Moving to Maui: Clearing the House

I thought I’d have another full year to do this…

My wife and I had talked about moving to Hawaii, and looking at the events we have planned, it seemed impossible that it would happen before October 2027. Little did I know we would find and sign a contract on a house in October 2026. We’ve been in our existing house for 30+ years. We have 30+ years of clutter and accumulated stuff. Now we’re trying to do in 2+ months what I had planned to take 12 months to do.

I’m now in a sprint to gather things and take them to Goodwill, and to list things on Facebook Marketplace, and to interact with buyers. We’re also dealing with the bank and real estate agents and home inspectors. Soon we’ll have to deal with people to do some deferred repairs on our house. And while my wife’s foot is still healing, I have to be her chauffeur, sometimes into DC, other times around the local area, sometimes to medical appointments.

Next week we are taking a U-Haul trailer full of stuff to her family vacation home in Maine. That’s going to eat a few days. I knew this was going to be a surge effort; it’s turning into day-upon-day of go-go-go to get stuff out and get stuff done.