TrainsRMe1
Now get this, I find myself getting bored with my current layout,
I understand the feeling. Perhaps it is a close cousin to that feeling you get when you are in the last few weeks of high school or college or before retirement from your job. "I've done this enough," you think, and finding the motivation to stay even moderately interested is a challenge.
Anyone who has ever tried to settle the estate of a relative knows that you often end up literally giving away (or trashing) things of value, often considerable value, just because you feel you're running out of time and energy: you've crammed too much to do in too short a space of time. You give up. I think many guys who dismantle layouts end up doing the same, and for the same reasons. They wait until they HAVE to do something and that is just too late. You have the time to do a great job of it.
If I was in your shoes (or perhaps I should say, if I was in your shoes and was inclined to follow my own good advice
) I'd use this time to 1) be really thoughtful and thorough in the packing up of the stuff you intend to save, so that the stuff is safely protected, in logically combined boxes (that is, the anvil isn't in the same box as the laser cut wood structure) that are well labeled, so maybe your movers can put stuff where you'll want it in the new house; 2) more carefully dismantle the existing layout, which usually ends up being hurried and botched: more can be saved if more time is taken. Turnouts for example (as discussed in another ongoing thread). The ways to unballast and unwire track and save turnouts tend to take time and care. Leave it to the last minute and you either rip the stuff out and destroy it anyway, or give up and throw valuable and salvagable track and turnouts in the dumpster.
Ironically, waiting to the last minute to dismantle and pack up often means you end up saving too much stuff, too -- unworthy buildings or rolling stock, unwanted duplicates, bits of this and that that could either be sorted out and tossed or sold or given to others if you had the time, but you don't have the time. If you have the time, moving can be a wonderful opportunity to thin the herd.
Salvaging lumber, now that it is so expensive, is another example. It takes time to work your way through the layers down to the lumber so it can be saved. Run out of time and you just butcher the thing with a sawzall or sledge hammer. Ditto for trying to salvage wire, which is also pricey. It can only be salvaged meaningfully if it can be reused which means unsoldered, wisely labled and stored in-kind and well-marked.
Remember it might be quite some time before you see any of this stuff again so assume nothing, label everything.
Fortunately our hobby offers many opportunities for keeping your hand in the game even if there is no layout to work on or enjoy. That is, there are still creative things to be done with kit building, weathering, practicing skills, and research even while primarily engaged in the eve of destruction.
Dave Nelson