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FeaturesDecember 2, 1997

If you add up all the times I've moved in the past two years, I could own a Ryder truck instead of renting one every time. Amid all the hustle and bustle of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, I moved into a new house. Actually, I wasn't the only family member to move this weekend. My brother took a new job and moved also, but his move was a little simpler than mine...

If you add up all the times I've moved in the past two years, I could own a Ryder truck instead of renting one every time.

Amid all the hustle and bustle of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, I moved into a new house.

Actually, I wasn't the only family member to move this weekend. My brother took a new job and moved also, but his move was a little simpler than mine.

I had to haul boxes and large pieces of furniture from my father's basement in Whitewater to a house in the center of town. My brother packed clothes into a suitcase and loaded some boxes into his car for his move.

Truthfully, I'm getting really good at moving and packing. I could be hired out as a consultant, I've done this so often.

In the last six years, I have moved at least six times. (And that doesn't count the times I moved home for a few weeks or months while looking for a place of my own.)

And if you count up all the times my family has moved in the past two years, we could have purchased a Ryder truck instead of renting one every time.

My dad says I'm so deeply indebted to him for all his moving help that I may never be able to repay the effort. But I think one meal and a pan of brownies will likely do the trick.

My brother said I have to help him when he moves into an apartment, but it should be simple because he doesn't own any furniture. He threatened to buy a couch of bricks after hauling my solid oak hope chest and bedroom dresser. My dad suggested we invest in styrofoam furniture if we plan to move again.

Of all the moves I've made, this wasn't the most organized. I have been living in a spare room at my mother's and wasn't even packed before we started moving the furniture out.

I was relying on the fact that nearly all of my possessions have been stored in boxes for the last two months. So this should have been an easy move. But it wasn't that simple.

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First, it rained. I've never moved in the rain before, and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. As soon as we loaded my dad's pickup truck with boxes, it started to pour. We rented a covered trailer and it never rained another drop all afternoon.

My second problem was a shortage of laborers. In the past, I've had co-workers and church friends help me move. They usually work pretty cheap -- for the price of pizza and sodas -- and don't complain. But this time, my dad, brother and I moved everything and I'll hear about it for many years to come.

Once I got all the furniture inside the house, the real work began.

I had to arrange it -- by myself.

I really don't have enough furniture for the house, so I've tried to arrange the pieces I do have to make the rooms look full. It's not working. I've moved the couch four times since it arrived Friday morning.

Every time I move, I seem to have accumulated more belongings and junk than I had the time before. It always alarms me to realize that I own enough pieces to sparsely furnish a two-bedroom house.

Now I just have to find all the junk I'd packed away and unpack it again. Maybe all the knickknacks will fill up the house, but I doubt it.

Unpacking after a move is sort of like opening Christmas gifts, you're always surprised at what you find inside the boxes.

In the last two days, I have unpacked things I didn't know I owned and probably haven't used in months. I'm not really sure why I even keep these things. Yesterday I discovered some books I had forgotten about and kitchen utensils that I'll never use again.

In fact, there's one box in my closet that hasn't been unpacked since 1991. I wonder what's inside.

~Laura Johnston is a copy editor with the Southeast Missourian.

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