“Let's get the dumpster.”
That was my answer when the contractor explained how much was still inside the Poughkeepsie house.
The basement work had finally started. Problem spaces were being demolished and reframed. A new water meter was in. A window was still coming. Footings for the back porch were next. The crew could keep moving, but first they needed me to get my stuff out of their way.
I had already built the spreadsheet.
It compared movers by reviews, crew size, hourly rate, and whether blankets cost extra. Another section compared storage units from 10 by 15 feet up to 10 by 30. Most of the larger units were unavailable. One 10-by-25 unit was being held until May 1. I booked three movers and a truck for Sunday at 8:00 a.m.
The timing was a little ridiculous.
Five days earlier, a formal offer from TRX had landed in my inbox. It followed the Newport Beach visit that left me excited and still asking questions. The note said the offer captured the terms we had discussed. The team was ready to work through the employment and equity documents and, in their words, “really psyched to get started.”
I forwarded it to somebody I trusted the next morning and set up another call.
Apply was not paused while I considered it. That same week, we were trying to get brutally clear about what the company actually sold. I made my own copy of the value-proposition document “to try to keep us on track.” The first answer was simple: the world's best stickers and art you could take anywhere. The longer version covered artists, culture, collecting, creative confidence, and giving people a cheap way to make something cool.
We also had product proofs, production orders, licensing work, and a sales template moving through Drive. The automated marketing report still arrived every morning.
So the week had two different kinds of unfinished work. I was deciding whether to join TRX while still trying to make Apply sharper. I was also packing furniture, finding storage, and clearing a house whose sale depended on repairs that were still in progress.
The contractor said there was a lot left that was just garbage. Fair enough.
The movers would take everything useful on Sunday. Anything left could go to the dump. That was the goal.
By Friday afternoon, the next step was extremely clear: meet the contractor with cash, finish the move, and get the dumpster.