Just a bit of “stream of consciousness” as the evening winds down.
Although we are still in the “packing” stage, we have also begun the “repair” stage. Most of the things in our home that are broken have been broken for a long time and we just lived with it. For example, the ceiling fan in Mason’s room has always had a violent wobble, even when on the lowest speed. Susan looked at it today and discovered that one of the screws that holds the blades into place was missing. After digging around in the garage for a few minutes I found a replacement screw that fit perfectly. Five minutes later, the screw was in place and the wobbly problem was fixed. A problem we’ve been living with for nine years literally took us five minutes to fix.
Lots of the repairs we’re doing fall into that category. Messed up stick-on vinyl tiles in the kitchen. A broken light switch in the hallway. A hole in Morgan’s bedroom wall. All of these are things that, prior to deciding to sell our house, we were perfectly content to live with. They’re also all things that we could, and did, repair on our own. Either I have low standards, am lazy, or both — the jury’s still out.
I probably made 20 trips up and down the stairs today, carrying down box after box of treasure. As far as the upstairs is concerned, I’d say I’m say I’m somewhere around the 15% completion mark. I spent the past nine years lugging boxes, sacks, and piles of crap treasure up those stairs, and now it’s all got to come down. As Susan can attest to, I’ve been doing a better job this week of placing items in the “donate” and “trash” piles, but regardless of what pile it ends up in, it’s all got to come down the stairs.
I have started doing exactly what it was I said I would not do — and that is, I’ve begun throwing things into boxes, writing things like “Rob’s Stuff” on the boxes, and moving them to the storage unit. Before we started packing I said that I wouldn’t move anything I didn’t want to keep, but that’s starting to happen. “Oh, before I move I’m going to sort through our DVDs and get rid of the ones we don’t watch anymore!” Yeah, that didn’t happen. Instead, every DVD we own (over a thousand) got packed into boxes and are sitting in our storage unit. The idea is that they’ll get sorted as we unpack things into the new house instead but … well, we know how that goes.
A few things did make it to the charity pile. While going through a box I pulled out of the closet today, I ran across these:
Back before mp3s players, this is how we used to listen to digital audio on the go. I have no idea why I had so many of them, but now they’re gone. (Sniff!) Yesterday I combined 5 20-gallon tubs down to three, and donated approximately 40 gallons of old computer parts to Goodwill. Most of what I donated were things I have duplicates of, or things that were so comically obsolete that even I (as a “retro” computer enthusiast) no longer needed. I can’t say it felt good, but it felt like the right thing to do.
Packing resumes in the morning.
It may not have felt good at the time, but in a little while it feels like a big burden is lifted. Getting rid of a lot of stuff really is a type of freedom. I’m trying to practice what I preach, and I know it’s not easy. It takes a lot of baby steps. I twinge each time I read “boxes to Goodwill” in your notes, because I want to go through your stuff to see what I might want. Just keep taping those boxes shut and dropping them at Goodwill, so you can save me from myself!