Once I could envision what life would be like in Switzerland, we had to figure out how to transition from this life to that one. The first major issue was what to do with the IL house. We decided to "sell" it....a term we use loosely in the dire midwest during the 3rd yr of a horrible economic recession.
Selling the house wasn't going to be easy. We decided to start by cleaning out the house of its contents. We cleaned out the entire house during the month of July - from Attic to basement Storage room. Not one drawer or hiding space went unscathed. It was brutal, ugly, icky, tiring...no, completely exhausting. Every day, I dreaded reporting for duty, but was highly motivated to do so because my 3 car garage looked like something dreadful from the TV show Hoarders.
I was constantly balancing in my head a small Swiss home with NO storage with my sentimental attachment to things. Here's the thing that I learned about STUFF: It jogs memories and help you recapture the feelings/experience of when you received it. For example, one of the zillions of stuffed animals that I had to determine the fate of was a cute little dragon from Disney World. While playing games in Dinoland in Animal Kingdom, each family member had won a toy except for one, sibling 1. After another game, sibling2 had won another toy and promptly gave it to sibling 1. Sib 1 was so happy - he held it all day, rode the rides with it, and fell asleep with it in his arms that night, and each night thereafter. Coming across this little stinker (and a zillion of his counterparts) gave me reason to pause, count my blessings, and remember such a remarkable time of joy. I ask you, ladies and gentlement of the discarding jury - what would you do with this dragon ? Hopefully, he's sleeping in someone else's arms by now...
Anyway, it was a difficult, long process which culminated in a garage sale in the bearly bearable July heat on the asphalt driveway that I can only liken to being an ant under a magnifying glass. The garage sale was quite lucrative and fun thanks to some dear friends who kept us company, despite the heat. After the garage sale, I was so SICK of looking at all the stuff and sentimentality that we took carloads over to donation. Whew ! So glad that was done....
With the house largely cleaned out, we listed the house for sale. I desperately wanted the house to sell. I knew we would never feel entirely at peace in The Move and carefree in Switzerland if we were responsible for the IL house. I turned to God in the sale of our house and proposed a sort of "Division of Labor." I prayed, "Please bring the RIGHT people to our house, and we'll do whatever needs to be done on our Earthly end." I vowed that we would not get hung up by greed, nor pride, nor money, nor timing, nor any other petty issues, etc. Our goal was simply to sell the house by the end of the year when we would leave for Switz. Well, thanks also to the hustle of our fab realtor, and realistic flexible pricing in this market, a family came to see our house on Day 12, fell in love, and we had a contract for our house by day 15. Still to this day, whenever I drive by a FOR SALE sign (and there's zillions here in the midwest), I whisper my thanks to God.
We agreed to settle on our house in mid October, which would require us to move to a short term rental from Oct- December when we left for Zurich. I spent the month of September packing, packing, packing. If it wasn't nailed down, I wrapped and packed it. I wasnt even sure what I was packing for - I didn't know where we were going to live from Oct to December, nor from January - 2013. I didnt know where we would be living in Switzerland, what we would need, or want to bring. I just wrapped packed, and labeled everything.
As in the fabled Harry Potter Series, my packing evolved into a Sorting Ceremony, another tedious and long process: There were things we knew were going to come to both the rental house and to Switz (Group A- beds, dressers, etc), things that we didnt know whether they were going to come (Group B - kayak, canoe, firepit, desks, hockey equip, etc) and things we knew were NOT coming and were going to long term storage (Group C dining room furniture, Holiday decor, stereo equipment, sentimental items).
The buyers needed to move into our house in October, which meant we needed to move to a short term rental until we left in December. With the abundance of vacant housing in our area, you would think it a piece of cake to rent something short term. Well, I've come to realize that short-term renters are considered bottom feeders in the real estate market. Noone wants to rent to a short term renter, not even for a premium on the rent, and especially if it means they have to re- list the house for rent in January. So out of the zillions of vacant houses in our area that are for sale, our realtor managed to find one that was available for us to rent short term. Fine....we had a place to live.
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