Inventory

In my last post I wrote about preparing to move out of our house and mentioned making piles. Now I have taken the preparation to a whole new level. In addition to determining what should be sent by air, boat and carried in our suitcases, I spent the last three days inventorying everything we own. For example, we have two zesters, 1 melon baller and six corkscrews. We also have a lovely set of Irish coffee glasses and the last time we made Irish coffee was never. I took photos and made a giant spreadsheet listing everything. Well, everything except for our clothes. And I still need to do that. It's just that I decided to take a break and go to Florida for a Beerfest this weekend. Because let's face it going to Florida and drinking beer is way more fun than counting socks.

The good news is that this is the second time in 14 months that we have moved so our belongings are pretty pared down (except for that overabundance of corkscrews.) We also have gotten rid of a lot of stuff lately. We gave away things like appliances where the voltage won't work over in South Africa, etc. All this is to say we still have a ton of crap! For example, does a couple really need this many candles and candle holders?

I reminded myself that the answer may in fact be yes as South Africa is having an electricity shortage (more on that in a future blog post I am sure) so I kept it all and assigned it to the slow boat.

The other thing that became very apparent is that when you are the "stay at home spouse" staying at home and doing pretty much everything related to the home IS your job. So you can't delegate. You can't really turn to your husband who just returned from a week-long business trip and say, "hey the garage needs to be swept out."