Downsizing

After living in this home since June 30, 1998, that’s 11 ½ years, it’s time to pack up and move again. The last move was from a rental home near Blumenort to my current home in Winnipeg I left a rather sizeable pile for the garbage man during that move, and thought I had purged my belongings very well. Clearly, purging of belongings is something that needs to either be an ongoing process, or it needs to be done on a regular basis. Once every twelve years doesn’t quite cut it! In preparation for my upcoming move, I’ve been packing and downsizing since November, when I had six weeks of holidays (four of them paid!). I’ve filled the dumpster at least once in total, and made countless trips with a full car to the local Salvation Army. Who knew I could accumulate so much clutter in 11 ½ years!!

In this effort to move a minimal amount of belongings, I have been going through my stuff and ridding myself of things I no longer find useful in my life, things that take me back to times in my life that provide no positive association. Every item has come under close scrutiny. For example, there was a lamp that my ex-husband and I purchased together, a halogen lamp with a CD rack built in. Why I was hanging onto it, I’ll never know. Occasionally I used it in the basement for extra lighting, but each bulb cost several dollars and it was a fire hazard if knocked over. And who really needs a CD rack these days? It went to the dumpster.

The bin of Xmas tree decorations was my next project, so when it was time to decorate the tree, I went through the bin and got rid of the decorations that were outdated and no longer fit in with my chosen color scheme for the tree. The gold and red decorations were offered to one friend, declined, and then delivered to the donation box. Broken bits of decorations were thrown out. Little golden bells with red ribbons didn’t make the cut either, but these went to Kev’s daycare.
Some of you may have noticed me trying to hawk my wares on Facebook, by placing items in my status. For example, a hand hooked rug that my Grandpa Unger made in his retirement years is going to a cousin who lost hers in house fire years ago. An afghan made by my sister is at Kev’s daycare being used as his nap blanket, and I’ll let them keep it when Kev leaves the centre. They can apparently always use extra blankets. And afghans that I’ve made; well, one is at work on the staff couch (which is really more like a love-seat cuz it’s a two-seater and unbelievably uncomfortable) for staff to use for breaktime naps (we really need more couches!). My other afghan is currently in use as a “draft stopper” by the front door.

In another post I wrote about going through my oldest son’s that had been sitting in a box for at least 15 years. This was one of the tasks that I was least looking forward to, but absolutely needed to be done. I believe there were three boxes of papers from school and his drawings (he was a very eager artist when he was young), and then one box of special stuffies and his blankie and hats. Obviously, his blankie is still with us, which will never be given away. I allowed myself to keep drawings that had date, name and description written on them, and bits of homework that described how wonderful his Mommy was! He’s got his Dad’s army beret, his own beret from Air Cadets, a hat that Grandpa (my dad) wore in Australia, his Dad’s blue United Nations Cap from peace-keeping duty in Cyprus in 1990. Some of these things are irreplaceable and when the time comes for Chris to take this box home (right now he’s not interested in looking at the stuff) I’ll let him decide what’s to be kept and what can be given away.

Yesterday I went through my sentimental box for approximately the fourth time since November. It started out as a series of belongings all over the house in various boxes and containers. It is now down to one Rubbermaid bin, and I feel that I may stop there. In it you’ll find books from my childhood, my Dad’s book, my childhood bibles, two stuffies from Marj (my sister that passed away in 1993), my childhood teddy bear, various articles of clothing from my infancy. Yesterday I removed all of the seashells from a childhood trip to BC but one. I photographed them all and kept the nicest one. My Dad’s bible will find a more appreciative home with one of my nephews. I went through my jewelry box with Jen, she got my wedding pearls, the gold chain that her Dad got me while in Cyprus and a random gold watch. I got rid of another gold chain that had been a gift from an ex-boyfriend. You may wonder why I didn’t pawn it at one of our lovely city pawnshops; the cost of driving to the nearest one in the -163 windchill, and getting Kev ready for a “quick” trip out of the house; it just wasn’t worth the small price I imagined I would get for it. So out it went, and today it made a trip to Salvation Army’s donation door. Not only had I not worn it in many years, I no longer wear gold jewelry, or any type of jewelry around my neck as it is very irritating to my sensitive skin. The jewelry box itself had been a wedding gift and I’d been hanging onto it all these years for some unknown reason. When I realized I couldn’t even remember who it was from, it also got tossed in the bag.

At our family xmas gathering this year, the one with all my nieces and nephews, I gave my wedding dress and shoes away to two very appreciative young girls who can now use them for dress up. Let me add that if I was still happily married to the man I married wearing those items of clothing, I may feel differently about parting with them. However, I have been divorced since 1998 and the clothing has been in the basement since then. No damn wonder I’ve had such a tough time moving forward in my life!! My basement has been full to the brim with items from my past! Lots of these items, like the wedding dress and shoes, don’t have pleasant associations. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the wedding and the divorce itself wasn’t nearly as bad as some I’ve seen and/or heard of, but it didn’t end in happiness and fulfillment. Letters from a boy I met when I was 16 were still carefully packed away, reminding me of a teenage crush that cost my parents thousands of dollars! That’s another story for another post!

There’s many many things I’ve tossed since I began my purge, too many to count. I’m doing this not only to lighten my literal load on moving day, but to lighten my mental or psychological load in the hopes that my life my start to move forward now. Perhaps the vacancy left by the purged belongings will welcome a new phase of my life.