Packing to move house

is proving more and more difficult.

I am being "helped" by Middle Cat and my BIL. If I did not need their actual physical assistance it would be much, much easier to do it by myself.

I mentioned this to someone I know. She also had to "downsize" recently. Her husband died very suddenly and, sensible woman she is, she had already given thought to what might happen if he went first.

"It was much easier for me Cat," she said, "I had the finances and the ability to drive."

I sighed. Yes, this is true. My finances are even more limited because of the Black Cat's behaviour. Not being able to drive has meant that I cannot simply load items into a car and take them to the nearest charity shop or to the metal recycling place. 

Middle Cat keeps insisting that she will "sell" something on a FB page and that is, despite her intentions, not working well. It is not because these are things people will not be interested in. They will be interested in some unused Bundt cake tins our mother collected. There are still people out there who make those sort of cakes. They will be interested in some "quirky" glassware and other little oddities she collected. Middle Cat showed me the site and it is clear that there are strange people who collect this sort of thing. It might not bring in much but it might bring in something for Middle Cat if she can actually get around to doing what needs to be done. Therein lies one problem. She procrastinates. She means to do things. She really does have good intentions but she reminds me of a great aunt we had. In so many ways she is just like R...  People loved R... but they knew she was more than a little eccentric...and not to be relied on if something else caught her attention. None of this sort of thing in Middle Cat's makeup is helping me right now. It is an outright hindrance.

But then there is my BIL. He is an engineer. In many ways he is the exact opposite of Middle Cat. He is very tidy and very, very organised. He has lists for everything. He does not keep things he considers he does not "need". He doesn't read so he has no understanding of the need for books. He has a workshop but he sees it as a place where practical and necessary things are done and the  go-karts are given their tender loving care. The idea that I might like to knit or indulge in any other sort of hobby which requires "stuff" is something he genuinely does not understand. 

"Just buy stuff when you need it Cat. You don't need all this," he tells me, "What do you want two packs of paper for? You probably don't even need one...and what's this for? Where are you going to put this stuff?"

I love him dearly but he has no idea at all. He went through a box yesterday at lightning speed and I had to stop him. We argued and I suppose we will argue some more.  I love them both but they are not helping in a helpful way.

He tried to come out on top in the end by saying, "Without engineers the rest of you would get nowhere."

And I told him, "Without language you engineers could not even function."

He didn't understand that at all.