Three Moves is Equal to One Fire
I’m thinking of all the things I’ve accumulated since I moved here twenty years ago. Though I’ve given many things away, I still have lots of stuff. This reminds me of when I moved here from the East Coast. There I had years worth of accumulation, which most of it I left behind.
When I moved here I shipped my record collection to myself, about 1,800 albums at that time. I also mailed most of my books out here as well. I did give away about five hundred books among other things. I gave away over 100 house plants and all my furniture. I gave an old oak ice box that I refinished. I gave away just about all my plates and dishes. I gave away all my tools. I gave away a utility trailer, though I should have kept it and hauled that across country. I gave away and upright string bass.
Other than the records and books I shipped myself, the only things I brought with me was all that I could fit in a 1982 Subaru wagon with a roof rack. That was a couple pair of skis and two bicycles, my stereo, and Apple II computer, and Okidata dot matrix printer and my clothing.
I had such a humble re-beginning. Who would have known that I would accumulate so much stuff again? This is not to say that I have a lot of junk around. I have stuff for the farm and tools for my shop. I just wonder what I will want to take with me when living in the country is no longer practical for the age that I hope to become.
posted by The Guy Who Writes This at 4:00 AM
10 Comments:
I moved so much stuff from my "junk room" at the old house this summer, and threw away a lot of it. But I still have at least half of it; it's just packaged better and stacked more neatly. Mostly old photographs and keepsakes.
some "things" have memories
loopymama
b says he's moved so much over the years due to his job that he's stopped travelling with his books. i dunno, i haven't moved that much, so mine are coming with me. my sketches and my photos are also being packed. i'm pretty sentimental, but when i get the urge to purge (lol) look out! EVERYTHING gets thrown out. there is no mercy...
Damn it!
I wish you would have kept the bass and later gave it to me!
I have been looking for one for years. And no; I'm not talking about going down to the local music store and writing a check.
We picked up our piano at a moving sale for $125.00 THATS the kind of deal I've been waiting for.
I'll probably find it the day before I kick the bucket...
then you get to be my mom's age where its time to size down, and suddenly become very attached to all your 'stuff'.
oy.
i am going to learn from this and start downsizing...o i dunno, maybe next year.
Weese, my mom is just the opposite. She has gotten rid of family heirlooms and stuff from my childhood as she says she doesn't want to be a burden after she is gone. She never was the sentimental sort.
Me? I only hang onto photo-related stuff. I think I need an intervention.
But, I live with a packrat. It is really frustrating for someone who likes order and simplicity. Oh well, I knew it when we got together.
I once helped someone move and I couldn't believe the junk he took with him, like coffee cans full of bent rusty nails. Another friend moved about 500 lbs of tile samples, all mismatched.
I have so much crap here it's unbelievable. We downsized when we moved up here from Branson about six years ago. One full-sized U-Haul van full of stuff moved up here and we probably got rid of that much stuff before we left. About three years ago I got bored one day and counted our books. I think I got to about fifteen hundred. There's probably close to twice that many now. We enclosed our two car garage and made a sign shop out of it because there wasn't room in the house. The garden shed is full of stuff. The small shop is full of the wifes T-shirt shop and scrapbooking gear. The big shop is full of tools (and coffee cans full of rusty nails) and more stuff. This winter I am going to start organizing the books into sets and putting them up for sale on ebay, along with the toys and dolls and any unsentimental antiques we have accquired. Down in my shop I have six trunks full of old dolls that someone foisted off on me that I can't seem to get rid of. I am aiming to get back down to a moveable size again by the end of next spring. Wish me luck.
Shit. I've moved 27 times in 30 years. I don't have much stuff. Now I know why.
When I quit working for the schools 5 years ago I spent the summer purging tons of junk out of the basement and the kitchen cupboards. Sad to say, I could start all over again right now and have just as much to get rid of. And I am NOT a hoarder but I have a husband and a daughter who are two of the biggest packrats ever.
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