On the move

Today my sister is moving. This month my daughter is moving. Next month I am moving.

Yesterday I went to my sister's house to help her with final packing and cleaning. My sister has moved more than anyone I know, and each move involved purging - but she still has a lot of stuff to pack up and move. This time she is moving back to our hometown of Niagara Falls. She's even moving back to the same street we grew up on, although a different house. Brings back a lot of memories every time I drive around that area.

I remember my school, my friends, and playing in the park. I remember riding my tricycle down the sidewalk, and jumping off the stoop on the front porch. I remember the neighborhood grocery store, and how my mother always got the butcher to cut the steak 1.5" thick.

My daughter is moving to a subdivision close to her dad. My grandmother once lived in that subdivision. Their home is off one of the main roads that cut through the subdivision - a road I've used many times, especially to get to the Italian bakery for some crusty bread. They have a park and green space nearby, and will live on a quiet crescent. Close to schools, shopping and restaurants, a perfect place to raise a family.

Although I will be 'moving', I'm really just taking my stuff out of my condo in St Catharines and either hauling it down to Mexico in suitcases, giving it away, or selling it on Kijiji. I will have to store some stuff at my daughter's until I can get it all down to Mexico. I hope to be able to start renting my condo by January. We'll see how it goes, if it doesn't work out I can always sell instead.

With each trip to Canada I've taken stuff back to Mexico. Until recently it mostly sat in the dining room, cluttering up the table and desk and stressing me out every time I had to look at it. Before I went to Norway I was determined to get a handle on it. The bookcase is now clean and neat, the desk is somewhat decluttered, and all the 'stuff' on the dining room table has been sorted and put into baskets for further processing. My best intentions are to keep it that way.

So life in Canada is being lived in disarray right now. I am no longer much of a consumer, so buying new stuff to add to the clutter is not going to be a problem. If only I could get rid of all the paperwork required to be kept on file for taxes. Actually, if only I could get rid of taxes!