The subway that only goes one way
I unloaded the truck today, so that I could compress three dufflebags to two, two cases of books to one, and so on. I stowed the TV and Nintendo in my corner of my parents' basement. I filled a trash bag of clothes to give to Goodwill. I threw my comic book collection, from seventh grade to current, into a dumpster (Well, not everything...).
I packed an emergency Army duffle with black t-shirts, my Hawaiian shirts, and my other standard warm weather attire - an emergency West Coast escape kit, should the impulse strike me.
It's not enough. I want to downsize even more. I'm enjoying trashing and destroying everything I "valued" because I'm finding I don't value it. I feel empowered with every chain of materialism I chew through.
I did this last fall, before I moved. Sold and trashed all the extra bits of materialism that I couldn't take or see myself using if I did take. And after the fall and winter in The Cities, I see how much of what I did keep still didn't get use. The process repeats.
Decluttering, a spring cleaning of the mind and soul, it helps.
But it's not enough. I wish I could break it down to two bags. But I'm awfully sentimental about my shirts, over ten years worth: relics from high school that are still in good shape (Buffy!);a shirt from every concert I attend; shirts that are gifts that I don't wear, but the person went to the trouble to bring it to me from Japan or Alcatraz, so I can't bring myself to get rid of it.
And books; I can't imagine being anywhere and not having my library of Gaiman or Kiernan with me.
The other things, though, the things I find myself unregretably casting out...it's really quite liberating. I don't see myself falling to the snare of it every again, either.
---
I want my tax refunds now. I want them so I can have hard currency, go to the airport, go West, and never look back.
But, we're getting there.
I packed an emergency Army duffle with black t-shirts, my Hawaiian shirts, and my other standard warm weather attire - an emergency West Coast escape kit, should the impulse strike me.
It's not enough. I want to downsize even more. I'm enjoying trashing and destroying everything I "valued" because I'm finding I don't value it. I feel empowered with every chain of materialism I chew through.
I did this last fall, before I moved. Sold and trashed all the extra bits of materialism that I couldn't take or see myself using if I did take. And after the fall and winter in The Cities, I see how much of what I did keep still didn't get use. The process repeats.
Decluttering, a spring cleaning of the mind and soul, it helps.
But it's not enough. I wish I could break it down to two bags. But I'm awfully sentimental about my shirts, over ten years worth: relics from high school that are still in good shape (Buffy!);a shirt from every concert I attend; shirts that are gifts that I don't wear, but the person went to the trouble to bring it to me from Japan or Alcatraz, so I can't bring myself to get rid of it.
And books; I can't imagine being anywhere and not having my library of Gaiman or Kiernan with me.
The other things, though, the things I find myself unregretably casting out...it's really quite liberating. I don't see myself falling to the snare of it every again, either.
---
I want my tax refunds now. I want them so I can have hard currency, go to the airport, go West, and never look back.
But, we're getting there.