declutter my living space

It’s our last night in the old place. Most of our stuff is in the Uhaul truck ready to be delivered to storage and to our new place. It feels like de-cluttering failure to have a storage unit again. If you have to rent a storage unit to hold the “overflow”, it means you have too much stuff (clutter), right?? Besides, I hate paying money to store stuff that’s not even worth that much. We did get rid of a few things while packing but not enough. I know there are lots of things I could still get rid of and not miss. There’s always a point in packing however, where you just want the torture to end and you’ll throw anything into a box and put it in the moving truck just to make it disappear. The obvious problem with that approach is that the junk box always surfaces even if it’s not until the next move.

Update: We’re actually moving again in 3 days so we have yet another opportunity to really go through things and get rid of what we should’ve gotten rid of during the last move. We have made some progress on this goal, but are still not where we want to be. We bought two bookcases which helped get most of our books out of boxes and off the floor. I got rid of a large number of glass jars that were going to be really useful for something someday. Unfortunately our shredder broke so the paper clutter is building up again. Two steps forward, one step back…. We haven’t given up yet though and I’m leaving this resolution on the list for 2008.

over to the new place so I guess it’s official. We’re here and not there. We’re still surrounded by boxes and junk (the cats should feel right at home) but once we get through this initial move-in period and I get through the next week of tests and deadlines, we’re going to spend every Saturday night going through a few boxes and getting rid of stuff if it doesn’t fit somewhere. Who knows when we’ll be moving again and next time I want things to go faster and easier.

Spent our first night at the new place last night. We still have a few things left at the old place – our two cats, for example. We are trying to spare them as much stress as possible by moving them last. One more trip and we’ll finally be done. We talked this morning about ending our clutter problem once and for all. After spending the last year and a half living in a “storage unit” (Daniel’s sad but true observation), he’s decided he doesn’t want to live like that anymore. Me either, so we’re going to spend every Saturday night going through stuff and getting rid of things until we’re down to the bare essentials. It might take six months but our goal is to make the next move a breeze. I think this is the move he’s had the most involvement in, so I think he’s finally seeing how awful it is each time. All the other times, it’s been me packing up and cleaning everything and him just loading and unloading boxes. Sure, that part’s no fun either, but it’s finished right away and isn’t such a long-term grinding pain in the neck. Anyway! We’re turning over a new leaf and that’s something to celebrate.

for this moving to be over. I’ve thrown resolutions out the window and commenced tossing whatever junk that’s laying around into the nearest box. I cannot believe how long this is taking. We’ve been at it since Christmas. The more stuff I put in boxes, the more there seems to be laying around on the floor. It’s taunting me. I just want it to be over. I’m trying not to think about what awaits me at the new place. A whole new pile of boxes to be emptied with no place to put anything. It’s like I’m in hell. Sure, people talk about the flames of hell, but personally I think hell is a pile of boxes filled with junk waiting to be unpacked in a tiny house with no closets. And once you’re done? Satan finds a new and tinier house for you to move into.

Packed up and delivered 2 pickup loads of boxes to the new place last night. I think that’s a total of 3 loads. Today I packed up a few more boxes and dismantled my desk. There still seems to be too much stuff in here. Everytime we move I’m stunned at how much stuff we’ve managed to pack into the small apartments we live in. I decided at the new place that as I unpack boxes, I’ll put stuff away and if there’s no place to put something, it goes back in the box. After that? I don’t know. Maybe into storage for a trial period of 6 months and if I haven’t missed it or needed it… straight on to Goodwill.

The plan was to move out tomorrow but I’m not sure that’s going to happen. We may need to push it back to Spring Break which is in about a week and a half. I’ve got another Digital Logic circuits homework project that’s due the 6th and Daniel’s got a deadline too for a project he’s working on. I would like to move at least a couple of loads over to the new place tomorrow.

I vacuumed today and it was so rewarding. I was using a dirt devil with a hepa filter and it picked up sooo much dust and lint! I emptied the canister and went over the same carpet and it picked up another half cup of dust. If I didn’t have a calculus test tomorrow, I’d be decluttering right now and letting more of this great looking carpet show. We decided today to get everything moved over to the new place once and for all on Friday. My tests will be over and I’ll have some worry free time to devote to it.

...hours culling stuff for Goodwill and taking it out to the car. Except for the front passenger seat, the car is totally full again – including the trunk. As soon as we drop all that stuff off, I’ll be able to start filling up the car again. I keep thinking that whatever we get rid of now is stuff we won’t have to move when it comes time to load up the moving van.

we came home yesterday to find water flowing down the driveway from a burst pipe in the hallway where we have some of our stuff stored (still in boxes after the last move). We had to hustle to get the boxes outside before they got totally soaked. Once outside, I figured it was as good a time as any to go though them. That resulted in another box of books and several bags of clothes getting added to the stuff already in the car for Goodwill. It still seems that the more stuff we take out the more chaotic it gets in here. I can’t figure out why that is…