Planning the Big Move
So… here’s a post I wrote over a year ago. Since my blog is only now up and running completely, it’s still going on the site…it’s just kind of past tense now – but, still valid!
May, 2018
We’re doin’ it, guys! We’re moving!
We’ve wanted to move for a while so we can get out there and see more of the world. The timing was never quite right, but now here we go! To prepare, we’ve been learning to live with less and it has been amazing. I never realized how much “stuff” stressed me out, but having too much stuff really does seem to have an effect on my well being. If I walk in to my house and see clutter, it overwhelms my brain. Luckily, Dave and I are similar in that area so we’ve been having fun (well, mostly fun) getting rid of the clutter together. How did we do this? The minimalist challenge.
For the month of March, we each got rid of 1 thing on March 1st, 2 things on March 2nd, and so on for the entire month. You can get rid of anything: clothes, shoes, books, etc. It just has to be trashed, sold, or donated by the end of each day. Since we knew we’d be doing a moving sale soon, we just relocated items we were going to sell into a “garage sale box.” We even got a couple friends in on the challenge and they did great, too! It starts off really easy, but it gets more difficult as the days go by. It becomes a fun challenge wandering around the house asking yourself “do I actually NEED this?” The answer usually is “Nope!”
It was hilarious because Dave started with getting rid of clothing. We got to the 10th of the month and I realized he was still getting rid of clothes. That meant he had already thrown away 45 articles of clothing and still had more to get rid of! I have no idea what secret compartment he was keeping those clothes in because I had no idea he was such a clothes horse! For me, I ran around getting rid of random things at first; computer games, the hair dryer I never use, nail polish I bought for some random event, and then clothing. If I wasn’t quite ready to get rid of something, I moved on to something else. My biggest hurdle was my sentimental tendencies.
You know that knick knack you’ve had on your shelf for 15 years, but can’t even remember who got it for you? The one that’s not really your style anymore, but you know whoever bought it for you did so with nice thoughts? Or that shirt from the spelling bee you were in back in 7th grade? The hardest thing for me was getting rid of those kinds of things. I’ve read that you should ask yourself if you can keep the memory without the item so I did that with each one. Honestly, yes, I can keep the memory. Did that make it any easier? Not always. There’s a deep-seated fear I have that I’m insulting the person who gave it to me. I had to get past that by telling myself that the love they showed by giving me the item is still there and the fact that keeping everything just because of my fear was not going to do anything for my minimalist mission and my well being. I have to believe that those who love me would rather support me in my exciting new endeavors rather than know that I have the knick knack they probably don’t even remember they bought me.
At the end of this challenge, you end up getting rid of almost 500 things you don’t even miss. 500 things!!! It’s a crazy number to think about, but it’s true. We humans really know how to accumulate stuff! When I moved out of an 1100 square foot house into a 600 square foot studio, I was surprised at my ability to live with less. In all honesty, it made me happier to not have to clean as much and take care of as much. It made me realize just how much I wanted to live life and have amazing experiences rather than collect things I didn’t even need. Thus began our journey to where we are now – moving to the mainland with only five boxes to ship and an endless number of places to see and memories to make. That’s what makes MY world go round!