Four years ago, I moved from Cleveland to San Antonio. One year ago, I moved from San Antonio to Austin. Several hours ago, I finally started unpacking boxes…from the Cleveland move. Oy!
Had the shed they were in burst into flames, it would have been a little upsetting, but not the end of the world. Obviously I’ve lived just fine without them. This means that in theory, I could just get rid of everything and be done with it. But have me go through the boxes and all of a sudden, there are all of these things that I need to have in my life again.
The worst? Schoolwork.
What do people do with that? All of my papers and compositions were lost when my old computer crashed, but now I’m finding the physical copies. It’s not like I’ll actually read or play all of them again, it just feels wrong to throw away something you’ve created, you know? (Is this what it feels like to be a parent? Er, wait.) Scanning everything seems like it would be tedious and ridiculous. I don’t think I’ll have any issues with getting rid of the textbooks, though. Look out, Half Price Books!
Easiest stuff to purge? Kitchenware from college! bwahahaha.
Especially when there are live roaches in the box. Not. funny.
Any tips for getting rid of pack rat tendencies other than watching Hoarders? I think the biggest help for me lately has been a strong desire to travel. It’s much easier to move when you’re not being weighed down by possessions. Either I’m wising up or that came from a fortune cookie.
And here is what I had for lunch today:

Tacos Potosinos at La Gloria in San Antonio
For me it was travelling, definitely. Living on the emigration at the moment, I try to have as little stuff as possible and every time I visit my parents’ home, where I keep all my things, I give or throw away anything I haven’t been using for the last couple of years, especially since I left my home over a year ago.
Good luck! I always feel much lighter when I have less clothes in my wardrobe or CDs or books on a shelf.
I hear you! I have been keeping things minimal since I went to college. Than a couple years ago I bought a house and then my mom moved out of hers and got rid of everything and now I have so many boxes of stuff that I just don’t know what to do with. The childhood stuff is the hardest but I certainly don’t need it all. Then I have all this fancy china and tea sets that I will never use but can’t get rid of because they are family heirlooms.
Hahahahaha.
Your lunch looks great. Eewww on the roaches in the boxes. All those re-found papers you can’t part with…ever think to scan them and store them in folders on a memory stick, then toss the hard copies. Just an idea.
Sylwia – Yes, traveling makes me want to have nothing at all or Hermione’s purse! It does make it easier to get rid of things when you know they’ve just been sitting there. And it’s gotten easier to not want to buy things…
lazysmurf – oy, I still have stuff at my parents’ house that I need to deal with! Not sure what I’d do with a bunch of china…
Jill – sigh.
Paula – Yeah, I was thinking of that. It would be a pain, but at the same time, it would really make me decide what it is that I want to hang onto.