A Friday Chat About Packing and Shipping

NICOLE: Happy Friday!

NICOLE: Happy Friday! I am so excited about this new apartment!

NICOLE: Me too! I spent last night mentally arranging furniture in my head and making a file of inspirational photos.

NICOLE: It’s nice that we’re putting all of that mental energy towards imaginary furniture, because we have a lot of real work to do before the end of the month.

NICOLE: Yeah, I’ve been mentally arranging all of that stuff in my head too. Even though I’ve already calendared out all of the tasks. I change my health insurance on Tuesday. I cancel my utilities and get packing supplies on Wednesday. I set up mail forwarding on Thursday. And so on.

NICOLE: What happens if we don’t get it all done?????

NICOLE: That isn’t usually our style. But, worst-case scenario, we put a bunch of stuff in the Dumpster that we had planned to take to Goodwill. Because the Dumpster is right outside our apartment door.

NICOLE: BUT LANDFILLS.

NICOLE: I know, right? This is why we have to get it all done!

NICOLE: How much are we going to spend on all of this?

NICOLE: I have no idea. I’d really like to have an idea, because not having one makes me anxious. At least with that moving truck I could say “this will cost $1,661” and know.

NICOLE: Are we going to do the thing where we Goodwill a bunch of stuff that it might have been useful to keep just because we don’t want to pay to ship four more boxes?

NICOLE: We may very likely. Also because we don’t like clutter. And if we really need some of that stuff, we can buy it back!

NICOLE: You know everyone else is telling us to just ship it. Into shape! Shape it up!

NICOLE: You did not just put that tune into my head.

NICOLE: Sorry.

NICOLE: Yeah, I know people are saying to just ship everything, but what if this was, like, a Pareto Principle fresh start? Twenty percent of our stuff provides 80 percent of the value.

NICOLE: Very true.

NICOLE: And we’d save money.

NICOLE: And get a very tiny tax deduction for those Goodwill donations, if the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act doesn’t take it away!

NICOLE: But we really can’t figure any of this out until we get back to Seattle on Monday.

NICOLE: Yeah. And we also need to add “go to The Mailbox and get flat-rate USPS boxes” to Wednesday’s schedule.

Want to be part of The Billfold’s Friday Chat? Email Nicole at nicole@thebillfold.com.

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