There is a REASON I was a packrat people!!
I have noticed, over the past year or so, that my "keep things just in case" (does that make me a packrat?) tendancies have been beaten into submission somewhate mitigated by moviing house three times.
I had them in part because I never really *unpacked* when I moved house. There are always boxes left unpacked either because I can't face trawling through yet another part of my life or because there is no space for it or I knew somewhere inside that that move was temporary and I'd be upping stakes again real soon.
Since moving back to Adelaide though, I have been ruthless in how much I've thrown out. Anyone who saw our Glowkesters Terrorarse place when we first moved here will know that 1/3rd of mostly my worldly possessions were outside under the porch because the house was full. Even now, the study is a little untidy because of my book collection and yarn (ah hobbies how I love thee). I am thrilled that I managed to purge a LOT of crap when we moved, got rid of furniture promptly and only have a teensy bit of stuff still to go.
Anyway, what the heck brought this post up? Well I've noticed an irritating tendancy for this to happen:
- random point recent past I find something and decide that there is no way I would need it in the near future so in the bin / recycled / passed on it goes
- random point in near future, I find that I would dearly love to still have said something and I can remember quite clearly saying that I'll never need it again and tossing it out because I couldn't imagine needing it
This morning's moment - a big arse road map of Newcastle. I remember clearly when unpacking the study at Seventh Avenue previous house a year ago, I came across the road map for Newcastle that I bought when travelling for work there about 4 years ago. I couldn't imagine ever going to Newcastle again such that I'd need a road map, and so I'm pretty sure it got binned along with a 25 year old road map of Victoria.
And yup, in just 10 days, I'm going to Newcastle for a week. And last year I drove to Bendigo for a week, and this year will be doing the same. So I don't want to change my tossing out tendancies but yeesh I wish I didn't remember when I threw things away with such clarity.
And no, doing the "put it away for a year and if you didn't use it you don't need it thing" doesn't apply here. I did do that and I threw it away after the year was up and because I couldn't envisage visiting Newcastle again and bam! now I am.
I had them in part because I never really *unpacked* when I moved house. There are always boxes left unpacked either because I can't face trawling through yet another part of my life or because there is no space for it or I knew somewhere inside that that move was temporary and I'd be upping stakes again real soon.
Since moving back to Adelaide though, I have been ruthless in how much I've thrown out. Anyone who saw our Glowkesters Terrorarse place when we first moved here will know that 1/3rd of mostly my worldly possessions were outside under the porch because the house was full. Even now, the study is a little untidy because of my book collection and yarn (ah hobbies how I love thee). I am thrilled that I managed to purge a LOT of crap when we moved, got rid of furniture promptly and only have a teensy bit of stuff still to go.
Anyway, what the heck brought this post up? Well I've noticed an irritating tendancy for this to happen:
- random point recent past I find something and decide that there is no way I would need it in the near future so in the bin / recycled / passed on it goes
- random point in near future, I find that I would dearly love to still have said something and I can remember quite clearly saying that I'll never need it again and tossing it out because I couldn't imagine needing it
This morning's moment - a big arse road map of Newcastle. I remember clearly when unpacking the study at Seventh Avenue previous house a year ago, I came across the road map for Newcastle that I bought when travelling for work there about 4 years ago. I couldn't imagine ever going to Newcastle again such that I'd need a road map, and so I'm pretty sure it got binned along with a 25 year old road map of Victoria.
And yup, in just 10 days, I'm going to Newcastle for a week. And last year I drove to Bendigo for a week, and this year will be doing the same. So I don't want to change my tossing out tendancies but yeesh I wish I didn't remember when I threw things away with such clarity.
And no, doing the "put it away for a year and if you didn't use it you don't need it thing" doesn't apply here. I did do that and I threw it away after the year was up and because I couldn't envisage visiting Newcastle again and bam! now I am.