In order to set out on a six-month family tour of Europe, the price we had to pay was to sell our house.
And that has meant moving, a task that most of us dread with every fibre in us -- particularly -- if you鈥檝e been in the same house for years. Moving is awful; there鈥檚 no two ways about it. On the stress-o-meter, it鈥檚 probably just a notch or two down from divorce and the death of a parent.
But moving can also be kind of soul-cleansing. It forces you to go through each and every little bit of nonsense you鈥檝e squirrelled away and to decide what really matters to you. The purge itself is exhausting, but its completion is exhilarating.
Because we were putting all the stuff of our family of four owned into a 10x18鈥� storage space, we needed to unload a few things.
The first step was to simply stop shopping. Nothing new was allowed to come into the house that we didn鈥檛 absolutely need. We put an end to big grocery runs, and used up the food in the cupboards and freezer instead. We tossed a few bags of forgotten, freezer-burned vegetables (sorry, bought-on-sale peas), and what didn鈥檛 get used up was given away at two big 鈥淪hop My Cupboards鈥� barbecues we held. No one was allowed to leave those parties until they had taken half a bottle of mustard, a partially-used package of herbs, and some cupcake sprinkles.
Putting an end to other spending proved more challenging. who went an entire year buying nothing and, inspired by her, I vowed to cut back as well.
But just like her, I found it鈥檚 the small, impulse purchases that you miss: the new book you want to read; the small trinket your child would love; that new sweater you know would look fabulous. But all those purchases have to come to an end when you have to empty your house.
Painful purging
Next step came the purging -- the painful, painful purging. For this, I was mostly on my own. 鈥淵ou bought all this stuff,鈥� my stoical husband told me, 鈥測ou deal with it.鈥�
Clearing out your stuff forces you to confront all the things you hate about yourself: your inability to let go of the past; your overwrought sentimentality; your inability to admit foolish shopping mistakes. Professional organizerthere are lot of reasons we hold onto stuff we don鈥檛 use. But moving forces you to let go of those things. In fact, I would recommend moving as a form of personal therapy, if it weren鈥檛 so expensive.
I got through my purging by taking a page from now-famous Japanese organizing consultant Marie Kondo, picking up each item and asking myself if I really truly needed it. I鈥檇 never ask a set of placemats to 鈥渟park joy鈥� in me, but I would ask it, 鈥淐ould someone else put you to better use than I am?鈥� and 鈥淎re you worth buying more storage space for?鈥� Many things ended in
As for how we got rid of things, I found Facebook swap groups were the best method. I sold everything from a punching bag, to a red wagon, to a set of brandy snifters through Facebook. We even found new homes for our tropical fish and a middle-aged but still-adorable gerbil on FB. (It鈥檚 amazing what people will take off your hands if the ad is prefaced with the word FREE.)
What鈥檚 more, we met so many great people through those sales, many with travel stories of their own to tell. Of course, there are lots of reasons to be cautious with selling things to strangers online, but I found lots of reasons to be inspired by strangers as well.
Which is less than I can say about garage sales.
We held only one, but like the others I鈥檝e had, I found the whole affair demoralizing. When you鈥檝e spent hours dragging your junk to the driveway only to quibble with someone over whether your doodad is worth 25 cents or the hefty $1 price tag you placed on it, you end the day exhausted. Maybe I don鈥檛 do garage sales right, but I鈥檓 vowing: never again.
After the purging came the storing. Never having been in a storage locker facility, I found them fascinating. What is in all those lockers, I wondered? Who are these people storing their things and what are their stories?
I asked the manager of the facility we used about the customers he had. He said many are small business owners storing stock; others are people moving across the country for work; others are storing the contents of home of recently deceased relatives.
But he said the majority are just filled with household overfill, stuff that won鈥檛 fit in people鈥檚 homes but that they can鈥檛 figure out what to do with. So really, I think what鈥檚 in most of those lockers is just a big pile of deferred decisions.
Check back on CTVNews.ca, where I鈥檒l be sharing my experiences weekly on Dream Big Wednesdays.
