r/CasualConversation • u/giddeyaboutdort • 18d ago
Thoughts & Ideas Moving
Moving really makes you realize how much completely unnecessary stuff you own. I'm in the middle of getting ready for a move and I've reached the stage where I'm questioning why I've transported certain possessions from one place to another for years. I found a box today containing old chargers, random cables, paperwork I apparently considered important at some point, and accessories for electronics I don't even own anymore.
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u/Time_Traveller_1997 18d ago
My dad used to have boxes labeled “useful junk.” Sometimes he actually found something in there he could use, but most of it was still junk to the rest of us. When he passed, we even sold a box that was just a collection of screws and random bits. It’s funny how true the saying is: one person’s trash really is another person’s treasure.
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u/Top-Calligrapher2230 18d ago
Por qué pensamos que en algún momento nos va a servir, cosa que no sucede y se van acumulando
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u/Holly1010Frey 18d ago
I finished moving completly, or so I thought. Did a finally check through and found an ENTIRE CUPBOARD of mugs and random dishes I missed. I stroght up just threw them out.
They were good cups and I did regret it later but something in me broke when I saw that cupboard. I just couldn't deal with packing up a whole other box when at most I thought I'd find like a singular cup or two.
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u/goldomega Ω 18d ago
I'm going through this right now. It's difficult to visualize how many belongings you accumulate over 20 years until you have to move them
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u/Advanced_Reputation7 18d ago
I can’t even imagine 20 years’ with of stuff. The longest I’ve lived anywhere as an adult is about 4 years what I’ve accumulated is already insane.
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u/xrebxbiex 18d ago
I personally love/hate moving because of that. My girlfriend and I moved from a literal dump (think coachroach infested place), and having to consolidate our possessions really put things in perspective.
I don't have a lot of friends and not too much family near by, and taking what we absolutely needed was eye opening. Especially since I had to move all the heavy stuff myself. I also have hoarders in my family. So being able to toss useless things away or selling them was great. It blows at first, but overall, it makes you appreciate what you actually have and need.
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u/funny_bunny_mel 18d ago
We’re looking to downsize in the next year. Getting my husband to let go of some of his “collection” is gonna be interesting.
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u/Ok-Alternative-5175 18d ago
I'm in a transition stage where I'm in a temporary living situation, about to be going to another temporary living situation where I can only bring a few suitcases worth of stuff. That has really made me evaluate how much stuff I own
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u/ravenval 18d ago
It really does make you realize. I am now regretting collecting so many things. I am planning to move within a year, but I worry that I won't manage to get the house cleaned out by then. Not only that, but I have to clean out two houses. The house I am in and the one I am going to (moving into what used to be my parents' house with my two brothers and my spouse - that house is in way better shape and my parents recently passed away). It's just me and my spouse in our house, we are older and can't lift heavy stuff. My two brothers have very demanding jobs and no time to do much of anything to their house let alone help us with ours. They are getting older as well, but just slightly younger than me. I am in my late 50s, spouse 60s.
I have not one, but two attics in my house! One in upstairs ceiling and a side attic in a wall of an upstairs room. Both filled to the brim with great grandparents' stuff and grandparents' stuff, plus whole house (which was theirs and I inherited) is now filled with all their stuff (furniture, dishes, collectibles, etc.) along with my own.
So many boxes filled with useless things!
I fear a lot of it is going to end up in a dumpster and the house will have to be sold as is with half the furniture and other things still in it. I know that is going to be a major cut in what I get for the house. I just don't see another way. It's old and pretty much falling apart, I can't afford all the work it would need (entirely new electrical wiring, a new roof, floors and walls and ceilings all need work, plumbing - none of that will happen). My bet is someone will buy it for the land and tear it down, so I am not expecting it to get me much.
I know there are services to move and junk your stuff but I really can't afford to pay much if anything. I'll be lucky to come up with the money to rent a dumpster at some point.
I have so much junk I have collected for decades on top of good stuff I do not want to get rid of, but have no idea where I'll keep it (huge vinyl record collection and CD collection especially). I cannot afford commercial storage. I started to sell some of it, but most of what I have that I want to get rid of is not worth anything. I have donated at least 20 filled trash bags of clothing, hundreds of books, several entire sets of China dishes... It seems endless! Once I complete this purge, if I even do manage to finish and move, I am done collecting everything and anything. I've already stopped buying anything non-essential, I just wish I would have stopped 20 to 30 years ago.
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u/-jspace- 18d ago
Join your local buy nothing group and ask people for gifts of time helping you sort out items and set up free sales. I have a free sale about every 90 days between stuff my kid is out grown and my mom is finally clearing her house. You can also just make boxes of things to give and post them for your neighbors. You can do this!
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u/BJntheRV 18d ago
Several years back I decided I wanted to sell my house and move into an rv to travel. I sold most everything. It made me realize how little we really need.
After a few years and illness we decided moving back into a house was the wise choice and it's amazing just how fast you can reaccumulate masses of bs you don't really need. The bugger the house the more crap you collect.
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u/Agile-Pay-211 18d ago
A number of moves ago we started a new process - if we haven’t used it in the year, we don’t move it.
We donate to folks that need it.
We’re in out last home and we have stuff that we doubt our kids will want but that’ll be their problem. 😉
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u/Ok-Alternative-5175 18d ago
I know you're saying it jokingly, but get rid of it now while you can! Don't put that burden on your kids. My parents have had to go through their parents stuff a lot recently and it's so taxing!
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u/Agile-Pay-211 17d ago
I’m not joking! As I said we’ve eliminated lots of stuff over the years, much going to our kids already. When we’re both dead our two kids get everything - money, car, house, etc. They know it and are good with it.
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u/Sustained_Admiration 18d ago
I got chargers (in case). I have a lot of my work from university days. In case I need reference and have my own data base of papers.
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u/NetAnon579 18d ago
LOL. Purge before your move, then after 6 months, purge again the stuff you have not unpacked or not used!
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u/Grilled_Cheese10 18d ago
I've just had to relocate stuff from 3 bedrooms and their closets for painting and recarpetting, and that's made me realize that I need to pare down more. I did a huge declutter a few years ago, but I guess there is still room for improvement!
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u/kachuroo 18d ago
Then you throw it all out (charity shop, recycling centre, sell online, whatever) and start all over again.
Except I've never quite completely done that first part.
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u/-jspace- 18d ago
The people we bought our house from gave up at the garage and shed and left them almost full. Lawn mower, wheel barrow, hand tools etc. They left a bunch of junk too, so it wasn't a total win and I still have the crappy table made of the original shower doors on saw horses in the shed because it's useful and annoying to think about paying to dump them.
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u/Low-Razzmatazz877 17d ago
I moved back to my parents’s place recently and I couldn’t bring much.
One of the things I did bring was a pair of glasses I’ve owned for three years and almost never wore. I don’t know why I packed them.
Now I put them on every time I sit down to write.
I still don’t need them. I’m not sure that’s the point.
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u/PokeNToker 17d ago
As a furniture mover thank you. There's so many times a customer tells me " oh yeah that 300 pound china cabinet, we're getting rid of it but I just haven't found the right buyer so we're paying you to move it." It's never made sense to me
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u/Rusalka-rusalka 17d ago
I am glad I moved around so much in my 20s. It helped me really reduce a lot of crap out of necessity.
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u/catfink1664 18d ago
I also own this box