Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Today is the First Day of the Rest of My Downsizing.

So today is the day. Truck is rented. (Some) boxes are packed. The move begins!

We had another yard sale on Sunday. Except for two or three big items, everything was $1 or less. We gave out free coffee to anyone who made a purchase. More than 70 items that gathered dust in our house or got a quick glance once in a while went to live with someone else. May their next life be more productive!

My goal for this move is for each of us to have 5 boxes: 5 boxes for my husband, 5 boxes for me, 5 boxes for the living room, 5 for the kitchen... I'm a math nerd, so quantifying ideas is really important for me. And 5 sounded like a good number! And maybe it would all fit in a 10 foot truck...

We're not done packing yet, but we'll end up with 10 boxes for the kitchen, 3 for the bathroom, 5 for my daughter, 3 for me, my husband hasn't packed any of his stuff, and 6 for the living room. It still seems like an awful, terrible, gigantic amount of stuff. Blah.

I don't know where it's all going to fit when we get there! I had been feeling a little guilty about making such a big deal about us downsizing. I mean, we get 900 square feet! That's not a tiny house. That's not 300 or 200 or 84 square feet. But as far as possessions go, we have to live like we're in a tiny house, thanks to our house having only one closet (that is not yet built). It's like tiny house + enough open space for all three of us to do yoga at the same time.

It seems like - and I was trying to avoid this, but oh well - we are going to get all this stuff into the new house and then figure out what fits, what we really, really need and what we can live without. We will go through the downsizing process yet once more. At least once.

Ugh. I'm in a mood to get settled in, not go through this questioning process again. But - what is "settled"? It's rigid and done and boring. It's finding comfort in a place or a thing, when really we should be finding our home with each other and with our selves.

So, good-bye, house that has been my first real home as an adult. Good-bye for now, Kingston. Good-bye for now to my wonderful, supportive, fun, intelligent and interesting friends who have all made living in this city a blast! Now that we have downsized, you can all fit for a visit in our small house.

Well, maybe not all at once.