The Big Move

The past ten months has been incredibly busy for me, with one major life event after another taking place. 

In May I made a fairly drastic career change and left the world of professional baseball (and the only workplace I have known since graduating university) for a job in the public sector much that is much closer to home. 

I followed that up a few short months later with my wedding in August.

Then, this past Saturday, my wife and I moved in to our newly purchased first home.

Thankfully we had the assistance of our families and a great group of friends to help speed the process along, which allowed everything to be moved in to the new place in relatively short order.  It is far from unpacked and organized, but at least it is all safely into the new place.

Next to the limited amount of furniture that we moved over to our new place (we decided long before even looking for a house that we did not want to inherit anything more than the basics from friends and family, and all of the appliances were included with the house), I would have to say that my collection of sports cards and memorabilia made up the most significant portion of the move. 

As I write this article, I find myself at a desk sandwiched between a wall of the house and a seemingly insurmountable pile of boxes full of cards and memorabilia that I am going to have to unpack and organize. 

The sheer volume of boxes that ended up needing to be moved was an eye-opener even for me, so I can only imagine what it must have looked like to my wife and everyone who was helping us out!

As we were carrying everything to its designated space in the new house, a number of things began crossing my mind.

1. I have a lot more stuff than I realized;
2. I need to revisit the process I outlined in article number one of my Toward Self-Sufficiency Series since there is a lot of stuff that I do not know why I ever bothered to collect in the first place;
3. I am going to have far more organizing/reorganizing to do that I thought I would;
4. I will need to look back at article eight of my Toward Self-Sufficiency Series and go through the process of assessing how to best use my time again in order to get all of this done while still leaving time to focus on building my collection and expanding my eBay business as well;
5. At least I have more storage in the new place;
6. At least I have a larger, more functional work space available in the new place…or I will once I get this mountain of boxes organized; and finally,
7. If I do everything well, this process may ultimately lead me to a financially self-sufficient hobby long before I could have expected to achieve that goal had I continued doing things the way I had been.  There will be some major short-term pain, but the potential of the long-term gains makes it pretty easy to accept as I look at things right now.

Moving is stressful under the best of circumstances and my situation was certainly no different.  The main thing that made it easier on me was that as we went through the process of searching for, buying, and moving in to the house I was able to clearly envision what it has the potential to become for my wife and I as we continue our lives together. 

That optimism is also true of what it has the potential to become as a place to store and showcase my collection, as well as develop the “business” side of my hobby, all of which makes for a very exciting time for me.

Have you had to move recently?  Was your collection as overwhelming to see as mine was for me?  What did you do to get yourself organized in your new place?

Let me know by leaving a comment, sending me an email at bb_bros[at]hotmail[dot]com, or getting in touch on Twitter (@bb_bros) or Facebook.  Any hints or tips on how I can make the work easier on myself would be greatly appreciated!

Until Sunday, all the best in your collecting pursuits!

Ryan