Friday, November 19, 2010

And Now For Something Completely Different

Have you ever had one of those months where you decide to sell your house, get rid of half of your possessions and move into an apartment? I have! It was crazy. But a good crazy - in a "clean out all the junk you've collected in your life and start fresh" kind of way.

Our life consisted of garage sales and maximizing the space in our dumpster for about 5 weeks. We gave a lot away. Deciding which of our things were priceless and irreplaceable was the hard part. It's amazing how much lighter I feel now. Holding onto things just because they belonged to someone else had created a crushing amount of sentiment. I didn't realize how much pressure it was until I got out from under it. So the moral of my story is - the things you possess may come to possess you.

As for the apartment, we're still getting settled. Our living room furniture currently consists of a plastic storage tub and camp chairs. We're working on changing that but after getting rid of so much clutter we're being picky about what we bring into our home. In fact maybe a little overly picky. It took me 4 hours at Target to pick out a rug for our bathroom. Yes, 4 hrs of my life were spent agonizing about the color of a floor mat to put around our toilet. After working so hard to get rid of stuff, bringing more stuff into our lives seems a bit counterproductive. I won't even tell you how much time went into picking out the sofa...

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2 comments:

J said...

Bravo, Jacksons! I think that's awesome! We're going through something similar right now, but a slower pace. I have long declared myself to be a minimalist. I just don't want to be a slave to stuff, so I only accept sentimental things from family members if they agree that I'm not bound to keep it forever, only just as long as it's useful. That's been tough for me at times, but I can't even imagine doing it in your shoes since you lost your sweet mom. (Btw, when I picture your mom in my head she always has perfect red lipstick on, and I bet she's smiling a big perfect red smile about you guys goin' for it with the downsizing.)
Apt pics please!
And I hope your dogs are adjusting well.

Marta said...

Roch, we're in the process of starting to do this vey thing. And you are my inspiration! The size of our house and the amount of stuff we've filled it with combined with my ever present struggle with laziness has been a burden we're ready to do away with. We don't NEED this! Just coming to the realization that we don't need it and that we can actually do something about that has been liberating!

I love you so very much and hope to get to spend some time with you this week!