After the first moving truck full of our apartment’s boxes and furniture was empty and made way for the second truck arriving from our storage units, I took a deep breath and squared my shoulders, ready to see what was going to come down that ramp and into our new house. I was determined not to let anything inside that we don’t need.
Wow did it happen quickly! I stood in the doorway, sending a dresser to the master bedroom and books to the office, but countless boxes just couldn’t be processed as quickly as was needed. For about two hours, my jaw literally dropped more and more at all the crap possessions we have accumulated; enough to fill two storage units. I vacillated between amazement, shame, embarrassment, and speechlessness. If I didn’t know what something was, I relegated it to the garage to be sorted and donated or given away, and then just closed the door. As the movers put box after box in our playroom until we couldn’t even enter it, they asked, “you only have one child?”
I have already gone through my closet and given away 5 huge trash bags full of clothing. The playroom is overflowing with books and toys and art supplies, even after putting much aside for donations. And we have duplicates of so many things.
We all have a lot of things in our lives – people, places, possessions, ideas, moments, memories, skills, hobbies, and so on… more than enough to fill a lifetime. There’s always something else out there, but worrying and spending money on and obsessing over what could be just detracts from the abundance that you already have. I really do not want to buy one more thing for a long, long time. The best outcome from this experience is that last night, my husband and I watched as our daughter began going through her room, unprompted, picking out things to give away “to another girl who doesn’t have things.”
