As many of you will recall, Bill and I had a great deal of help moving. Not only did we have the best real estate agent of all time, who figuratively held our hand throughout the process, but we had wonderful and caring movers, and amazing packers and unpackers. A new couple recently moved into Wind Crest just down the hall from us, and I observed that she had no one helping her unpack her boxes. Well, that’s not entirely true, as she had who appeared to be her children assisting her. But she had no professionals helping her unpack and put her things away.

As a result, when I greeted her late Wednesday afternoon, she looked very tired and discombobulated. When I asked what she and her husband were doing for Thanksgiving the next day, she looked sadly down at the empty boxes, and said, “I will spend the day unpacking more boxes.”

I will admit that there are plusses and minuses to the choice we made to have professional help. The major plus, of course, is that as it turned out, I had a pinched nerve which would have prevented me from doing any unpacking for days. The minus, however, is that to this very day, I have no idea where a lot of my things are.

Bill will ask me, “Do we have a tape measure?” I will answer, quite truthfully, that I’m 94.6 percent sure there is a tape measure someplace in this very apartment, but I have no idea where it is.

I can’t tell you how many times in the past two months I’ve had to try to put myself in the mindset of two women who barely knew me and guess where they would have put our things. Like our tape measure.

Most recently, here are some of the items that I’m certain are in this apartment but have absolutely no idea where….

Poultry shears. I discovered last night when I was preparing my Cornish game hens that my poultry shears were nowhere to be found. I searched my kitchen from top to bottom to no avail. I used regular scissors, which didn’t work as easily as you can imagine.

Pearl necklace and earrings. I literally can’t remember the last time I wore my pearl necklace. Bill gave it to me, along with matching earrings, shortly after we were married. I occasionally wore it when I worked hard for my money, but I just have no real reason to wear them now. Because they were such a romantic gift, I want to know where they are. I know where they were as we prepared to move, and I have no doubt they are here somewhere. But where? Alas.

Handle cover for my cast iron skillet. Obviously, the loss of this item isn’t the end of the world. Nevertheless, it makes me crazy that I can’t figure out where they put it. I’ve searched the drawer where they put my towels. I’ve searched the cupboard where they put all of my cooking pans and skillets. I’ve picked through all of the things they put in my pantry, but I have been unable to find the cover. I finally gave up and ordered another.

Colorful serving dish. I bought a small, adorable plastic bowl with bright colors with a sole purpose to hold guacamole. I recently made guacamole, but when I searched for the bowl, I was unable to find it anywhere. While I realize I threw away a lot of things when we moved, I am entirely certain I would not have thrown this away. It had a specific purpose, and I would have kept it for that purpose.

There are likely many more things I will find missing as the days and weeks go by. It is almost certain, however, that these things will show up. The apartment simply isn’t that big!