoon when fellow Central Alum Harvey Garraway and I distributed the dozens of pieces of goal posts we saved from Central's Red Storey Field to some giddy-as-a-school-girl adults who shared lengthy trips down their personal Memory Lane while staring wistfully at the chunk of steel in their hand. Thanks to another Central Alum, Dan Eisses, the sizeable lengths of steel fell victim to the carbide teeth of a chop saw, but even after we had created the number of pieces we required, we had a considerable amount of steel remaining. Fortunately, Harvey's son-in-law was more than happy to help us get it to the metal recyclers, and in that process, free up a large area of floor in my garage. We still have a few pieces left that are up for grabs, but it is significantly more manageable. 

Speaking of Barrie Central, anyone reading this who either went there or was a parent of someone that went there, will be all too familiar with the oft used sentiment that, "it's all about kit" which has resulted in decades of Central swag infesting my closet. Despite the tug at my heart-strings, I have whittled down the pile to a bare-bones handful of items that check the boxes of (a) still fitting now that I'm a smaller version of my former bulk, and (b) representing the most poignant and treasured mementos of dozens of championships in multiple activities. I have sent out the message that a boatload of swag is up for grabs (reach out to me via whichever Social Media platform you read this on), and I'm praying that I can rescue the bulk of it from being donated. I'm open for any other ideas, if you have them.

Loads of friends have been quick to offer advice about the moving process. Having been in the same starter home that we purchased 30 years ago, any advice is welcomed, evaluated and implemented if deemed worthy, but I can foresee a point where a locker rental might be in our future because we will inhabit someone else's space for at least a year, limiting how much will find a place on its walls, and the potential to store some of our life's haul is a distinct possibility. The good news is that we have leased a 2 bedroom condo and the 2nd room is a decent size, offering plenty of floor space to store the boxes that may not get opened once we are there full time, but when you lose both a garage and basement, some of the bigger items pose a challenge. Who doesn't love a good challenge, eh?

In the end, it has become all to painfully evident that the act of physically moving will be the least of our concerns, but using an old sports adage, "It's all in the preparation!"