Last weekend, Saturday the 10th, we arranged to have our old home belongings delivered back to us. You see, when we received the Extreme Makeover home, they packed up all of our old belongings and put them in storage. They allow you so many days to keep them in storage until they start charging you the monthly fee.
We knew it would be quite a task, but we had no idea how big it was going to be.
Patrick, my husband, and myself decided we do not need anything back from the old house. Since EMHE supplied us with all new items, we did not need to bring any clutter back into our new home. We decided to hold a garage sale and donate all the proceeds to the amazing University of Texas Autism Project. We spent a Saturday with these young adults and educators and they changed our lives.
Now, back to the storage dilemma.
To go through our belongings, we had to somehow get help. We had over 25 pods of belongings.....yes, we were pack rats.....WERE.
The fine people at the University Of Texas Autism Project sent out emails to all of their colleagues and low and behold, at my house on Saturday were over 30 people to help. EUREKA!!!!!
Through the pods we went. We trashed the garbage into a huge dumpster donated by the builder of our new home and tagged the rest for our garage sale next Saturday. We worked from 8am until 8pm. We got everything done...I KNOW...everything.
During the day, my husband and myself were so overwhelmed by the help we were receiving, we decided to host a barbecue that night. It is after all....Texas.
We went and got a keg of beer and some burgers to grill. Everybody pitched in and helped in the kitchen and outside. My children were in hog heaven. We ate, drank, and danced all night.
At 12:30am, we said goodbye to the last person.
Not only has this house changed my families life, it has changed the lives of all of our friends OLD and NEW. This house has strengthened our bonds to the community and it is overflowing in love.
We are thrilled to share our home with our friends and neighbors. They helped get it built and they will never know what that really means to us. We can tell them, but they will never really know.
Next Saturday, March 17th, St. Patrick's Day, we are hosting a benefit garage sale. We will have over 30 volunteers again to help. I cannot wait......
I call it RETURN OF THE POD PEOPLE......
If you are in the neighborhood, stop by....I would love to see you.
About Me
- Mom26children
- I am the proud mother of 6 children. 5 of our children have autism. We do not feel our world has ended, but just begun. We do not chelate, intervene biochemically, give shots of any kind, practice ABA, etc. We treat them as we treat any humanbeing. We treat them with kindness and respect and expect the same from them. They are exceptional children.
Monday, March 12, 2007
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7 comments:
"We had over 25 pods of belongings.....yes, we were pack rats.....WERE."
We'll see...once pack rats, it's very hard to not 'fill up the wagon' and fall off!
Bite your tongue Bill....
Never, ever again.
It is a very long story, which one day I will share with all...
But, pack rat days are over.
I absolutely love what this house has done to our lives....
Congrats to Liv on the PECS....
Amazing.
I am/was a packrat. I always find things I think we could use. "What if this is the one toy/book/thing that could help the boys with therapy?" used to be our thinking.
Then I found flylady two years ago. I was hooked. Found a support group of friends. We even meet for coffee. I am still unorganized but we are living with more basics and less stuff. It is so freeing!
Congrats on the yard sale! 25 pods! YIKES!!! Hope it goes well.
Hi M-J,
With 6 children, we never turned down anything that was offered to us. Before we knew it, we had more crap than we knew what to do with.
When we walked into our new home and saw how amazingly clean and uncluttered it was, I was hooked.
Now I am a bit of a clean freak....now, that may not last, but the clutter is gone.
Jeanette
Great title and a great time had by all.
Best wishes
We have a 5 bedroomed house but the rooms are more like cupboards, if we had a house with larger rooms then we wouldn't have a clutter problem(my theory and I'm sticking to it).
Oh, I do hope the sale is a hugely successful one! Good luck, and that is a LOT of work - I'm tired just reading about it! Whew.
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