6:30AM
I’m feeling a little queasy so I grab a handful of sunflower seeds and continue cleaning leftover dust and dirt. I just finished making both the americano for my husband and my latte. I’m hoping that this latte will keep the nausea at bay for at least the first few hours of the trip… well see. I heat the milk for my latte in a pan so the pan needs to be washed and added to the waiting-to-be-loaded-dish drainer. Once that’s done, I completely clear the kitchen and wipe down the counter tops, stove, sink, and faucet while leaving a pile of “items” on the kitchen floor that need to be thrown in the dumpster behind the house before we leave. That’s when I discover dried tea and/or coffee that had dripped down the side of the lower cabinet next to the garbage can. I take a few minutes scrubbing the cabinet, stop for a quick breathe, and run the “trash items” out to the dumpster.
6:45AM
I’m getting a little stressed because I wanted to be on the road by now, as I move on to the bathroom to clean the mirror, counter tops, sink, and faucet, my husband loads the numerous items on the floor of the living room into the car. Then I am told that there are several items that will not fit into the truck! Luckily they aren’t items that I am particularly attached to or that I feel we really need. Some of the items are left in the garage and the rest are thrown in the dumpster.
7:00AM
All the rooms seem to be cleared. That’s when I notice that both of the bedrooms have a considerable amount of dusty debris on the floors. I grab the broom and dustpan that luckily have not be loaded yet and quickly sweep both rooms including the closets. Meanwhile my husband and sister have another bag of trash from the garage so I am able to discard the bedroom debris into that trash bag and run that out to the dumpster too.
7:15AM
The truck is loaded, the car is loaded, and the house is completely empty and cleaned. We are finally ready to begin our fifteen hour journey to the Midwest. With a quick …. ish stop at the nearest gas station to fill the truck’s gas tank, we get on the main highway heading north at exactly 7:30AM.
(To be continued …)