I ordered moving boxes online and a pack of 30 arrived. I have to assemble them and tape them up so they don’t lose my precious cargo. As I sat looking at the large, flat pile I began to chide myself for ordering so many. Then, I began to fill each one and to realize that, maybe, I wasn’t so foolish. I am packing multiple boxes of items that I want or will need for whenever I arrive at my destination.
I have a box filled with important papers telling the IRS that my tax accounting has been true and honest these last seven years. I lug it around with me, like a heavy chain, keeping me from floating around and off into Neverland. The IRS doesn’t like it when you try to float off.
There are two boxes being filled with the things needed for my cross-country journey. There is even a box dedicated to JoJo for the journey. Honestly, it is like having a baby. I have to pack a box 10 times his size. His food alone is freeze-dried and has to be ordered online, and I’m taking a month’s worth. Ergo, the big box.
Everything else is being boxed or given away or sold. I am trying hard to sort through the truly important stuff. I could do a whole blog on the words “Important” and “Stuff” but I will spare you today. Anyway, this move seems to be different than other moves. How many of us simply throw everything into boxes, promising to go through them at the other end of the line? This time I am tackling it all differently. I am doing the Kondo Marie method of holding each item and deciding whether or not I need it and/or whether it gives me joy. Escrow is one month so I am forced to fill a box every day except on Sundays.
It is interesting to see my life this way. One box is filled with the artifacts of relatives, deeply loved and long gone. One box is filled with winter clothes to be unpacked when the first cold front of the season moves in. Different parts of my life are compartmentalized into different boxes.
And, once again, I am reminded. In our lives we have so much stuff lying around. Many times we cannot see everything unless we have a need to box it all. This is the moment to downsize and remove the clutter, thanking unused items for the memories they evoke. Those are memories we can take with us without having to lug around physical items that will probably end up hidden in a drawer or (gasp) a box in the closet.
Downsizing, removing the clutter, is painful in the moment. But any gardner knows that pruning the dead, useless roses will make your rose bush healthy and give you more flowers and happiness. Besides, if you kept EVERYTHING, you would need to order more boxes that you would have to lug around in a bigger, more expensive moving van. How many of us have boxes we have moved, put in the storage area, and haven’t unpacked in three years or more?
And don’t be like me and wait until you are getting ready to move, especially if you are downsizing. Only the IRS has the right to keep you from floating off. Still, without those (extra) heavy boxes, you will find you have a feeling of walking on air. Here is to my next destination in life.
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