It rained and damn poured. May and June have been borderline cruel to me and my stress levels.
Temporarily moving out due to our block's Home Improvement Program is a pain in my sexy ass. Literally and figuratively. When you totally move out of an old place into a new one, the process is straightforward.
You pack everything and put it in the new place and throw away those you don't need. BUT when you just have to move away for a couple of weeks for an unmanned renovation, it's a whole new ballgame.
How To
Terminologies:
Renovation. Means we have to move everything to one side and cover as much as we can with a dropcloth/plastic to protect it from the dust.
Unmanned renovation. Means no one will look after our things because we're moving out and working and trying to live a normal life. Ergo, everything has to be sorted according to different levels of importance and then secured.
Procedure:
Sorting Level 1. Means we have to pack all our important files, papers, records, gadgets etc and bring it with us in the temporary place.
Sorting Level 2. There are some stuff that should be moved out but we can't lug it around wherever we go. So we gotta look for close friends with extra space where we could leave some of our things.
Sorting Level 3. Some stuff can be left in the house but should be secured in the locked cabinets.
Sorting Level 4. The big stuff, the kitchen stuff, the small stuff that can be left unsecured, just covered from dust.
Temporary Homehunt. Looking for a temporary home within our budget that can accommodate us and our important stuff (around 4 pcs of big luggage and around 10 smaller ones). So blessed to have a colleague who accepts transients in her condo.
Moving into the Temporary Home. We had to hire a Maxicab to fit all our roughly 15+ pcs of luggage. And the Maxicab driver was kinda arguing with us if we were shifting house or not, because shifting house costs more. We said no, because technically, we weren't, right? It is temporary. It's a mandatory staycation. WTF.
Unpacking in the Temporary Home. We're staying for 13 nights. I think we have to unpack and make the room as comfortable as we can, right?
Trying to live a normal life and trying not to think about the packing that has to be done #inDenial.
Packing in the Temporary Home. Yep, it will eventually come to this, again. Sht.
Cleaning our Unit. We couldn't just move right back in. Everything was covered in dust. We had to uncover (hello 2 weeks worth of dust confetti), vacuum, wipe and sweep everything first before bringing our stuff in.
Moving back into our Unit. We wanted to avoid hiring another Maxicab. So Hubby and I made several bus trips from the temporary home to our unit to bring the stuff by batch. So we eventually just had to take a regular cab for the last batch of stuff. It was manageable but exhausting in this heat.
Cleaning Part 2. When we start to move the things from one side, we also had to vacuum everything again. And again. And again. And we haven't even unpacked.
Unpacking. Unpack every damn thing and put them in the same places. Or find more things to throw away. either way, this ain't even totally finished yet.
Gather all the other stuff from our friends' house. Oh, yeah, right. We sorta haven't really gotten our other stuff deposited in our friends' house. We will.... eventually.
Oh, and did I mention that my mom was leaving to go back to the Philippines early morning after we moved back in? So, I should put Packing to Go Back To Phils somewhere in the list too.
Epilogue:
And, tonight, when I have already spoken to my mom who is back home safe, when the house started to be livable again, when I have taken several showers in the newly renovated toilet which still smells like paint.... tonight is the only time I can start to let go of the renovation-related stress....
I can finally start to think straight again.
I am still stressed and exhausted and still have a lot of fixing to do, but at least most of it's done, I think. And I am infinitely blessed that my mom was here throughout the ordeal, as she was the mover and shaker of the renovation-related move and I was the brain-fried daughter who just kept thanking the Lord for sending my mom at the right time.
Aaaaand hopefully..... I'm starting to get my brain back. Slowly, but getting there, me thinks.
