Murphy's Laws of Moving

This blog is titled "Murphy's Laws of Moving", subtitled "Why I Don't Have My Christmas Cards and Letters Out Yet".

With all good intentions we figured that we would have the house done and all articles put away in addition to decorating for Christmas, making and sending out over 80 cards, preparing for family from out of state, and keeping our sanity. In the process we discovered the Murphy's Laws of Moving. Not necessarily in the following order, these laws held true:

1. You will find you have more stuff than you thought, thus requiring two ABF moving trailers.
2. You will under-estimate the amount of time it will take to fill said trailers, thus getting started on the 1300 mile trek a day late.
3. You will hire people to load the "big stuff" only to find that they know very little about efficient use of space, thus you spend an afternoon repacking the first trailer.
4. You will find that said movers will have moderate regard for your belongings and that the word FRAGILE is invisible to them.
5. You will get a call that the trailers won't arrive as scheduled and when they do the balmy October breezes bring record-breaking heat.
6. You will over-estimate how much you can unload yourself, thus seeking the nearest chiropractor whose treatments will be negated by further aggravating the injured body parts in an effort to "get settled in".


7. You will find that unpacking takes longer than you thought, thus finding that two months later there is still not enough room in the garage for one of the vehicles.
8. You will move from a 1600 sq. ft house to a 3400 sq ft house and have trouble figuring out where everything is going to go.
9. When you do figure out where everything is going to go, you will find that it all has to be washed or dusted.
10. All rooms will need to be painted and will take more paint than expected.
11. You will have a meltdown or two out of sheer exhaustion and frustration. Then you get over it.
12. When buying a house that was foreclosed on you will find more vindictive vandalism than was originally obvious, thus finding yourself with 4 Direct TV satellite dishes and all are useless because all the cables were cut in the attic. (We now know at least 6 technicians from Direct TV and don't expect to win a year's free house payments in their "move free" drawings.)
13. Everything costs more and you will need more of everything.
14. Home Depot knows about the Murphy's Laws of Moving and is ready to serve your every need, at least once daily.
15. You will find that window coverings are the most expensive investment in the house --- unless you catch a 65% off custom blinds at Penneys, plus another 20% off for charging them to the Penneys card --- and get 12 months interest free, to boot. (Ok, so this is one of the laws we beat quite soundly.)
16. Said window coverings will take hours to install and multiple sets of hands to balance a 7-foot headrail. It will help if you are 7 feet tall and don't wear bifocals.

The Christmas decorations are up for the first time in years. We had to unpack anyway, so why not unpack the dusty decorations and enjoy a beautiful first Christmas in Branson.

Our plans were to set up my studio first so I could get to work, but Murphy had other ideas. Thus the Christmas cards are not finished yet. I don't know about you, but the post-Christmas Day let-down is always brightened by a late greeting to carry the season a little farther.

We do have our own "Wibel List of Learnings for Moving":

1. There are wonderful people at both ends of the move who generously give of their time to help pack/unpack and clean/paint
2. Unless you have run out of clean underwear, laundry can wait till tomorrow.
3. If you don't remember you have it, you didn't need to bring it!
4. Don't go off your meds for any reason, and keep a supply of Aleve on hand.
5. There will be times of serious melancholy and you miss everybody "back home".
6. You will get a cheerful email or unexpected phone call just in time to lift your spirits.
7. If after two months of getting "settled in" your Christmas guests are coming and there is still paint trimming to do, bathroom tile to lay, and a whole bathroom still off limits, just put up the sign that says "Pardon our mess while we clean up someone else's".
8. When all is said and done, you will stand back and say "Now this feels like home!"

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone!