The last day dawned with me not being in my house. This was planned, as part of my junk removal had been to throw out my mattress – too worn to be worth bothering to store at this point. But I wasn’t going to sleep on the floor. I had an RV parked out front of my house; might as well put it to use and sleep there before the last day in my house!
–
I expected to have trouble sleeping out in the street so to speak. I thought passing cars would wake me, or keep me from getting to sleep, but it was actually surprisingly quiet and I slept most of a night’s sleep. Good thing, as today I was going to need to have my wits about me to make sure I got everything remaining packed quickly and organized. Didn’t really end up that way at the end of the day, which shouldn’t surprise anyone who has ever moved themselves.
 |
| To be moved, not slept in |
I started the day with more packing, getting things ready to move furniture in the afternoon, then a frantic pack of everything remaining. I had a chat with my renter and find out that the priority to have moved out was the kitchen and the upstairs for their stuff coming in. Of course, those two things were the furthest behind. But I had caught a break in that my tenants decided to not start moving stuff in late today; I now had as long as I needed today to get everything out.
My goal was to be able to still fit my RV in the garage with all my stuff in it. That seemed doable with what I had to move, but I wouldn’t know for sure until the furniture was in there with room left for some boxes. After lunch, me and my helping move friend start in on loading his van. Looks like we will be able to get everything done in two trips, but things never seem to go as fast as you think once you get going. On top of it, today of all days his van picks the second trip to not start, it had had this problem before, but not for a long time, until now! Fortunately, I had a charger that could also boost a car, so with a little bit of charging time the van was running again without too much delay. But by the time we were done it was much later in the afternoon that I’d like. But the garage was not as full as I expected – the RV will fit inside!
Next was the last load with the car. I was bringing the car, stuff and my bicycle to ride back to my place. I didn’t need to do this as I could have gotten a ride back, but at this point a half hour bike ride back to the house was good stress relief. Riding with the setting sun was nice. It might be a while until I could ride the bike again, so I enjoyed my brief trip, cycling by old haunts I had peddled by cycling back in the day when I still lived at home.
Getting home I have a quick dinner pizza as it is getting dark. I still have most of the kitchen and upstairs to pack, plus whatever miscellaneous left overs in the other rooms. It is going to be a long time until I get to bed. At least I have ice cream – I finish the last of that off as I pack the kitchen. The large tub will not fit in my RV freezer. At this point stuff is just going in boxes – I know I’ll have to sort out later what I take what I store and additional junk beyond the obvious I’m tossing now.
I finish the kitchen at 9pm – one room left, but it is the worst room that has taken forever, so much stuff upstairs in my rumpus room! But there is nothing I can do now but pack and chuck quicker. Quick is not going to happen to start; I have fragile pewter figures and models to wrap and box very carefully. Really should have gotten to some of that in the previous days! But we get it done, now 11pm!
 |
| Ready for renters, who fortunately want the bookshelves |
I’m feeling hopeful at this point; just need to clean up the bits and pieces in the remaining rooms that is mostly throw it in boxes and take it all upstairs to pack in the RV. Then I visit my main bathroom. Shit. I have not done anything on this room yet. Sigh. Get another couple of boxes and start throwing crap in them. It’s going to be a mess to sort out but I’m out of time to be nice about this.
But I get that done and get all my boxes upstairs eventually. Now for the last push, 1am and I need to fit all this stuff in the RV.
 |
| Will all this fit in my RV? |
I’m not sure how or if I will fit the bicycle in. I come up with a game plan: create a corridor in the middle of the RV and hopefully I can stuff the bike in. Worst case, I leave the bike behind outside and come get that in the morning. An hour of stuffing later, and I try fitting the bicycle in the space I’ve left – fit it in the narrow door and sharp left turn… it fits! I’m tired but happy now, I can be done with moving out tonight!
One problem though: now that the bicycle is in there, it blocks the bathroom door. I could go to bed, but I’m old now: will have to get up to pee. My tired brain manages to spit out one more solution to the problem: I will drive over to my storage garage and unload the bicycle before going to bed with the RV parked inside! Off I go, leaving my house behind, to go “camp” in my storage garage.
For the record, I don’t recommend living in an RV in a garage. It’s only going to take one forgetful moment with the propane and your gas furnace to kill yourself with carbon monoxide poisoning. You need to be SURE you are not going to run anything propane while the garage is closed up. I’d thought this through previously – the solution is to turn off the propane as soon as you arrive – that way if there is an unexpected power outage your fridge does not switch over to propane and kill you in the middle of the night. Yeah, this is what I have to think of arriving at 2:30 in the morning.
 |
| A mess I can deal with tomorrow |
But I get the bicycle unloaded and survey the mess. But it’s all out of the house, and can be cleaned up starting tomorrow. I check for the third time to make sure the fridge is on AC I’m plugged into, and the propane is off. Then off to bed. Tomorrow we can dump stuff out of the RV, then I will be off for a little campground recon, on the way to visit a friend and camp in front of their house for a night.
