I recently learned that the house I live in will be put on the market and I will have to move. I have no real idea when this will happen, I have some safe guesses though, I think, if the homeowner has any compassion whatsoever, I have as little as three months and as many as six months to work this out. I have some time to make some loosey goosey plans - one of which is to get rid of all of the crap I have that no longer serves me and organize the rest. At the moment there is a tentative landing spot, that doesn't stress me out in the slightest, it's not a giant place which I like but this means I need to reduce my stuff again with feeling.
How did I get so much crap? I've lived in small places for a long long time and have been fundamentally broke for so long I fail to understand how it is that I can accumulate stuff. People give me things that is true. This house was full of crap when I moved in... maybe that's it, I acquired another woman's stuff when I moved in here, now I have my stuff and her stuff. I can do this I can reduce my crap. I can.
Some of my crap has sentimental qualities to it just from the simple act of moving it so many times. There is some stuff that is in mid project, I stopped working on the projects when I broke my leg, then it all got shoved into a tub and moved a couple months later, time has passed causing the project to disintegrate into crap. It's too bad that time has separated me from the energy that started the projects. There are a few, when I've come across them, I have pulled them out to quickly finish them. Or at the very least put the objects in with like items so they are properly stored. I feel like I've been able to do this because I have been settled for a year in a big house. I can walk laps around the place aggregating stuff to it's proper places forever. Sometimes it's fun, other times it's just annoying. I get into the loop of doing this when I'm in the act of looking for something specific. I find a bunch of crap that is out of place and relocate it accordingly. This is sort of working. It's slow.
Right now I feel like dumping out every container in the house into the garbage. On the other hand a more positive but labor intensive way could be to dump it all into the middle of the living room. If I begin my sorting from there maybe I'll have better luck. The pile could serve to recontextualize the stuff in a way that may cause me to look at it differently. AND bonus points, I'd have empty containers to pack what I'm keeping back into.
Last winter I spent months in this house before I moved in aggregating the contents of this house into variety of piles, for friends/keep in the family/donate/useful household items, we then had her friends/family come over to collect what they wanted, an estate sale, massive donation and I have made regular trips to the goodwill donation station and I still have tons of crap. It's amazing really. And I'm still stuck with stuff I can't get rid of. What in the hell am I supposed to do with my grandmothers wedding dress? It's lovely, I'm never going to wear it so why am I the archivist? My mom has handed things to me and told me "don't sell this" okay, so what am I supposed to do with a 3rd duplicate that I'm not allowed to get rid of?
I have 3 sewing machines! THREE! I sold two before I moved. I have a serger and I sold the other last summer. I can say without a doubt that I will probably never have an active costume/sewing shop again, as much as that breaks my heart it's the truth so why why why is the bulk of my material possessions dedicated to a profession I no longer practice? Why? It is really hard to let go of. I need to pare down to a home sewing kit and leave it that way. Deep breaths. THAT will reduce my crap significantly.
Three to six months. I can do this. Or more realistically, winter break. I can do this. Crap reduction. GO!
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