Moving is difficult…but always worth it.
Husband and I have successfully moved out of our little trendy apartment on Capitol Hill and packed what we thought necessary as storage material in a little u-haul and hauled ourselves across the state.
Moving is difficult. I understand why it’s easier to stay in the same place for 50 years, never throw things out, box stuff and storing it is easier than releasing your attachment to it and passing it on. I know I am a recovering packrat and still have many attachments to items that have memories or stories. I found in the Seattle apartment my UConn outing club secretary notes from 2002! Proudly, I lightened my load and recycled. We reduced our file cabinet into a little box and a binder. Who really needs to save the utility bills for the past 4 years? Not me. Otherwise, I’ll hold onto it forever.
I was able to reduce my clothing collection (it helps that I don’t shop much anymore) because it’s basically 3 categories: wear all the time, wear never, save for circus performances/fancy events. I had no idea how much clothes I had until I filled buckets of clothes to donate. Same thing goes for gear. But it’s hard to get rid of gear…and kitchen stuff. Those are the tuffies for me. I definitely sold/donated my gear that I don’t use anymore (I now have 2 pairs of climbing shoes instead of 5 and 1 harness.) I gave away all the kitchen utensils I don’t use or could easily find at a Goodwill another day. I was able to get rid of most of my kitchen stuff, but the hardest was my spice collection. What a sad day. I spent 4 years building up a spice rack Isa Chandra would be proud of to only put it all on the free table in my building. I tried to give my spices to friends that cook, but no one was interested. Well, at least I have all the cupboards empty and can enjoy putting together another spice rack one day in the future and have it be only spices that I use.
After the illegal yard sale (we got in trouble by the management but continued to have it-we sold our bed, futon, dressers, bookshelf, tables and more…so much easier than posting each item on craigslist), multiple donation visits to the Aids Alliance, computer donation to Re-PC, selling most of our books and cd’s to Half Price Books (and donations to Eco Encore), somehow I feel like I still have too much stuff. Which I know is a good feeling. It encourages me to let go of more attachments, live with less “stuff,” and most importantly, the burden of accumulation has been lifted. Not fully, but enough for me to feel freer. I would love to be able to live out of a backpack, but I definitely have a lot of interests that pull me in many stuff directions: cooking, circus, hiking, climbing, knitting. As long as I make an effort to not be a packrat again and have shoeboxes of rubber bands that cute boys flung at me, movie stubs, and rocks from every body of water that I visited, I feel like I’m moving in a good direction. I know I can’t get rid of all the notes and letters from friends starting from 2nd grade on, at least not yet.
Matt introduced me to a really interesting (short) essay on stuff and how we view it/live with it in our society today. Check it out, perhaps it will inspire you as well.