Tuesday, May 9, 2017

Moving Like a Minimalist

I'm of the mindset that when I want something to happen, I can't just sit around and wait... I gotta get in there and do what I can to make it happen. So, although Fermin and I don't yet know the specifics on exactly when and where we're moving, we know we are moving.  The details will unfold, but for now, we just know we're moving.

And I want to feel like I'm doing something to help keep that ball rolling along.  Because I want it to happen sooner rather than later.  Because I've lived in Dallas my entire life, and seriously that question, "If not now, when?!" applies here.

So one day, I told Fermin I was running up to Home Depot to get some moving boxes to start packing up.  He looked at me like I was crazy and said, "What?  Kerri, once we know where we're moving we can pack up all of our stuff in 3 days!"

Maybe we're both a little crazy, but maybe we're also both on to something.  First of all, let's start with me.  It always takes longer than you think to do just about anything- especially pack up all your stuff for a move, I don't really think you can start too early, and it's a great way of Spring cleaning.  As I'm packing up our things, I'm only going to keep the things I really care about and seem worth the trouble of moving.  If something doesn't "spark joy", (that phrase I love, coined by Marie Kondo, author of the book The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up) it's going into the pile for donating instead.  Since I currently have time to thoughtfully go through our things, I can be thorough and organized about it.  This will make the move, and the unpacking far better.  I'm sure of it.  Also, as I remove more and more of the "knick knacks", I realize I want less and less of that in my updated, more mature decorating style.

And although I do think packing up our things will absolutely take more than 3 days, Fermin had me look around and think what would we really even want to bother with... and he's right. It surely isn't everything, and the job probably isn't quite as big as I had first thought.  I'd like to let go of most of our old furniture and decor that we bought over 15 years ago.  Like my hair and my clothes, my home decor style preferences have changed a lot since the early 2000s  So moving to a new place is a great time to ditch the old stuff that we no longer are in love with. (Thank God, we're still in love with each other... So neither of us will get ditched.)

This next time around, I'm not just buying a table because it seems like a table should go "there".  I'm not buying anything until I need it for a real reason. I'm not buying more chairs than I need, or tables, or paintings.  I'm going to be really thoughtful, and really careful about anything I bring into my new home.  All of it has to spark joy.  And as long as it does, it can come in and it can stay.  But once it doesn't... I'm letting it go.

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