My husband and I are in that in between space. We have gotten our house ready for market – making it look like a showcase, and not the house you actually live in. We’ve had the pictures taken – the wide angle lenses they use make every room look bigger than it is. Our house is now listed; anyone can peer into our house through any of the online real estate sites. We’ve had the first open house this past weekend. I hope it is the only one; every home seller hopes for an offer within the first few days. Even better would be more than one offer and a bidding war.  That would truly be good house luck for us!

You’re supposed to “stage” your house so it looks like you don’t live there. No personal photos as though you are an orphan from nowhere. No garbage cans or recycle bins visible as though you don’t produce waste. Nothing on your closet floors so they look spacious. Nothing on your kitchen or bathroom counters as though you never cook a meal or use any products. It is as though you have already moved out.

Being “in between” for us also means staging our house for selling and moving into temporary housing in Cleveland where I am doing a temporary engagement. What will we need in Cleveland and what should we pack to eventually go on the moving truck.

Like you, we have more stuff than we need. What we can part with forever and what should we pack away for several months is a challenge. Some of us are better at it than others. I already made my first mistake – I left my fleece in Cleveland thinking I had others in Ann Arbor. On a chilly weekend I realized that I had already packed up the others the weekend before.

Being “in between” is a weather challenge. Will there be one more snow? Do I keep a pair of boots out or with wishful thinking, pack them all in a box? I’m a practical person who has lived in the north most of my life – you guessed it, I kept one pair out.

And then there are the files and knowledge resources in my home office – what might I need in the next few months for my interim CIO engagement or for future consulting and coaching work? And what will be OK to store for a longer period. Those little file cases with handles were my friend last weekend when I organized my home office for the next few months.

Being “in between” takes a lot of organization, forethought and detailed focus. I’m trying. But as my husband likes to say when we finally get in a cab to go to the airport for a long trip – if we forgot anything we can probably buy it!

Speaking of my husband, the burden of this move is clearly on him since I’m working full time in another city. I’ve thanked him often for all he’s doing. Consider this my public thanks to my soulmate who has been through many moves with me over the years but none as lopsided as this one.

We are “in between.” Not quite moved out and not yet moved in. We have been looking at a lot of houses online in Providence, RI, our destination. Time to get serious about finding a new place to live near our daughters and their families.

Soon, we will be heading there to spend a full day with a realtor.