Thursday, January 29, 2015

Sorry, guys...

It has been a stressful and crazy last few months, and I'm not even talking about the holidays part of it.  In November we learned that we needed to move, so the last few months have been spent looking for a new place, purging belongings, packing packing packing, and everything else that goes along with moving.

I actually really enjoy going through every single inch of my house looking for things we no longer need to give away, sell, or donate.  I looove some organizing!  But this was even more than purging, we had to downsize.  Moving from a big house with a basement to a small apartment means a lot of stuff had to go.  We move in two days and I'm still not sure if we have downsized enough!  We will find out soon...

There is something sad about needed to let go of so many of your belongings, but at the same time, with each item gone comes a little thrill.  A chill of happiness and excitement.  To have less, so life can be more.  It is so easy to fill up all the square inches of space you have, and living in a small space really limits what stuff you can have in your space.  It is so freeing to just give it all away!  You can make someone very happy with those extra plates you hardly use, that extra set of kid table and chairs that you will no longer have room for(wait, why did we have TWO sets of kids table and chairs?!?  Oh, right, because we had room for it...).

I am excited for our move, but still daunted by all the packing to still be done.  I am really looking forward to living with less stuff, and I intend to keep it that way.  Nothing gets to live in my house unless it is absolutely needed or wanted.  There will probably still be some editing of belongings when we are all settled in, if we find that our couch is just too big for the space, or our table or what have you.  The Hubby is a bit worried about fitting all of our things in our new place, but I have to reassure him that we can still edit our "stuff" even further.  It is a process!

Now, I can't help but give a shout out to one of the best ways I have found to unload things you no longer need and meet your neighbors and make new friends at the same time.  It is called Buy Nothing.  They have Facebook groups based on your neighborhood.  The point is to create a hyper local gift economy.  It is amazing!  I spend time on FB just to look through and converse with the Buy Nothing group I am a part of.  I am almost more sad to leave this group than to leave my actual neighborhood!  So many neighbors I have met and become friendly with, all over sharing and giving of items that no longer serve the giver.  I had a yard sale last weekend, and I invited the Buy Nothing people to come and just have WHATEVER THEY WANTED, within reason.  So many neighbors showed up to peruse the offerings and to say goodbye to us, it was really wonderful.  I spent the first couple of hours of the sale just chatting with everyone while The Hubby tried to run the selling part of the sale!  What a guy!  But it went really well, and I can't help but believe that if we hadn't offered to give away basically anything, that our sale wouldn't have gone so well.  Our profit made the sale worth it two times over!  Not just the money, but getting to meet and talk with all the neighbors who came to send us off.

I encourage you to see if there is a Buy Nothing group for your neighborhood, and if not, consider starting one!

No comments:

Post a Comment