Packing and Purging

Within a week of finding our perfect rental, we received notification from the bank to get out.  We had been in an active short sale and not planning a foreclosure, so we *really* would rather not have an eviction on our credit as well.  The packing is in full force and so is the purging.  We are downsizing from over 2400 square feet to 802.  This means we have way too much furniture (and toys, and just plain ole stuff).

Barring other future surprises we also have 4 estimated large expenses that remain for our family needs.  We have decided that we will use our packing and purging abilities to try and raise some needed funds for that, since the funds are pretty restricted otherwise.

At this point in time we are saving for:

1- air purifier.   The rental house will have fresh paint, new floor, and new kitchen. The new kitchen is rather awesome since it will be free of anyone else's funk, including various forms of corn.  However, all of this will be very detrimental to Ellie's healing, and our overall health.  This need feels particularly urgent as we will be moving in a few short weeks.  We are going to be handling this in-home air quality issue in two ways.

I have been researching for weeks into the wee hours (what? so what's new? hey!) regarding air purifiers. What I found was that there is no fool proof, 100% effective system out there for cleaning the air in the home. The most interesting thing I found is that NASA has a BioHome that is maintained by plants.  They have done extensive studies and have found that the right, efficient household plants remove up to 87% of household toxins within 24 hours!  You need to have enough of them to do the job, and the recommendation is 15-18 plants, 6-8 inch in diameter at least for an 1800 square foot home.  Check out the list of recommended plants HERE.  Our first line of defense for our new home will be plants! We will be in 802 square feet, and my goal is 15 plants from this list.  My hope is that it will be cheaper to accomplish than purchasing the outrageously expensive, top of the line air purifiers.  Now I think I understand the tradition of bringing a plant as a housewarming gift.  Isn't that smart?

The second thing will be to purchase a lower cost, as efficient as we can find air filter for the main living area, as well as one for the girls' bedroom.  I believe I have two picked out, so overall we are looking at about $400 + plants.

2- lip tie surgery.  We have decided that the best fit for Ellie (and our second attempt at this surgery) will be with Dr. James Jesse in the Los Angeles area. We have found a local, fantastic functional orthodontist for Big Sis who will not need a repeat surgery after all (woot!). Our estimation is that we will need approximately $700 in funds to make this happen.  ($200 in gas, $150 for one night in a hotel w/kitchen, $350 for surgery)

3- natural organic mattresses.  Because of some fire retardant laws passed around 2007, conventional mattresses are one of the most toxic pieces of furniture in the home.  Mattresses out gas into the air polluting the entire house.  Since Ellie spends time sleeping in our bed, and we want a healthy environment for Big Sis, too, we are working to replace all three of our mattresses.  We have found an organic kid's twin mattress that will cost approximately $500, so we are working to save $500 x2 plus $1000 for a queen.  Total we need to save $2000.

4- a generator.  Due to black outs, brown outs, and living-in-the-country outs, we need something to power our Vitamix in the event of an outage or emergency.  Ellie still eats primarily from a bottle so without electricity to puree her food she would have no food.  I have no idea how much a generator like this would cost and have not had a chance to research it. Of course is she started chewing this might not be such a huge cause for panic. ($???)

Right now these costs seems incredibly out of reach, but God knows our needs and we know He will provide.  We are going to begin posting items from our home on craigslist and to our facebook friends to try and get things started.  Prayers would be appreciated for the sale of items we don't need in order to fund these things that we do.  We received word today that we will be able to be begin moving stuff into the garage of the rental next week!  Time to figure out how to move some chickens.