Sometimes funny things happen to help push you along your chosen path. Yesterday, along with our receipt for paying rent on our apartment, we received a letter from our landlord asking to please be allowed entry on the 11th so that they can have the building properly appraised. They did this a few years ago and we freaked out and spent a week cleaning the entire apartment and hiding all those things that building owners probably don’t want to see (Russ’ photography darkroom, for example, and my torch). This time, the idea of being pushed to clean up and get stuff out the door is sort of a blessing that will help us get where we want to go.

So, today, we dove right back into the culling. Extra sheets and towels, holiday decorations, unused pots and pans – in boxes in the corner. Russ started diving into the overflowing bike box. And I filled up an entire bag of just leftover plastic silverware, chopsticks and hot sauce from all of our take-out of the past few years. It feels really good to be working through all of this – and it actually feels like we’re getting somewhere.