In going through all of my stuff over the past few weeks, I have come across things that I have just been putting into specific piles as I find them. It is amazing how many business cards I have collected over the years that were thrown in so many different boxes that I keep finding as I go through the boxes. Undeveloped film is another of my collections (I now have 27 rolls). I have come across so many little pieces of paper with names and phone numbers on them. So many people that I have thought about in the past few weeks as I come across the slip of paper with a phone number. I suppose I should put them all in a phone book or something. I have a pretty big box of photos now that need to be put in my albums. I wish I had a dollar for every time my kids said that they cannot find a pencil to do their homework over the years. I have found so many pens, pencils, crayons, markers, etc. over the past few weeks and now I have a very full back pack of them. There were soooooo many magazines in boxes. Some magazines were mixed in with books. Others were mixed in with office stuff. Others were mixed in with my bedroom stuff. Now I have gotten rid of most of them except my Heavy Metal, Tank Girl, a select few Wired and Rolling Stone, and a few good Playboy (I don’t read the articles) and they all fit in one box. All important papers are filed in my file cabinet. This whole process has been a bit crazy but really cool. I am now down to a 5ftX12ftX10ft space for all of my stuff and that seems to be decreasing daily. I now have a pretty good pile of empty boxes on the patio. Kind of amazing since I have been a packrat my whole life and recently filling a 4 bedroom house with stuff. This is all pretty liberating.
Month: April 2004
29 More Days
Time is just flying by. I am now only 29 days away from moving to Florida. Whew! I will be glad when it is over and I can relax for a minute.
More Purging
I am in the process of moving to Florida, and for the first time, I cannot take everything I have collected up to this day. Those that have known me for a long time know that I tend to hang on to a lot of stuff and as years go by my collections have grown. I remember when I was able to move across the country with all of my possessions fitting in my car. Now that is hard for me to even imagine….
Now I am purging so much of it because I am faced with a move that is more costly than I want or can afford to spend if I move all of this stuff. I started to purge back in October when I was selling my house, but I was more focused on just throwing everything in boxes so that I could paint the walls and get the place sold (whew! that was a crazy month). I had a garage sale and gave so much stuff away…most of it was the many pieces of thrift store and side-of-the-road furniture I have collected and old toys of my kids.
Now, for the past few weeks, I have been consumed with an overwhelming urge to purge. I can save a decent amount of money if I can fit all of my stuff into a smaller space for moving. Since I just bought a house in Florida and am moving across country, I need to reduce expenses wherever possible. So I started clearing out stuff that I no longer needed. In the process, I have touched just about everything I own. I have opened every box. I have sorted and reboxed. I am organizing everything. Similar things are all together in the same box and each is labeled. I have accumulated many many empty boxes on the patio in the process. Things I no longer need are thrown away or given to GoodWill or whatever. There have been tears from time to time as I go through each time capsule that I find. So many boxes of memories that would not be considered memories to anyone else…it is all just stuff…but to me, it signifies that moment in time…and touching it all over the past few weeks has kind of seemed like seeing my life flash before my eyes so to speak.
Sometimes I am surprised by the things I have saved over the years. So very many things have had sentimental value to me…I have always seemed to be afraid that I will not remember every single little detail of my life…always thinking that I need to keep all of these symbols and icons of every moment. And now I have been on a crazy spree for the past few weeks getting rid of so many pieces of junk that I just do not need to keep.
I love this urge to purge that I have become consumed with lately..it is refreshing and relieving to watch myself get organized and make choices about what to keep and to have time to be organized about it while I count the days to when my boys get out of school for the summer and we hit the road to Florida. But that is still 32 days away and it is so nice to be really getting organized and efficiently packed. And I will tell you something else…I am a pro at packing and moving my stuff now that I have done it so many times in the last 7 months.
I feel pretty good about where my life is heading…I have almost forgotten why I ended up in the desert in the first place…
Run, Baby, Run – Sheryl Crow
What I learned from my father….
She was born in November 1963
The day Aldous Huxley died
And her mama believed
That every man could be free
So her mama got high, high, high
And her daddy marched on Birmingham
Singing mighty protest songs
And he pictured all the places
That he knew that she belonged
But he failed and taught her young
The only thing she’s need to carry on
He taught her how toRun baby run baby run baby run
Baby runPast the arms of the familiar
And their talk of better days
To the comfort of the strangers
Slipping out before they say
so long
Baby loves to runShe counts out all her money
In the taxi on the way to meet her plane
Stares hopeful out the window
At the workers fighting
Through the pouring rain
She’s searching through the stations
For an unfamiliar song
And she’s pictures all the places
Where she knows she still belongs
And she smiles the secret smile
Because she knows exactly how
To carry onSo run baby run baby run baby run
Baby runFrom the old familiar faces and
Their old familiar ways
To the comfort of the strangers
Slipping out before they say
So long
Baby loves to run
Firefox
I just downloaded the new firefox browser. If you are not using it, I think you should. You can get it here
Mom Is Coming
Well, it is now official… I bought my Mom a one-way plane ticket and made reservations with the moving company…I also sent the rest of my down payment to the title company for my house…Mom is going to fly out here May 25th and I am headed to Florida May 26th. Not too much longer…