There has been tons of packing this week. Packing up a room also means that you find things that belong in other rooms, some of which have already been packed. I decided to put a box in each room that I have already packed so that I can add things that I have found in other rooms. Hopefully this will make my packing a bit easier overall since there will already be a waiting box for each room. Another thing that I have found is that I am constantly overlooking some item and then am surprised when I realize I have forgotten to pack something. Case in point: my winter bathrobe. I figured I would leave my summer bathrobe out as I do wear it. I have two because in the winter I want a bathrobe that I can snuggle into. I bought the biggest bathrobe I could find, too. It's probably three sizes too big for me, but it was big enough to go all the way down to my feet and double cross my torso. It's pink and fluffy and like wearing a Sunggie backwards. In the summer I still want to cover up sometimes but the winter bathrobe is far too bulky and hot for summertime, so I have a thinner one made of cotton seersucker that my mother made me when I was pregnant with my first child. Twenty-one years later that bathrobe is still hanging in there and in beautiful shape. It's also pink. I was surprised when I closed my bathroom door the other day and found bathrobes (mine and the spouse's) hanging there like they always were. It's odd how familiar those things are that you don't even think about packing them. It's one of the reasons Alfonso (my Kitchen Aide mixer for those of you just joining me) is still on the kitchen counter. Same with the paper towel holder.
So far this week I have packed the former hobby area and organized all the photos. OK, that's a lie. They aren't organized, but they are all in boxes with all the negatives in another box (still in their envelopes and somewhat labelled) which will stay here. I cleaned out the old pantry. I packed up the teas and spices that I am taking with me. And as far as spices go the only ones that got packed were those spices that I actually had duplicates of. Most of them are being left behind and I will only replace when I actually need them. I couldn't see the waste in buying new cumin in Ohio when I had four (yes 4) bottles here. Same with poppy seeds and sesame seeds. I'm hoping to be a bit more organized in my new home so that I'm not purchasing spices every time I turn around. I have packed the music room. Music room is synonymous with the phrase dumping ground. It's that place in your home where everything gets dumped when you come home. It's all been gone through now and packed or had the items from that room taken to their proper rooms. That gave me some extra room to stack boxes.
I still need to to through and pack up the Christmas ornaments, but want to go through those with my eldest daughter to see if there are things that she wants. Also left on my agenda is packing towels, dishrags, aprons, and going through my desk that has accumulated things that I didn't want to deal with immediately. So there is the Japanese sock from when I was a child, two CD-Roms with e-books on them, my Buddha board, a "stamp-a-ma-jig" and various papers, pins, and campaign memorabilia. I still have three and a half weeks and packing is becoming more difficult as I'm down to the onsie-twosies and forgotten bits or things that just can't be packed quite yet (like clothes I still need and chargers to all our miscellaneous electronics that we use on a daily bases).
And the decluttering is continuing as well. I have taken two car loads of unneeded, unloved, unwanted household things to thrift stores this week and my front hallway stacked yet again with boxes of things to go. I'm hoping to make a run by there today so I can start fresh this next week. I'm amazed at how much I have accumulated in the past nine years living in this house. Things I bought that I have no idea as to why I bought them in the first place. Things given to me as gifts that I felt too guilty to get rid of even though I didn't need/want/love them. I still have moments where I am putting something in the donation pile that I think, "Oh, so-and-so gave this to me for my fortieth birthday." When I find myself in moments like that I take a breath and ask myself if I truly need/want/love it. If the answer is no then out it goes.
Even though my packing is winding down, I still have so much to learn about minimizing my life. This is only step one in the journey. One very small baby step at that. Important, but still small. Hopefully by blogging about this experiment it will keep me going on my track to fewer but more cherished and used things.
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