Accessible Gardening: Practical Matters for Physically Challenged Gardeners #18, 2 by poolrunning

poolrunning wrote:
Carrie, a good friend of mine has MS so I know a little of what you are dealing with.

On the two houses thing, and moving, I am so blessed to know in advance what we are downsizing to, and for us we have prioritized $$ towards using the Ohio house as low-budget vacation space where we can ease into the VERY different culture around Dayton. (It has roots not unlike our current community-- rural, handshakes for all business deals, nonverbal communication, slower pace-- but Dayton/Cincy? All-speeded-up-and-in-the-grip-of-materialistic-madness. So each trip, I explore my side of what retirement might look like, and scout for new friends on my rural-but-not-conservative wavelength.)

For me, during my illness, online became my main source of social contact. That needs to change, in retirement.

Anyway, for us it's not a sudden, take-everything-at-once move. After the 3 blended-fam teens left the nest, we did spread out into the big house we rent... but 1/3 of its furniture and stuff have already furnished our Ohio "camp," and most of that will wear out about the time we want to bring the nicer PA stuff to Ohio, and pick up a very few "new" )Goodwill) pieces.

Then, hubby will have to face his own downsizing demons, as I have been doing, but TBTG we have a large garage in Ohio! If necessary, all the excess stuff can come right off the van and into the garage. We can then "shop" from the stash, as we know what he really wants to keep "til death."

Cuz I'm with you-- not a fan of moving. OMG, when we blended families we combined two complete households. Due to the size of the only rental open in PA, we never really purged THEN. In the 20+ years since, we HAVE gotten rid of broken stuff.... so that was one way we sorta got down to one kitchen's worth of gadgets, but..... TBTG the Ohio kitchen is almost as big as the PA farm kitchen, and I get to take our island with us!

So for me, moving is just a flow. Last two trips, I was able to identify good people to work hard (and cheap) to unload the open cargo trailer we haul with. Hubby is well able to load my planned items, which accumulate out on the front porch-- at the foot of the ramp we had built when I got out of post-op nursing home care. LOL-- our church sexton saw a pile of stuff that hadn't gone out yet, one day, and concluded that I was a hoarder, but we do actually get rid of stuff and it doesn't usually pile up in the LR when I'm in packing mode. (Now, I use trash bins on wheels as packing barrels, and wheel 'em down as loaded. The Ohio house's sellers were kind enough to leave me several squirrel-chewed bins! They thought them worthless! I just line 'em with a trash bag for waterproofing!)

Pix: Ohio kitchen-accessible garden space, PA ramp.

~S~