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 youâve been in the same house for years. Moving is awful; thereâs no two ways about it. On the stress-o-meter, itâs 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 youâve 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 10x18â 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 didnât 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 didnât get used up was given away at two big âShop My Cupboardsâ 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 itâs 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. âYou bought all this stuff,â my stoical husband told me, âyou deal with it.â
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 donât 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 werenât 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. Iâd never ask a set of placemats to âspark joyâ in me, but I would ask it, âCould someone else put you to better use than I am?â and âAre you worth buying more storage space for?â 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. (Itâs amazing what people will take off your hands if the ad is prefaced with the word FREE.)
Whatâs 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 Iâve had, I found the whole affair demoralizing. When youâve 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 donât do garage sales right, but Iâm 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 wonât fit in peopleâs homes but that they canât figure out what to do with. So really, I think whatâs in most of those lockers is just a big pile of deferred decisions.
Check back on CTVNews.ca, where Iâll be sharing my experiences weekly on Dream Big Wednesdays.
