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Preparing for a Move

/ rachelgoes262 / 1 Comment

Minimalism takes on new meaning when you are preparing for a move. This move is not a joyful one – it’s not happiness about a new location or some other positive attribute that prompted the move. This is a move of necessity for safety. What makes it even more precarious is that we need a new place to live. I don’t know where we are going. I just know we need to leave.

This move will need to be done as quickly and as easily as possible. To be honest, when I bought this house, I thought it was my forever home. I truly thought we would be here for the rest of our lives and never move again. Never say never.  Hopefully the move coming up this summer will be the final move. Fingers crossed. 

I’ve been on this minimalist journey for a while now, but it’s different when you are moving. Here is what’s happening:

There were a lot of items in this house from the previous owner when I purchased it. The person had passed away, family members inherited it, and they did not clean it out completely. A few years ago, I hired a junk truck to take most of the items that had been left in the basement – rusted and broken tools, and items that were decades old. I found a very interesting fire alarm circa 1950s that I tried to donate to the Historical Society. 

There are still items in this house (mainly the garage) from the prior owner. I do not want to do to the next owners of this house what was done to me and leave a bunch of junk behind.

Everything in this house will either be going with me, donated, or junked. Obviously, the preference is donation, but broken items and many of the items from the previous owner need to be junked. 

In packing for the move, I am only taking with me what is necessary. I am getting rid of a lot of stuff. Some of it is stuff I like and use but am not willing to move. A lot of things I’m getting rid of because they are associated with this house, and I do not want to take things with me that remind me of this place. Some items I would keep if we were staying in this house, but I don’t want to move them.

You don’t realize how much stuff you have until you are trying to get it down into the smallest space possible. Most of the items moving with me are winter items like blankets. Winter blankets are bulky and take up space. 

Some things that are leaving:

Teaching Supplies – I’m getting rid of all my teaching supplies. Honestly, this is hard. As you may know, many teachers purchase supplies using their own funds. While I enjoyed teaching, I lost my teaching job because no one could hear me. (No, “noise canceling headphones” did not help with the level of noise coming from vehicles here). I would like to volunteer my time to teach English as a Second Language again moving forward but now is not the time. We need to be someplace safe first.

My 23-year-old TV set – This one is hard. I have never had cable, but I have used the TV to watch DVDs. That is, when I can hear the TV. A few months ago, I thought the TV was starting to die – it had some discoloration in the bottom right corner of the screen. Then the discoloration went away, and it has acted normally. It is possible there is a tube going in the TV. At any rate, I don’t think it will survive another move. Even if it did survive another move, I don’t want to move it. I haven’t been able to enjoy my DVDs in two years now; I will go without. A TV is not something that’s important when you are leaving a bad situation. 

My under desk / walking pad treadmill. This is in the basement. I got it so I would be able to run inside. When I go outside, I have been chased and taunted by children on bicycles (they were upset my security alarm went off when they were throwing rocks at my car and they were told to stop). It has been safer to try to run inside. It works, but I have no intention of moving it with me. Wherever we go, it will be safe to walk around outside again.

Tech Waste – There is tech waste in this home that should have left sooner but has been languishing in a “tech graveyard.” My microwave broke last fall. The broken microwave needs to leave. There is a laptop from 15 years ago and a broken robot vacuum. 

A note on robot vacuums: I did enjoy the robot vacuum and felt like it helped me. However, after the robot vacuum broke, and now that I am faced with properly disposing of it, I am realizing it did not help me as much as I thought. Whether you use a traditional or a robot vacuum, you still must pick things up off the floor and move items around to be sure everything is cleaned. The robot vacuum often gets stuck on things like heat vents, so you must be alerted to rescue it. The robot vacuum was more work than it was help. It’s quicker to just use the traditional vacuum and do it yourself. 

I will be much more thoughtful moving forward before purchasing technology and small appliances. 

I am proud to say that I have minimized items enough that when I packed up CDs, DVDs and books, I only had one box each. In the case of books, the box was not even full, so I put other light items in there with the books. To be honest, DVDs and CDs are not things I have been able to enjoy the past two years here. I have been able to sit and relax with a book when things are calm. It’s been nice to get lost in a novel when things are challenging. 

I am grateful that due to my minimizing efforts over the past several years, I only have one box of Christmas items to move. I am looking forward to being able to enjoy Christmas this year in a new, safe location. 

Many things have already been downsized and donated, so in going through items now, it is truly a matter of “I don’t want to move this,” or “this is not necessary for survival in an emergency situation.” Once we get to a new location and can relax and enjoy a living space again, then I may decide that I want new items to enjoy. For now, this is about survival.

Of course, the most important part of the entire equation is keeping the cats and I together. I had bought this house to keep us together. We need a new place to live. That is the only thing that matters.

When it is time to move this summer, I currently have everything packed except for the kitchen, my clothes, and work. This entire process is stressful and disruptive. I am hoping that things come together for us to obtain new housing soon. 

I’m trying to make this move as small and as efficient as possible. I remember when we moved from the apartment to this house, the people who helped me move commented on how organized it was. Everything was moved in a day. I have always done a DIY move. This will be the first move that I am unable to DIY due to my health.

 I will need to pay professional movers for this one who can load a truck, drive a truck, and unload the truck for me. I can get most things packed (except for large items like furniture, microwave, vacuum cleaner and cat towers). I am not going to be able to drive a moving truck or do any loading again. My health is too precarious right now for that. 

Any tips for deciding what to move with you when planning a big move? Any items that you recommend you can do without until you get to the new location? I’m sure there are frivolous things I have packed that could have been donated. 

Packing has helped me to feel like I am doing something to move forward in a positive way. It is hard when you feel powerless in a situation. I may not know yet where we are going, but I know we need to move. 

Of course, if necessary, I will leave it all behind just to get the cats and I out of here safely to a new location. Finding a place to live is the challenge. 

This is going to be the most difficult move of my life, but it needs to be done. I am not sure where we are going, but I am preparing to leave. We need a place to live.

Minimalism: Approaching Maintenance

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My minimalism journey is now entering its 12th year. That’s a long time. For those of you feeling discouraged with your decluttering efforts, it’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon. That’s how much stuff I had to get rid of. I spent over 30 years accumulating, and over a decade trying to pare it all down.

The one area of my house that I am still working on minimizing is my CD collection. As you know from previous posts, this is the most difficult area for me due to my love of music. For the longest time, I would declutter anything in the house EXCEPT the CDs. 

My thinking now is that I only want to keep albums I truly enjoy. Those CDs where you pop them in the player and truly enjoy the entire disc. I’m not keeping a CD if there is only one or two songs on there that I like. We have YouTube for things like that. I’m not a huge fan of digital music, but I find it easier to just Youtube one song on the rare occasion I want to hear it instead of holding onto an entire CD for just one song.

One strategy that I use frequently in my decluttering efforts is that I will only keep items that fit in the space available. For example, if I don’t have enough room in the cupboard for all the coffee mugs, then it is time to declutter the coffee mugs and only keep what fits in the cabinet.

In decluttering my CDs, I have done the same thing. However, with CDs, I used to have 3 different pieces of furniture holding my CD collection. I am now downsizing my CDs to the point where there is only one piece of furniture holding my CD collection. That is two pieces of furniture I can get rid of also.

Once my CDs are minimized, I will be at maintenance minimalism. Maintenance minimalism is all about being a good gatekeeper. At this point, my goal is to only bring into my home consumables (food) and things I absolutely need.

Do I have some items that are completely unnecessary to the point they could be considered” clutter?” Yes, I do. I have 5 squishmallows. Do I need 5 squishmallows? No. They are probably considered clutter. However, they bring me joy and have use as pillows when needed. I enjoy them, so they stay. 

There is still a room full of donations upstairs. Everything in that room needs to leave and be donated. It will have to wait until spring when the weather is better and when I can find places to donate items. Some larger pieces, like the bookcase and extra outside chairs will just go out front with a “free” sign. They are too large to fight with to transport in my car to take someplace to donate. I could fit them in my car if necessary, but I don’t want to deal with it.

Apart from emptying the donation room and completing the minimizing of my CD collection, I am done. I am officially at the maintenance phase of my minimalist journey. 

There are a few random items that will be donated or trashed when I move. Some things in this house I am using now but will not take with me when I leave. However, I feel that I have now downsized this house to the point where I am either actively using everything here or the item brings me so much joy (hello, squishmallows) that they are staying.

My biggest challenge right now is going to be getting rid of everything in the donation room this spring. Donation centers in my area have closed. It is extremely difficult trying to figure out how to get rid of things, so they do not end up in the landfill. I also have a small box of electronics that I must figure out how to recycle.

While I may be approaching the maintenance phase of my minimalism journey, this blog will continue. There are always things to minimize in life including routines and digital items.

My goal with minimalism is to make this house and my surroundings as easy to care for as possible so that I can enjoy life. I don’t want to spend all my time cleaning. I want to spend my time with those I love.

That’s the true goal of minimalism – not a set number of things. The goal is to make life about love and not about stuff. 

Death Cleaning

/ rachelgoes262 / 1 Comment

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Spring is coming and we all tend to come out of hibernation and move around more. This includes spring cleaning, minimizing, and downsizing.

I have a room upstairs that I use to collect items throughout the year for donation. I wait until spring when I can get around easier to take everything to be donated. Thankfully, the place where I typically take donations has an outside contact-free drop off point. 

This weekend I went through all the items upstairs for donation. I sorted everything into piles based on where it needs to be donated. For example, there is one box of items specifically for the animal shelter (old towels, sheets, etc). There are also items that can be recycled now that it is easier to put recycling out since the snow is gone.

I have a few items that, quite honestly, need to go to the dump. I do not have a clear idea how to get rid of them. One of those items is a broken vacuum cleaner. When I moved into the house, there was a vacuum cleaner already here. I had brought my vacuum cleaner from the apartment. It worked out perfectly so that I could have one vacuum cleaner upstairs and one vacuum cleaner downstairs without having to try to lug a vacuum up and down the stairs. 

This past fall, the vacuum cleaner that “came with the house” broke. Now I have to figure out how to get rid of it.

I have been doing a lot of thinking lately about downsizing and minimizing even more so than in previous years. I have been on the minimalist journey for about a decade, and the journey never seems to end.

In working on my photo project of making an album for myself, I thought about all of my belongings more ruthlessly. What do I really need? What would happen to things if I die?

The way the pandemic is going, I will honestly be surprised if I survive it. My only goal is to outlive my cats so that I can keep them all together. Right now, that seems like a very big and very impossible goal.

 I have applied some minimalist philosophies, such as getting rid of things that are part of your “fantasy self,” and packing things up for 3 months before getting rid of them. However, there are still some items that seem to stay.

The twin bed in the upstairs bedroom is one example. Years ago, I debated whether or not to get rid of the bed in the spare bedroom. I decided to keep the twin bed. It even moved with me from the apartment to the house.

I have had this fantasy self that thinks it is there for an overnight guest. I like to think I am fully set up for company if anyone ever needs a place to stay. I have only had this actually happen one time when one of my friends was in nursing school and my apartment was closer to the hospital where she was doing her residency. She stayed with me for the duration of the residency. That was actually the impetus for purchasing the twin bed.

The twin bed does not actually get used. Sure, I use it myself occasionally when I feel I need a change of scenery or want to feel like I am on vacation while I am at home. However, there are a total of three beds in this house for one person. I can get rid of the twin bed and still have two other beds in this house.

There is my bed (full size) and the couch pulls out into a bed. In fact, I took vacation last month for my birthday, and the cats and I camped out in the living room on the bed that pulls out from the couch. We never even used the twin bed upstairs. 

With the pandemic, I honestly don’t see anyone visiting me for an overnight stay. Even if I did have an overnight visitor, there is still the bed that pulls out from the couch. That bed is pretty comfy. I slept on it for two years before getting the bed I have now.

I am becoming more ruthless in what I am getting rid of due to the pandemic. When I die, someone is going to have to go through all of this stuff. I’m sure most of what I own will be donated or trashed. If that is the case, I may as well donate or trash things now. I only need to keep what I absolutely need and am using.

Of course, the less I have, the easier it is to clean the house as well. That is a definite plus.

In addition to the twin bed, another item I have held onto for an absurdly long time is the metal bed frame to my full size bed. Well over 5 years ago now, I took my bed off the frame and put it on the floor. Kitty had arthritis in his back legs and was having a hard time getting in the bed with me. Once I put the bed on the floor, it was much easier for him. Kitty passed away 4 years ago. My bed is still on the floor because it is easier for me to get in and out of, as well as the cats who are with me now.

I honestly don’t think I will ever put my bed back on a frame again because it makes the bed too high. I think it is time to get rid of the frame.

Both the bed frame and the twin bed are items I have held onto for a long time. Part of it is because I figure I have the room for them.

However, with the pandemic, I am realizing that someone is going to have to go through all this stuff when I die. Even if I do manage to survive the pandemic and outlive the cats, there will come a time when I need to leave this house to either go back into an apartment or a nursing home. 

You can’t take things with you when you die.

This year, I am going to start employing the Swedish Death Cleaning method to my belongings. I am starting with the twin bed and the full size bed frame. I have many other things to go through as well. It will be a process of trying to figure out what I am absolutely using and what items can leave. I want to make my life as simple as possible. 

Swedish Death Cleaning is the notion of cleaning things out before you die so that your loved ones are not left to do it after you are gone. I did not think I would be death cleaning in my 40s. I thought I would be death cleaning in my 60s. But here we are, in the middle of a pandemic. Life is short. The time to death clean is now.

The most difficult part is trying to figure out how to get rid of everything. Not all places are taking donations of items right now. That means it’s possible that more items will end up in landfills, which is not what anyone wants either. 

My project for the next 6 months or so is not only to death clean through all my belongings but to actually get rid of the items. This past year I have just shoved things into a room upstairs. Now it is time for belongings to leave so that I can have an empty room I don’t have to clean.

I have gone through just about every minimalist philosophy so far. I have asked items if they spark joy, I have played decluttering games, I have packed boxes and then gotten rid of them after 3 months. Now is the time for death cleaning.

For some, death cleaning may seem extreme. Given we are in the middle of a pandemic and many people are dying, I think the time is now. 

Have you tried death cleaning? How did it go? What are some items that you got rid of that were surprising to you?