Double your money! Part II

6/30/10 X-Cargo cartop carrier, sold for $50

You can make money downsizing, which is as good a reason as any to do it. The Downsizing Challenge is not all about the Benjamins, but I'm also not going to turn away from a chance to collect a few greenbacks. As we near the end of the challenge, I plan to make a tally of how much cold, hard cash I've managed to pull in as a result of selling stuff, but no time for that tonight.

Instead, I shall merely close out Month Eleven with a monetary success story.

Clearly, my best sale to date was the trailer, which I bought for $200 and then sold for $450. However, I can't take credit for that, since it was my Dad who brokered the sale. Nonetheless, ever since he pulled that off, I've had today's downsize in mind.

As we planned our departure from Maine, I knew our cars were going to be packed to the gills. We needed to bring not only our basic clothes and all of the essential baby items, but two cats, their necessities, and my parents' luggage, since they were accompanying us on the drive. Realizing what a tight fit it could be, I started looking on craigslist for cartop carriers. Most of what I found for sale was in the $75-$100 range, but I did find an older carrier for $25, which I quickly snatched up.

It proved to be one of my rare moments of genius.

The wonderfully named X-Cargo (the logo is a snail -- absolutely brilliant!) strapped securely to the roof of the Yoda Mobile, held a tremendous amount of gear, remained watertight even through serious thunder and even hail storms, and only reduced my gas millage by ninety-three percent. Most importantly, it us some breathing room in the cars, making the journey far more pleasant.

Today, I sold that carrier for $50, doubling my money. Not exactly Dad standards, but a sale I'll take at any rate. Certainly an acceptable way to end the penultimate month of the Downsize Challenge.

One month to go. July 31, here I come.

The Interweb!

6/29/10 Wireless router box, recycled

Today's downsize prompts two commentaries:

1) Even though I have been downsizing for 233 straight days, it still isn't always automatic.

When we got a wireless router about five years ago, I carefully saved the box and the original packaging. Good thing I did. When it came time to move, I found the box and packaged up the router, confident it would travel safely. And it did.

Today, I set up the router in our temporary apartment and, out of habit, put packing materials carefully back in the box and stored the box away in our one, little living room closet. This was foolish because A) Our next move will be, literally, a few blocks away. I ought to be able to transport the router there without bashing it to smithereens. And, B) We have very little storage space in this apartment.

Still, my reflex was to save the box. Have I learned nothing? I pulled the box back out of the closet and put it with the recycling.

2) My life requires the internet. I've been without my own high-speed internet since May 26, almost exactly a month.

What a horrible way to live.

The only way I've been able to ensure daily blogging is because I've been able to use my iPhone in a pinch. When I have used my computer, it's been by cobbling together connections through hotel rooms, Starbucks, and -- more often than I should admit -- "stolen" WiFi signals.

I find my own dependence on the internet rather unsettling, but I am equally amazed that we have reached the point in America where it's pretty easy to get a wireless internet connection almost anywhere.

Here's the case-in-point:

The day we drove from Connecticut to Ohio, nursing babies, tending to cats, and nearly losing the front wheel of my car along the way, we arrived at my grandmother's house late at night. Clearly, my grandmother doesn't have internet, but I figured in a pinch I'd use my iPhone signal to throw up a simple blog before midnight. At about 11:45PM I turned on the iPhone to discover that I had no service. (Guess those Verizon ads were telling the truth.)

What, me worry?

I walked over to the window, leaned against it, and tried to find a wireless internet signal. I figured I had at least a 50/50 shot that her neighbor had wireless, and I could grab it.

Bingo. I could get just enough of the WiFi to write the post standing there at the window, finishing it literally one minute before midnight. (I'm a stickler for consistency with the blog.) As amazing as it was that that little trick worked, what's perhaps more notable is that I wasn't even that surprised. For the rest of the time in Ohio, any time I needed to use the internet, I just walked out on my grandmother's patio and could grab that signal pretty clearly.

I've did the same thing here last night, sitting on the swing in our courtyard grabbing the one unsecured wireless signal I could find. (Thank you "allshouse" for the complementary use of your internet.)

Such tomfoolery can end now, as the Comcast service dude arrive today to set up the cable and internet modem, and I spent the afternoon getting my own wireless router working.

Now that I've rejoined the twenty-first century, the last month of the blog should be a breeze, even without that box to store my router in.

Walk with me

6/28/10 Trash, trashed

Some of you, Dear Readers, may consider today's downsize something of a cop out, but I actually feel pretty good about it. Any downsize that leads to the world being a cleaner, more beautiful place counts in my book.

Chase was up early today, so Joanna and I were out the door shortly after 7AM, exploring the walking options around out new neighborhood. Fortunately, despite being technically in the city of Denver, we live in a walking wonderland. Our section of the city has literally miles and miles, acres and acres of interconnected parks, green space, playgrounds, and walking/biking/running trails.

Our walk lasted for nearly two hours, and almost none of that was spent on sidewalks or crossing streets. Chase enjoyed it, too, although he'd be the first to admit that he slept through much of it.

To the credit of the area, there was virtually no litter along our path. About half-way through our stroll, however, we did come across a baby's bib in the middle of the walkway. We almost walked right over it, but then my better nature kicked in and I dropped it in the basket under Chase's stroller. This little action created a small, yet powerful shift in Joanna and my thinking, and we spent the rest of the walk collecting every single piece of trash we came across.

In my old neighborhood in New York, this would have burdened us down beyond mobility within thirty feet. Here, however, we ended up with only nine items, including the bib, a child's sock, and a pacifier. It's unclear whether three babies had unfortunate moments or one infant was having a really bad day.

Since we arrived home with those items, they were technically now my possessions. Which took me all of a few minutes to immediately downsize into the trash.

I did save the bib, however, throwing it in the hamper to be washed. We don't need it for Chase, but I figure it could be an acceptable Goodwill donation. That's a downsize for another day.

Editor's Note, 8/15/10: That downsize for another day will happen, but not before we put the bib to use. It turned out that all but one of our bibs are still in storage. Chase has started in on solid foods (prunes are a particular favorite), so we resorted to using the abandoned, soiled bib as a back-up. Yes, that seems wrong, but this mission is in large part about the recycling adage: reduce, REUSE, recycle. Just staying true to the cause.

Nothing but air

6/27/10 Thirty-nine inflatable packing bags, recycled

The interesting thing about the Downsizing Challenge is that before it, I had no particular inclination towards saving boxes and packing materials. Downsizing led me to eBay, however, which prompted me to begin hoarding boxes and bubble wrap. The situation only became worse when we prepared for our move, although I can't blame that on the challenge.

As we unpacked from the move last week, my Mom carefully set aside bubble wrap and other packing materials, neatly packaging it up for safekeeping. I can't quite bring myself to part with the large box of bubble wrap, which will be invaluable if I sell anything else on eBay -- although looking around at our rather spartan apartment, I'm not sure what's left to hock.

However, I have made the difficult decision to part ways with the large air bags that we now find in Amazon.com packages, among others. They aren't as versatile and take up a lot more space than traditional bubble wrap. Plus, I'm a traditional guy. Have you looked closely at these air bags? The ones I had tried to pass themselves off as true space-age technology, with names like PactivAir 3000 Air Cushioning System and AIR Plus by Storopack. That's a bit much, I dare say.

Still, this wasn't an easy decision, and I almost saved them. But the limited storage space we now have (with the POD gone), let me to this drastic act. Fortunately, they are all labeled with that little recycling triangle, so I let the air out of them and placed them in the recycling bin.

Speaking of the POD, I can't close without showing off the PODzilla moving system, which I was lucky enough to witness in action as our container was taken away yesterday afternoon. I'll let the photos speak for themselves:

Cool, huh? I'm totally investing in that company.

You made your bed, now put a skirt on it

6/26/10 Bed skirt, returned

Like my folks, Joanna's Dad and Donna have lent us a number of items over the years, with no clear terms about when or even if those things would ever be returned.

Perhaps they've been so flexible about our borrowing habits because it's likely that some of the things we took, we did so secretly, under the cover of night. Hey, what they don't know won't hurt them, right?

But, downsizing provides opportunities to right many wrongs, so today I shipped a bed skirt back to Donna. I've decided that if my bed is to be nattily dressed, it's my responsibility to buy outfits for it myself.

All this talk about beds and their accessories has given me an opportunity to contemplate the needs/wants equation of a dwelling. The vast majority of the world's population would be more than satisfied simply to have a roof over their heads and a bed to lie down on each night.

Joanna and I, on the other end of the spectrum, spent parts of the last two days in the KB Homes Design Studio, where we had to make earth-shattering decisions about the home we're having built. Such as whether to get a top-mounted or under-the-counter sink and how many towel rings we want in each bathroom. You know, basic life or death choices.

Here's a little stat to put our American lifestyle into perspective.

The company that is building our place, KB Homes, provides a perfectly livable, completely finished home for their base selling price. They then offer the buyer the option of choosing a number of upgrades. Would you, perhaps, prefer a brushed nickel toilet paper holder rather than the standard chrome one? Why of course I would!

But here's what fascinates me. The average homebuyer purchases upgrades that equal twenty percent of the house's base price. That's right: you build people a fully functioning, high quality home, and they demand twenty percent more.

And we're in a recession.

All moralizing aside, Joanna and I are no better. We're going to spend our extra twenty percent and then some.

Hey, I need that extra light in the shower -- I shave in there!

So, when the house is done and we finally move in, will we be buying a bed skirt of our own to complement all of our upgrades?

You bet your sweet pants we will.

King of the POD people

6/25/10. Folder of relocation information, recycled

I finished packing the POD today, for the second time. This time, the items remaining in it are destined for storage until we move from this apartment into our new home. Fortunately, I can get access to the POD at any time, so if I get desperate for a downsize, I can just go to the storage facility, slide open the door, and haul out something to trash.

Which really shouldn't be that hard of a task, since I must admit that there are a number of items remaining in it that I could live without.

For example, as I arranged boxes and bins in the POD today, I noticed a Yoda folder inside one of the boxes. I recognized the folder as one that I used last summer when I first visited Denver. It had various pamphlets, maps, and brochures about Denver and, specifically, the Stapleton neighborhood.

A year later, I find myself living in Stapleton.

The die has been cast, and that folder of info is redundant at this point.

Fortunately, the ninety degree heat didn't cloud my judgment enough to prevent me from pulling that folder out and tossing it into the recycle bin before packing the box into its precise, keystone position within the POD.

The POD is packed, locked, and scheduled for pick-up tomorrow.

There's also a beer fest in Stapleton tomorrow. Without that folder of information, I sure hope I can find my way there.

And why did we bring we bring this 2,000 miles?

6/24/10 Old tea kettle, stained lampshade, and a few other random items, trashed

It makes tremendous sense to downsize before a move. More than once over the last two months, I've said to Joanna, "Thank The Maker I've been getting rid of stuff for a year. Can you imagine what this moving ordeal would be like if we still had all that stuff?!?"

On the other hand, it seems a bit moronic to cart items most of the way across America, only to turn around and throw them out.

Yep, you can bet I did that.

We spent all morning continuing to unpack. Mom and Dad were invaluable as we tried to decide what needed to come into the apartment and what could remain in the POD, which we've decided to hold onto while we wait for our house to be built. We can put anything we don't need now back in the POD, and it will be taken away and stored for us. Then, I place a little phone call, and it will be delivered to the doorstep of our new home.

Have I said how much I love PODS? That company has exceeded my expectations at every turn. This is the only way to move, at least if you can't afford to have someone else do the whole nightmare for you.

So, the morning was spent opening boxes, pulling out half the contents, and then closing them up again to go back into storage. Amid the mayhem we only misplaced Chase twice.

And, in the process, we found a few things that, despite our belief a month ago that we would cherish forever, we now decided would best fit in the dumpster outside our apartment.

At least those items got to see a little of our fair country before being discarded. I consider it an act of charity.

Hats off to this crew

6/23/10 Straw cowboy hat, trashed

We made it to Denver, partially unpacked the POD, moved into our new apartment, and did it all a day ahead of schedule.

How?

By accepting the gracious help of Betty & Frank, who packed our stuff in Maine, my parents, who travelled with us across the country, and Marc & Gianna, who welcomed us to the Stapleton neighborhood and helped to unpack the POD. And of course there were many others who played equally significant roles.

It's 10:30 Mountain Time and I'm exhausted, but tonight it's a good feeling.

As Joanna and I raced through Walmart this evening at 8:30, trying to grab the essentials for the first night in our new place (toilet paper, soap, a shower curtain), I realized I had just officially become a Colorado resident.

One thing I've been looking forward to getting once I arrived out here was a proper straw cowboy hat. When in Rome...

I've had and loved a cowboy hat that I bought in New Orleans just a few weeks before Hurricane Katrina. It was my staple outdoor chore accessory, and it had the grime and sweat stains to prove it. At some point, one of the cats also made a valiant effort to eat it, so it wasn't exactly the most comely headwear.

Nonetheless, the cowboy hat standards for Maine are pretty low, so I gamely clung to it. As a Mainer, I donned it for a good part of the cross country drive and it shielded me from the sun all afternoon as I lugged furniture and boxes into the new place.

But, as we checked out of Walmart this evening, I realized we'd be driving back to my new home. In some small way, I'm now a Coloradan (is that what they're called?), and that means I have hat expectations to aspire to.

I'm not sure when I'll get my new hat, but I WILL get one.

No longer needing it, I dropped the old one in the store trash can as we headed home.

Thanks to everyone who helped us get here.

Cars, clothes, and cats cross the country

6/22/10 Shirt, socks, and, yes, underwear, trashed

Those most faithful among you, Dear Readers, may remember my three-part downsize of professional attire (click here, here, and here) way back in August. It was one of my finer moments: rather than bring back dirty clothes from a conference, simply downsize them while at the event. (Although, it is not advisable to actually downsize them during the event.)

I've decided to apply the same principle to driving trips of over 2,000 miles.

Today was the penultimate day of our cross-country journey.

Side note: Have you noticed how I try to work the word "penultimate" into as many posts as possible? I just think it's fabulous -- so random, yet so specific. I wish not to insult anyone's intelligence, but in the off chance that any of you, Dear Readers, are not completely clear on the definition of said word, please leave the blog immediately to look it up on Dictionary.com. It does NOT, as I once so foolishly thought mean "Super-Ultimate." The true meaning is so much cooler.

The drive has gone remarkably smoothly, especially given that we are transporting a five-month old child and two very active kitties. All three seem to be taking the journey in stride. Chase has it pretty bad, being strapped backwards in a chair for ten hours a day, but at least he gets a stretch and a meal every few hours. The cats have basically been confined to their two-cubic-foot crates for a dozen hours or more. It's remarkable, when we release them, that they don't immediately claw our eyes out. Then again, maybe they're just biding their time...

I have it easiest of all. With coffee by my side, the GPS doing the navigating, and AC full blast in my face, I simply need to keep the vehicle between the lines as we pass the farms of Pennsylvania... and Ohio... and Indiana... and Illinois... and Iowa... and Nebraska.

Holy crap, do you realize how much farmland our country has? I need to eat more vegetables.

Despite the ease of my role, at the end of the day, I still exit the ol' Yoda Mobile (please note the sexy XCargo carrier mounted on the roof -- and watch for it in a future post) in serious need of a shower. Thus, tonight's downsize of my trusty Guy E. Rowe Elementary School t-shirt, as well as my socks and underwear is probably for the best.

And, my colleagues in Oxford Hills, please rest assured that I have many other items of clothing that shall serve as reminders of my time there. But, after today's ride, this t-shirt needed to go.

On the road again

6/21/10 Approximately seven to-go cups, never acquired

After a long weekend with my grandmother in Ohio, we hit the road again this morning, heading west towards Colorado.

I decided to do a little pro-active downsizing from here on out, vowing to use my own travel mug for the rest of the journey. Rather than buy the paper or styrofoam cups the coffee usually comes in and then toss them in the garbage, I decided to count using my own cup as multiple before-the-fact downsizes. Nobody -- other than my grandmother -- actually reuses those cups anyway, so it's a huge waste to accept them.

Let's assume I average three coffees per day on the road, and we have a two-and-a-half day trip ahead of us, that works out to about seven cups saved. Brilliant!

Even better, we stopped in two Dunkin' Donuts and a McDonald's, and nobody batted an eye at filling my ceramic Starbucks mug with their java. Hey, it's saving them money, too.

In fact, I highly recommend that everyone use their own mugs as you travel, and feel free to consider it as downsizing, if that serves as a motivating factor.

What's in Your Wallet? Part II

6/20/10 Excess contents of my wallet, trashed

My first Father's Day -- how monumental! (At least in the eyes of two people on this earth.)

To mark the occasion, Chase helped me empty out my wallet and throw away all the old business cards, membership cards, receipts, and random scraps of paper I no longer needed.

I figured he'll be cleaning out my wallet for at least the next twenty years; might as well give him an early start.

Babes in Downsize Land

6/19/10 Original cheese platter, given away

In the middle of all of this downsizing, it's great to celebrate significant upsizes that brighten our lives. Back on January 15, Chase entered my life, and it was my best acquisition in memory. Then, on June 1, my great friends Jason and Jenny welcomed their second daughter, Aviva Tess, into the world.

Given that my current trip from Maine to Denver pales in comparison to Jason and Jenny's new journey, I figured it would be appropriate to tie the two together via a downsize.

As documented in earlier posts, several years ago I asked my mother to make special cheese plates for my best friends. Mom had been using her kiln to slump wine bottles as gifts, so I picked out a few used bottles (hey, I save more than just corks) and commissioned her to turn them into art.

Predictably, like so many things in a hoarder's house, those cheese trays ended up in my basement as dust collectors.

Ah, yet another reason to downsize. It motivates one to do things that should have been done long ago.

I gave Tray #1 to Marc and Gianna on my April trip to Denver. I handed off Tray #2 to Chris & Juliane when they came to Maine to save my butt during the house pack-up.

(Full disclosure: I am not sure that I actually downsized the second cheese tray to Chris & Juliane. I can't find any documentation on the blog about it. If I didn't, I expect to hear about it any second...)

I popped Tray #3 in the mail to Jason, Jenny, Bella, and Aviva this morning from my grandmother's house in Ohio.

To increase the baby-t0-baby good karma, I had Chase play with it first. He agreed that it would work perfectly with some wheat crackers and a fine brie.

Congrats J & J, on one of the best upsizes any couple could make.

Loser

6/18/10 Boston Celtics 2008 NBA Champions car magnet, trashed

I do not want to get this upset when the Celtics lose Game 7 to the Lakers in the NBA Finals.

I do get this upset, but I don't want to.

The Anti-Downsizer

6/17/10 Small pile of toolbox miscellanea, trashed

We are spending some quality time with my grandmother in Ohio en route to Colorado.

This is her first chance to meet Chase, and it's a rare opportunity to spend time with one of my most beloved relatives in the whole world.

It also puts me up against the world's foremost anti-downsizer. Saying Nanna doesn't like to get rid of things is like saying BP might not have the oil spill under control.

Thus, I made it my project today to do a little Downsizing by proxy. It sure wasn't easy.

After multiple false starts, I finally corralled my grandmother into confronting a tabletop covered with tools, taken from a toolbox she had rooted around in earlier. I approached the project with resignation, realizing that she might not be willing to sacrifice a single rotten rubber band. In the end, she almost didn't.

The problem is that my grandmother feels that if something has some possible utility -- for ANYONE -- she must hang on to it. Here's an exchange that was repeated over and over between us:

Me: What is this for?

Nanna: Hmmm. I'm not sure.

Me: Oh, it's a magnetic nail holder. You use it to hold a nail so you don't hit your finder with the hammer.

Nanna: Really?

Me: Yes. But it's still sealed in the original bag. You never even opened it.

Nanna: Oh, that's fine. Someone will use that.

Me: Who?

Nanna: I don't know.

Me (guardedly): So... you want to keep it?

Nanna (incredulously): Well, yes!

And so it went. Unbelievably, by the end of the endeavor, we actually had a small collection of things she could bear to part with. Trust me, every single item was completely useless, but the idea of them being tossed into the trash would not sit with her.

And this is why I can count it as my own downsize. Ultimately, I had to take possession of the unwanted items, assuring my grandmother that I would find proper homes for them all. And I did.

Since they were mine, I chose to toss them into the garbage. I just needed to do it rather secretively.

Trust me, it was for her own good.

Excess baggage

6/16/10 Suitcase, returned

Last night I arrived in Stamford, CT, where I was reunited with my Beautiful Bride and the Brilliant Boy. Meyrick and Donna presented us with a delicious meal, which we enjoyed on their deck with my folks, who are accompanying us on our drive to Denver.

When we departed this morning, we left behind a suitcase we "borrowed" from Meyrick years ago. It was hard to let it go, since it was an ideal size for weekend getaways, but it was a bit inadequate for cross-country relocations.

At 10:30 tonight we finally reached my grandmother's house in Ohio, after nearly losing the front wheel of my car driving 60 MPH through Pennsylvania.

Thankfully, we caught the problem in time. With the luggage already counting as today's downsize, I would not have been in a mood to also give up a tire (and perhaps the entire front end of the Yoda Mobile) at high speeds.

The Great eBay Fire Sale, Part IV

6/15/10 eBay sales: Christmas treasure boxes, $0.99; Trinket box, $2.25; Lead soldiers, $34.00 (changed to $30.50); Stone figure, $10.50

Mailed off the last items in my eBay Fire Sale today, just a few hours before departing Maine for our cross-country drive.

In the end, I made fourteen sales for a grand total of $338.28. Not a bad take.

I also had six items which went unsold, but I've downsized those as follows:
• Music box, trashed
• Disney figurines, trashed
• Humidifier filters, trashed
• Clown coin bank, trashed
• Candle holders, given away
• Mini nativity set, given away

Twenty items up, twenty items down.

The best part? That adds up to twenty more things I don't need to schelp across country.

Editor's Note, 6/30/10: Unfortunately, the lead soldiers did not make it to Oregon without the loss of a few good men. Or at least one cannon, which apparently lost a wheel in transit. To compensate for this casualty of war, I issued a refund of $3.50 to the buyer. Fortunately, PayPal makes such transactions easy. Plus, every seller must remember that the buyer is always right.

What a Guy

6/14/10 School ID tag, trashed

School ended today, as did my employment with the Oxford Hills Public Schools. After seven years of teaching and learning, I walked out of Guy E. Rowe Elementary School for what is likely the last time.

Seven years seems an appropriate length of service at the school for me.

When I was hired, my primary job was to provide extra instruction for entering kindergarteners who were already lagging in their early reading skills. In the intervening years, my job has changed, but so have those kindergarten students. The five-year-olds I taught in my first year at Rowe just completed the sixth grade, and they will attend the middle school next fall.

I started with them and I left with them. Fitting, no?

Over those seven years, my outfit didn't vary too much. In addition to my tie and ubiquitous paper clip, the other staple of my school uniform was my ID card, which I dutifully displayed every day, as policy required. Shortly before departing this afternoon, I simply dropped it in the trash.

The old Reed would have held onto the ID as a souvenir. Not the Downsizing Reed.

The memories, knowledge, and friendships I take with me are enough.

Goodbye staff and students of Guy E. Rowe Elementary School. I don't have that ID anymore, but I assure you that I'll always carry a little bit of you with me no matter where I teach.

Bibliophiles

6/13/10 Microwave, donated to the Casco Public Library; computer printer/scanner, given away

One of the great joys of my life in Casco -- which ends in about thirty-six hours -- has been my involvement with the Casco Public Library. Like so many libraries across the country, the Casco Library is a true gem. Classic building, wonderful collection, and the two best librarians in Maine.

I've had the great honor, since February of 2006, to serve on the Board of Trustees, this last year as Vice President. I've been proud to do my part to help strengthen this crucial institution. Hopefully, some of my efforts, especially on library policies, will continue to be felt long after I've departed.

It's fitting, therefore, that we had a Trustees meeting scheduled today, my last full day in the Lakes Region. The meeting was a toughie, however, as we're grappling with incredibly difficult budget matters.

How bad is it?

Halfway through the meeting, our Library Director suggested that perhaps she could give up her health insurance in order to save the library money. Dear Readers, what have we come to?!?

I fear my donation of a microwave, to be sold at an upcoming community sale, won't go far in trying to bridge our budget gap.

What will save the library is the continued support of community members. Three of those community members are the Hayden ladies. Beth does our accounting for us, and her two teenage daughters, Heather and Heidi, volunteer and bring a heck of a lot of energy and sunshine to the building.

The also bring some serious writing skills. You may know that I once wrote a novel in a month -- Go ahead, click the link on the left side of the blog and buy a copy. I dare you. -- but I've got nothing on these teenagers.

Fifty thousand words in a month? Ha, that's child's play. According to Heather, she's topped 100,000 words in a month. That girl can write.

When Heidi told me she was working on a graphic novel (for the uninitiated, that's fancy talk for comic book) and needed a way to scan her illustrations, I knew I'd found a home for my computer printer/scanner.

As compensation for it, Heidi and Heather have enthusiastically -- heck, these girls do everything enthusiastically -- tackled the challenge of reading and editing my second novel, which I drafted two years ago and have been trying to forget ever since. They've promised to tear it to shreds and send me the remains for possible revisions.

Yes, I'm worried about the library, and that feeling is magnified by the fact that I won't be around to be part of the solution. But, with all these great people still keeping it going, I know I should be feeling nothing but hope.

The Great eBay Fire Sale, Part III

6/12/10 Complete Lenox Bone China Nativity Set, sold on eBay for $204.91; Three Cabbage Patch Kids, sold on eBay for $21.91; Two bags of clothing, donated to Goodwill

Baby Jesus, baby dolls, and a whole lotta goodwill.

Yep, that pretty much sums up today.

Today, I completed what may well prove to be my most successful eBay transaction ever, as I put two large boxes of nativity figurines in the mail to Chicago. The nativity collection was a true treasure, if you're into that sort of thing. (Not so sure I am.)

It was apparently a collector's set that Joanna's mom bought after the girls had gone off to college, since neither of them seemed to remember it. We don't know whether it was ever displayed, but Maggie had kept the five sets in their original boxes, and I was pretty confident that they would sell when I posted them on eBay.

In fact, while Joanna expressed some concern when I listed the starting auction price for each set as ninety-nine cents, I was confident that they wouldn't sell for pennies.

Actually, eBay is a pretty fascinating marketplace, and the one thing I've learned is that if you put an item of value up for sale, people will find it.

In the end, the five sets were all bought by one person, for a grand total of $204.91, right about what I anticipated. I don't expect to ever sell anything for that much again. (Especially since I don't plan to dive into the Star Wars collection anytime soon. Sorry, Joanna.)

The other big sale of the day was a set of three Cabbage Patch Kids, which really were from Joanna's childhood. Two twins and a preemie. Whew, I don't envy that mom.

The cool thing about that sale is that I just received an email from the buyer explaining that she had had the same Cabbage Patch dolls as a child, and she was buying this set to pass on to her one-year-old daughter. I like that.

With all of this to mail out, my morning was a frantic mess. I had to swing by Staples to buy more bubble wrap, and sent twenty minutes in the Raymond post office parking lot properly packing up the goods. It was a race against time to get it all ready before the end of Saturday P.O. hours.

Fortunately for me, the Raymond post office is literally connected to a Goodwill store. After mailing off my complete collection of handcrafted religious artifacts and squishy adoptable babies, I popped into Goodwill to donate another two bags of clothing. I need to pare down the luggage in anticipation of the cross-country trip.

Indeed, these downsizes were bulky items, and it felt great to let them all go today.

Gotta get streamlined in preparation for loading up the Yoda Mobile. T-minus fifty-six hours until departure. Oh, baby, it's coming fast.

The Great eBay Fire Sale, Part II (I'll drink to that!)

6/11/10 Antique microscope, sold on eBay for $12.80; daggers (yeah, knives) sold on eBay for $28.00; Two liters of home-brew beer, consumed (mostly)

Thanks to my Grandmother, I netted over forty bucks on eBay today, as I sold two things that were gifts from her.

One was an interesting old microscope that, despite its coolness, I had to finally admit I had no need for. The other was a set of two intricately crafted daggers/knives/shivs that she brought back from an around-the-world cruise in the early 1980s.

I can sense your horror, Dear Readers. Yes, my downsizing continues to lead me to cast aside gifts from my closest relatives.

That's the kind of behavior that would make some people fear for their lives.

Indeed, I did take my life into my hands by cracking open a bottle of homemade beer to celebrate Game 4 of the NBA Finals last night. Fear not. While it turned out to taste better than expected, I did not, for safety sake, down the whole bottle in one evening. (Had the Celtics played poorly, it might have been another matter...)

It's worth noting that this particular beer has been the focal point of much downsizing debate between my sister-in-law and me for months. I made the beer last fall; the second time I've attempted to brew my own. Just like my previous attempt way back when I lived in New York, this batch would not exactly be a contender in the World Beer Awards.

Amanda has been vocal in her opinion that dumping the beer down the drain was a necessary and urgent downsize.

She was not the one, however, who bought all the ingredients, diligently followed the directions, and kept her bathroom heated to a precise temperature for a week just to pull of this operation. That murky looking liquid took a whole lot of energy to make.

Especially after I carted the bottle from our house to the rental apartment, there was no way I was going to just dump it.

I was going to enjoy this beer whether I liked it or not.

Luckily, as it turned out, it wasn't half bad. Perhaps aging for six months in our fridge helped, but it actually had a decent flavor. And the Celtics had a dramatic win over the Lakers to tie the series at 2-2, which surely lent the beer a greater hoppiness.

When I arrived home today, after my penultimate day of work for the Oxford Hills Public Schools, I kicked back with another glass of it as I relaxed on the patio overlooking Sebago Lake. I needed it after desperately scrambling to get the eBay items packed up and to the post office before it closed tonight. One joy of a small town is that the postal clerk let me mail my packages even though it was technically after hours.

I did have to dump the final few ounces of brewski since the bottom of the bottle was rather cloudy with sediment, but that's a technicality. I drank it, and it was good. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Finishing school, making money, and drinking beer.

Not a bad way to begin the weekend.

The Great eBay Fire Sale, Part I

6/10/10 Snowflake ornament, sold on eBay for $17.17; Christmas napkin rings, sold on eBay for $5.75

Oh, it's on now.

I began the week with twenty different items up on eBay. It's part of my last-ditch scramble to get rid of a few items of value before I need to pack all of my worldly possessions into my Subaru (a.k.a. the Yoda Mobile).

Today, I mailed out the first two sales from the eBay barrage: a snowflake Christmas ornament and some Christmas napkin rings. I guess buyers on eBay are looking for a little yuletide cheer.

These are the kind of thing that I put up for auction without even knowing if anyone would want them. I figured I'd get something for the napkin rings, but the snowflake was a wild card. Turns out it was some sort of collector's item. How I came to own it is actually a bit of a mystery, but for seventeen bucks, I'm happy to pass it along to someone else.

Heck, for seventeen bucks, I'll downsize just about anything.

Bouncy books

6/9/10 Bouncy chair and a whole bunch of books, given away.

My wife and child have left me.

But it's all part of the plan.

Joanna and Chase drove to Connecticut today to spend time with the maternal grandparents before we depart for Colorado. My job is to tie up all the loose ends in Maine, which includes downsizing a whole mess of stuff that didn't make it into the POD and can't fit into our cars for the cross-country trek.

Today, that meant ridding myself of Chase's bouncy chair, which he no longer fits in. It served us well (thanks, Amy!). My colleague Sara, second grade teacher extraordinaire and soon-to-be mother of her third son, said she could put the chair to active use. With three boys in the house, I'm sure she will.

I also cleaned out my remaining collection of children's books. As is well documented in these pages, whenever I put books up for grabs in the teachers' room, they disappear almost instantly.

Only three days left at school and five days remaining in the state. Five days without the Beautiful Bride and Brilliant Boy, with nothing to do (yeah, right!) but downsize.

I'm going to be busy...

Toxic avenger

6/8/10 Eight-year-old (at least) gallon of antifreeze, given away

Now that I've done it, I wonder if I've learned a lesson. I've certainly developed some opinions about how to make the whole mess better for people in the future.

I'm talking, Dear Readers, about the troublesome build-up of toxic chemicals in our basements and garages.

I've written several times in the past about the problems of all the paint, oil and other chemicals that collected at my place. It's taken me nine months, but somehow I have finally managed to get rid of every dripping, rusting, sticky, dangerous can, canister, and container of toxicity.

The last gallon was one of the easiest. I asked Terry, our school custodian, if he had ideas of how I could dispose of an unopened but very old bottle of antifreeze.

"I'll take it for some of my old clunkers," he said. Ah, Terry to the rescue.

What I now realize is that I need to be much more thoughtful about purchasing and using these chemicals in the first place so that I never again find myself in the position of having to deal with them.

I also have a modest proposal, Dear Readers, which I believe might prevent all of us from getting into a similar mess. Here it is:

Any business that markets and sells toxic chemicals must also accept, for a fee, unused portions of those chemicals to be returned by the buyer. I don't even have a problem with them charging a hefty fee to take them and requiring that you have your original receipt to prove you bought it from them.

The point is, we need to provide consumers with relatively simple, straightforward ways to properly dispose of chemicals that they no longer need. Otherwise, this stuff just builds up in our homes -- that can't be good -- and will, inevitably, often be dumped down the drain or in the back yard -- that's definitely NOT good.

When I run for office, right after fighting for the Constitutional amendment requiring all citizens to vote, I'm pushing through the Chemical Return And Processing law (otherwise known as CRAP). Once elected, Dear Readers, I promise to provide you with reasonable and proper ways to dispose of your toxic substances.

It's a good idea, and that's no crap.

Reamed out

6/7/10 Four reams of copy paper, donated to Guy E. Rowe Elementary School

There now is a valued machine,
Whose malfunction does make teachers mean.
All through the day,
It labors away,
Making copies crisp and pristine.

In the staffroom corner it does stand,
Tree are felled, clearing the land.
Yes, how far we come,
Those old days are done,
When the monks had to do it by hand.

The world was not always this way,
Before, teachers planned the whole day,
No paper to waste,
A reality they faced,
Sloppy teaching led to naught but dismay.

Now, all one needs is the button to touch.
Copies by the bushel are never too much.
Color, cut, and clip,
Keep your mouth zipped,
Has the machine become a bit of a crutch?

And there are some who still long to laugh,
At those pages, filled with writing and math,
When one little sniff,
Could give you a lift,
Those were the days of the beloved mimeograph.

Now the Xerox rules the teacher's prep time.
"I just need five copies, may I cut in line?"
It's widely well known,
As the teaching cornerstone,
Without it, learning would stop on a dime.

And so, the teaching Gods I placate,
With five days left, there is no time to wait,
With budgets so tight,
This downsize is right
To the school, much paper I donate.

Fan club

6/6/10 Oscillating fan, given away

This weekend, The Great Chase Farewell Tour took us from Sebago Lake to Penobscot Bay and back through the Capital City.

With only a few days left before Joanna and Chase head to Connecticut (and then Denver), everyone wants to steal a few moments with the Brilliant Boy, and who can blame them.

Amanda came up Friday night and spent twenty-four hours with us in our lakeside rental. Highlight had to be finding the two of them asleep together on our coach. Cuteness factor = 10.

We then drove over to my Grammie's house on Saturday morning, who had not yet met her youngest great-grandchild. Chase was a true charmer, smiling and laughing as he entertained not only Grammie but my aunts and uncles, as well.

With that brief visit over, we headed home on Sunday morning, with a brief stop-in at my folks' place in Winthrop. This was the last chance for Chase to chill with his cousins James and Estelle, who -- as always -- were good role models of what we'd like him to become in a few years.

The Winthrop stop also allowed us to get a big of downsizing in, as I game Mom a fan we no longer needed. (Central air conditioning, here we come!)

We don't know when Chase will see all of these relatives again, as most of the continent is about to get in between us, but we know he left on a high note. The guy was all smiles and laughs this weekend.

Yep, the little fella knows how to make a lasting impression. Hey, I'm a fan.

Xmas X-ing

6/5/10 Five Christmas mice, two Christmas candle holders, Christmas salt & pepper shakers, and a Disney Christmas music box, trashed

I understand, Dear Readers, how harsh it seems that I have thrown away so many holiday trinkets today.

In my defense I merely submit:

1) Most of today's downsizes were broken or damaged in some way.

2) The POD is currently packed with AT LEAST six bins of Christmas decorations.

3) I would rather give away or sell this stuff, but there comes a point when tossing it in the garbage is the only reasonable solution. We almost convinced Amanda, for example, to take the Christmas mice, since she was up in Maine enjoying a final visit with Chase before our move. In the end, however, she said, "No," and I had to give them the heave.

4) I am scrambling like mad to sell what I can. In the last twenty-four hours, I put fifteen items up for auction on eBay, ten of them Christmas related. Still there are some items that just don't justify the time and energy required to sell them.

5) Besides, it's June! Who can fault a guy for doing a little Christmas culling in June?

Crystal-clear coffee

6/4/10 Gallon of vinegar, given away

For reasons no more complex than A) I love coffee, and B) I love special routines, this year I instituted Coffee Thursday. Each Thursday I made a pot of coffee in the Reading Room outside of my office and offered some to any and all interested adults.

On some days I drank alone; other times the teachers pretty well drained it. (Sara and Steve were highly dependable, Sherry and Claudette grabbed some occasionally, and Jason rarely indulged, but always greeted the brewing pot with cries of, "Ah, special blend!")

After the dust cleared on the vacating and cleaning of our home, I was left with an unopened gallon of vinegar. Today, I took it into school and used a fair amount to clean the Reading Room coffee maker. That didn't use it all up, so next week I'll make the rounds of the school, offering up my vinegar and cleaning services to all other java brewers in the building.

One more Coffee Thursday left in my Guy E. Rowe Elementary School career. With that clean pot, I bet the special blend will taste pretty good.

Poster child

6/3/10 Two posters (Larry Bird & Yoda), given away

Posters are the purview of the young, which is a true shame for the rest of us. One of the more unfortunate moments of last week's POD packing was when I discovered a poster tube with two marvelous prints in it: a Yoda photo-mosaic and a Larry Bird tribute.

But such items are not for a 38-year-old to display in his house. No, for me it's all framed art from here on out. So, I did the grown-up thing and set the posters aside, fighting the urge to squirrel them away in some little POD cranny.

One of the many joys of working in an elementary school is that I am surrounded by children who love all those things I'm not really supposed to love anymore. Sports jerseys can be seen in every classroom every day and I witness (and occasionally participate in) mock light saber battles at recess each noon. Ah, to be a boy again!

Today the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers kick off their twelfth showdown in the NBA Finals. It's been a beautiful and improbably run for the Celts, so to celebrate their powerful play, I gave away that Larry Bird poster to a budding young sportsman, Matthew. He was, after all, properly outfitted in his Kevin Garnett jersey and shall cheer for the good guys throughout this series.

And then, because every day is a good day to celebrate Star Wars, I gave away my Yoda poster to fourth grader and budding Sith Lord, Harrison. (Yes, Dear Readers, this is the second Yoda photo-mosaic I've given away -- one can never have enough of such things.) He got in the spirit by doing his best Yoda face for the camera.

Keep it up, boys. May your love for childish things stay with you no matter how hold you get.

Paper trail

6/2/10 Pile of house paperwork, recycled

I clearly live a charmed life, and I credit the good karma related to the Downsizing Challenge for only about 85% of my good fortune.

Whatever the cause, Joanna, Chase, and I find ourselves, after selling our house, in a temporary rental that could well be described as luxurious. We're staying in the basement apartment of an amazing lake home, with views from every room out onto Maine's famous Sebago Lake. We've lived within ten minutes of this spot for nearly seven years and never had diggs like this.

Hey, good things happen to good people

Settling into this vacation-like flat has made the transition out of our home surprisingly easy, so tonight I attacked the six-inch stack of house-related paperwork that had accumulated in six years of domicile ownership. A document hoarder by nature, I feared that I'd be reluctant to trash much from such vitally labeled folders as Home Improvement, Road, Log Cabin, Mortgage, House Insurance, and Title File.

Ah, how I underestimate myself.

Within ten minutes I reduced the pile to about a dozen sheets of paper, and had time left over to watch the final strands of light fade over the water.

And even better? As Joanna pointed out, we currently have not a debt in the world.

Who needs a mortgage and all the related paperwork? I could get use to this lakeside rental deal.

Adoption on TV

6/1/10 Television, two lamps, and a box of other highly sale-able items, donated

The first day of Downsizing Challenge month #11 and I am reduced to typing this on my iPhone, since our shaky Internet connection in our rental apartment has decided to take the night off. I get no nights off from the challenge, however, so I shall try my best to make a go of it on a 3-inch screen using only my thumbs.

Some things just turn out to be harder than they should be.

Here's a better example.

Why is adoption, for a loving and committed couple, a cost-prohibitive undertaking? I agree that anyone assuming responsibility for a child should be able to demonstrate financial responsibility, but the costs of adoption far exceed that. $20,000, $30,000, even $50,000 to adopt a child? That's abusive in and of itself.

Joanna and I have talked about the possibility of adoption and even been to an information session about it, but I have to admit that the costs make me all but rule it out. Should giving a child a proper life of love and opportunity really be based on someone's access to tens of thousands in excess cash?

My colleague Jeff has not let such moral arguments sidetrack him and his family from sharing their love. On two teachers' salaries, he and his wife have already adopted one daughter from China and are in the process of adopting another. Unsurprisingly, their bank account doesn't stretch as far as their hearts, so they have had to get creative about raising funds.

This weekend they will be having a benefit yard sale to support the cause, so Jeff asked the teachers at school to look around for possible sale items.

My most prominent donation was our giant old TV which, while perfectly functional, was not worth taking to Denver since it would have used up half the space in the POD.

I realize that the things I gave Jeff today aren't likely to net him very much towards the adoption goal, but maybe they will help a little.

Of course, thankfully, there are people in the world like Jeff, who aren't going to let the whole money thing stand in the way of doing the right thing.

I just think it's a shame that it has to be an issue in the first place.