It's About Time!

It's been quite some time since I posted a personal update, and since I'm encountering some significant milestones at this moment, now is a good time.

I've had this dirty little secret storage shed (it's not really secret, except that I often try to forget that it needs dealt with) and ... finally... it is going away. I'm having help come with me to haul 99% of the stuff away, I'm going to pull a few things out that I want to donate to Toys for Tots (I've collected some toys that are still mint in the package) and there are still a few personal / important things in there that I'm going to keep. For now.

The rest of the shed - 5' x 10' is going to be hauled off to... well I don't actually know or care what is happening to it. It might be sold, donated, used or scrapped, that will be up to the person doing the hauling. The only items whose future matters to me are the ones I'm going to take with me and see them to their new digs.

That will account for almost $50 more per month that I can save, and a huge, giant, angry blister on my mind that has been driving me crazy for almost two years. I don't even like saying that out loud but I have to face it... I had a storage shed for two years and barely touched anything in it. The one thing in there I'm sad to see go is my dinette set... it's from the 50's and I reupholstered it myself.. but I can't take it with me so there isn't really any point in obsessing over it. I got to own a very cool dinette set and I enjoyed it for many years. Now I move on, and probably won't have a "real" dining table for quite some time... if ever again.

I'm over the "traditional" furniture requirements. I don't need a bed, a desk, a dining table, a coffee table or a dresser. Instead, I will probably have either a futon or an air mattress, a folding table, an ottoman or two, and...I confess, most of my clothing is either in the "clean" laundry basket or the "dirty" laundry basket. I don't have much need for clothing storage beyond those.



In other news, the bulk of my former Hello Kitty collection is gone... in one fell swoop. I would have donated it, but two of the houses it has "lived in" for at least 10 years had significant mold problems, and unfortunately most of my stuff from those houses has anywhere from a minor to an awful mold smell. This collection was affected so into the dumpster it went. Mold causes most of my allergies and it gives me breathing problems and sore throats... so every thing I can do to eliminate it from my life and not pass it on to other people is a winning move.

A bunch of other stuff besides that collection also went in the dumpster... and I've been doing pretty well selling off all of my excess beads too. I have sold more than half now, and only a few more small Priority mail boxes of them remain to be sold.

Most of my old art supplies and things I'll never get around to using were "donated" to my best friend's daughter... she's got quite a creative streak and I want to support that as much as possible. I gave her two big boxes of supplies and beads, which I'm sure she will use up pretty quickly.


Last but not least, I'm finally starting to be able to see a visual image of what is going with me to Arizona. I've pared down my supplies so far from what they were, and my posessions, I can almost picture fitting everything into my tiny car. The few things that do not fit will be shipped, but I want to keep shipping cost to a minimum so it will ONLY be stuff I do need and only things that can't easily be broken or damaged in the mail.

I look around my apartment, and I know that when d-day comes, most of the stuff is going to be sold on C-list, donated, or trashed. If I wanted to, I could gather up what I am taking and pile it in my (mostly) empty dining room to make sure it will fit in the car. I plan on doing that about a month before we move, so I can figure out what is best to ship and best to come in the car.

It is a huge relief to know that soon, my posessions will only encompass what is in my apartment, and within about six months most of what is my apartment will be gone... leaving the bare necessities. Those necessities would be even more diminished if it wasn't for my creative pursuits and art supplies. Those things will be the majority of what is left, and I'm trying to whittle them down as much as possible so that I'm taking the absolute minimum of possessions I possibly can.

Years ago, I had no idea what minimalism was but I had a strong desire to achieve certain goals... the biggest of which was (and still is) to be able to make my living primarily through my talents rather than working a job that feels meaningless. That goal seems to be within reach, thanks to minimalism and some other things I've learned along the way.