Libzoid Blog

I’m still going through the pile of boxes of miscellaneous stuff in the garage. These boxes are the hardest of all to unpack. That’s why I have put off the job for so long. But I want to park inside so I am persisting.

These are generally boxes we never unpacked in New Jersey. In our old house in Connecticut, we had a den/office with a wall and a half of bookshelves and deep cabinets. It’s amazing how much junk I tucked away in there. The other black hole in the old house was a deep pantry closet in the basement. It’s embarassing how much junk I am getting rid of just from those two areas. I’m going to haul off quite a bit of it to the Goodwill store in town, and hopefully someone will want various quirky vases, “decorative” glass bowls, painted birdhouses etc.

This stuff can really weigh you down. We accumulate things almost daily: baskets from gifts from others, unfortunate purchases, “decorative” items others give us as gifts, old linens we’ve replaced, but still have life, baby items our kids used we just can’t part with, etc. The list goes on. If your house is big, you can tuck these things away in corners and not be overwhelmed by it. When the day comes that you have to confront all this junk, whether because you’ve just outgrown your storage or you’re moving, the enormity of the wastefulness of it all is overwhelming.

I had a neighbor a few years ago whose family generally moved every three years or so. She really felt suffocated when they stayed in the same house for five years. I never understood it. I never understood why she needed to clean out closets so regularly or why she was determined to move even when they didn’t have to. I think I understand her a bit more now. She grew up in a military family that moved all the time. When she married her husband was in the service and they moved around alot. Then his job would relocate him often. Where I find comfort in setting down roots, she finds it in change. And she doesn’t get burdened with so much stuff.

Well, I need to get back to unpacking. Everyone talks about all the boxes they have laying around from a previous move that they never unpacked. We decided that this time we were going to go through everything. The temptation to just take all the rest of these boxes straight to the dump unopened is strong. LOL So far I haven’t found anything that made me feel like “Wow! I’ve been missing that!”.

(insert ironic tone here) And I haven’t even started unpacking the studio! Ha!

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