Moving Day is so very nearly upon us.  Time has raced by since the day the Assignment Fairy was in contact and the Moving Pixie is seriously under prepared and getting a little stressed, if truth be told.

The moving process starts with the arrival of an evil assessor who counts your things and makes an over-estimation of how many wardrobe cartons will be required to move your small collection of Boden and Fat Face.  The evil estimator also can’t count handbags (I’m sure double the space needed has actually been allocated), or indeed dining tables; of which we have 5 if the estimate is anything to go by.

Our family of two adults and two cats is 2 m³ over the very generous removals allowance.  Emma (veteran mover, friend, and all round Good Person) tells me that this is the equivalent volume of 6 washing machines – stack them as you will.  That’s a lot of handbags.

There are three weeks remaining (I was going to type ‘short weeks’ there, but in all honestly they are weeks as long as any other) before the packers arrive on the 17^th February in which to find and kill 6 washing machines worth of stuff.  And, if I’m being brutally honest, this is my job to do; as there is no doubt what-so-ever where responsibility lies for excess baggage in this household.  Nige doesn’t own any handbags.

That is therefore my task this week.  I have the luxury of working out of Belgium, giving me 7 evenings in which to ensure that wardrobes are purged and kitchen gadgets are rationalised.

This brings me to the drinks cabinet.  Like most people who regularly entertain; we have a selection of booze to rival any branch of Threshers.  Most of it open, hardly any of it used on a regular basis.  Moving within the EU this is not a problem.  A move outside the EU, when the delivery is some 8 weeks after packing and the whole lot is subject to Customs inspection, it is something of an issue.

The drinks cabinet needs weeding.  This week my mission is not only to undertake some wardrobe and handbag rationalisation; it is also to cull the contents of the drinks cabinet.  As I was brought up to abhor waste of all kinds (just think of those starving Biafran’s!), the only real solution is to drink it.   I’m thinking if I start with the drinks cabinet, 6 washing machines worth of other stuff will be easy to find.