Getting to Springfield To Work in our Storage Unit

We arrived in Atlanta and our friend Hugh picked us up at the airport, and as our van had a flat tire (in his back yard) they let us borrow their car to drive to our unit at Wyndham Fairfield Plantation in Villa Rica, which we love.

from our balcony at  Villa Rica

We waited for a short time on the front porch and then he texted, "Welcome"

The next day Hugh was able to blow up the tire temporarily with his compressor and he  and Ron took the van to a shop and got a new tire.  As we traveled north then, we spent one night on the road to Springfield, IL (this year in Nashville and were able to visit our great friend Kim, in the Wyndham Nashville condo), and then visit Keenan and Emily, while we stay in Joseph’s beautiful Airbnb house (see BLOG for 8/22/16).   He was out of town but he can electronically unlock the front door.  Pretty nifty.

   

      This visit, instead of working on Keenan’s projects, we had to work on our storage unit(s) and the priority goal was to get out of the smaller unit we had had to rent a few years ago and just have the one unit.  

     We spent 3 ½ days working, and it was NO FUN!  Joan didn’t even want to take a picture of the process, since as we worked; we put stuff outside in several categories:  trash, thrift shop donations, save, mail to friends, take to Seattle, etc.  Once there, we could not leave since we would have to put everything back into the unit (and there are no bathrooms available) and it took an hour in the late afternoons, to put everything back.  So, no photo of the process but Joan did take a couple of the final result, and yes, we were successful:  we went to the hardware store that rents the units and canceled the small unit and reduced our monthly payment. 

Putting the extra shelves down

Smaller storage unit, almost empty

    Here is the inspiration for Joan to quickly decide what to keep (she already had committed to do it, but here’s an easy way how.)

https://www.onekingslane.com/live-love-home/marie-kondo-book-declutter/

     Marie Kondo has written several books on decluttering and organizing and the number one criterion that Joan hangs on to from her list of procedures is “Do I get JOY from this item?”  Very easy then, to simply keep or get rid of it.

Empty!

Boxes are labeled, and we have the list

Done for now

 Aug 25 A Break To Get Gas

   We knew we’d need gas to go to the Chicago area and we also knew we did not want to purchase it there.  Using Joan’s Gas Buddy app, we also saw that gas in Springfield was high but just north in Lincoln, it was 40 cents per gallon cheaper!  That was worth the extra mileage to drive.

    After working two hours in the storeroom, we were hot and tired, so we decided to go and get the gas and maybe have lunch too.  We headed north and discovered that gas in Mt Pulaski was even 4 cents cheaper, and it was on the way to Lincoln. 

   Go get there we had to drive through the town of Elkhart, so cute!  

   

Coming into Elkhart

Such a cute archway into town

We got the gas and then went to a place for lunch that we had read about in TripAdvisor, but they no longer served lunch; just not enough business she said, just coffee and pastries now.  

Coffee shop decorations

We headed over to the other restaurant in town but stopped along the way at the historic courthouse, where Lincoln had also been.  Well, needless to say, we stayed there over an hour, talking with the volunteer docent there.  So interesting.

    We never did get lunch, nor back to the storeroom to work that day.