We recently moved from Las Vegas to a small town in Southern California. After 18 years of living in Las Vegas, but not all in the same location, I thought making a move would be easy and do-able. An exciting adventure. All I needed was to print out tip sheets from the internet on when to pack, what to pack and how to change my mailing address. Simple steps, right? “Step 18: Transfer school records to new school.”
What I didn’t plan on, though, was how hard and stressful a move could be. Even though I thought we had gone through closets and drawers and donated and purged everything to make our Vegas house sparkle for the potential new buyers, when the movers arrived, it took them 2 1/2 days to pack all our “stuff.”
And when the huge moving truck arrived in California, a semi loaded with five crates each packed with boxes and more boxes, I realized that we were all hoarders of stuff.
During a record snowstorm that prevented the movers from walking down our steep, new driveway, we had about two weeks of living without stuff. We slept on air mattresses on the floor, sat on folding chairs in the living room, and had but a few dishes. There was no TV, no computer, no books, no music, no artwork. But it was freeing!
And then all our stuff arrived. Hundreds of boxes of stuff. As I unpack another box, I now look at each thing in a new light:
If it’s ugly, chipped, dented, scratched or out of date. . .get rid of it.
You don’t need chipped water glasses from Grandma. Or a huge bagful of old gluesticks, crayons, plastic eyes and feathers. Games that are missing pieces will still be missing pieces in your new house. Get rid of it.
Why did I have four bags of flour?
As I spun my old Lazy Susan around, didn’t I notice that yes, we still had flour? Same goes for the three Costco-sized containers of Cinnamon.
The Linen Closet
Sheets age and get stained. And the bottom sheet corners wear out and curl up, no longer fitting the bed. Get rid of sheets and dated comforters. Donate old towels to animal shelters.
Candles and Vases
Apparently there were many locations in our old house where vases and candles were stored. The smells have faded and the candles feel oily. The vases aren’t even my style anymore. They’re gone.
Books and Paper
Still working on it one piece of paper at a time. I can’t quite decide on the books. What if I actually do read “Aristotle: Nichomachean Ethics” someday?
Since the move, we’ve donated 10 big boxes of stuff and some junky furniture that we’ve outgrown. I’ve shredded documents, recycled paper, and taken numerous trips to the dumpster. And yet I still have more boxes of stuff to unpack.
