Downsizing

Now that we’ve managed to get ourselves from one side of the country to the other, I’ve had some time to look back on the process and here is what I know: Moving is hard. Moving across the country is really hard. Moving from a fairly large space (with great storage) to a much smaller one? Even harder.  After living twenty years in the same house, we managed to amass quite the collection of stuff (also known as crap). It was clear that all of it wasn’t going to make the trip so early on we began to pare things down. In doing so everything fell into one of two categories, things to keep and things to get rid of. The problem with the “get rid of” pile was that getting rid of something also meant letting go of it too. And that wasn’t always easy.

For example, we saved seemingly every bit of our kids’ school work from grades K-12. We had boxes and boxes full of “art”, essays, and even elementary school report cards. Lots of sentimental value to be sure, but given that both boys have now finished college and with space sure to be at a premium, could we justify lugging it all across the country? The answer was no. But I’ll admit it wasn’t an easy no. 

The get-rid-of pile had subsets: things to sell, things to give away, and my favorite, things that could go to the dump. Some people are regulars at bars or coffee shops. I became a regular at the dump.  All together I made twenty two trips there and while it’s not quite the same as a bar or a coffee shop, in these lock-down, stay at home times, I suppose it’s nice to be a regular somewhere. If only they served beer or coffee at the dump, I would have made even more trips.

Letting go was easily the hardest part of it all, but fortunately not everything that went to the dump was hard to let go of. I had no trouble getting rid of the countless pieces of scrap wood and other miscellaneous building supplies I’ve saved over the years. There isn’t much sentimental value attached to the old 2x4, the half piece of sheetrock, or the odd bits of metal I found in the garage. All of that went to the dump without hesitation. One could probably argue it all should have gone to the dump years ago (and one would be right) but in my defense, I’ve always gotten tremendous satisfaction when one of those treasures turned out to be exactly what I needed for whatever project I was working on.

Other things were not so easy to let go. The box of ticket stubs and souvenir beer cups from all kinds of events was a tough one. There were cups from world series games, playoff football games, a super bowl, and a Rolling Stones concert. Great memories all but they’ve been in that box for twenty years and it’s likely they’d stay there for another twenty so with some reluctance, I let them go and off they went to the dump.

It turned out there was dump worthy stuff everywhere. The garden shed yielded an old Weber grill and two screen doors. The basement storeroom produced an old kitchen table, an ancient computer desk, and some huge bookcases I’d built 30 years ago. And in the back of a closet, I found a giant chess set  (pictured below, note the shoes in the picture for scale)  I have no idea where it came from but a giant chess set without a giant chess board  (or even with a giant board) is not really of much use. All of that went to the dump too. 

I’m sorry to report that the football phone pictured above, which actually works as I recall, went to the dump as well. Of course I wanted to keep it for the novelty aspect. But like so much of my stuff, it’s been in a box for countless years and the reality is some things just had to go. Besides, one day you’re hanging onto a football phone and the next, you’re featured on an episode of “Hoarders.” So off it went.

Naturally there were some things I simply couldn’t let go of. I kept all the super-8 films I made in high school. For years I’ve told myself I’ll get them digitized. Instead they’ve just been gathering dust. But I can’t let go of those. They’ve had too much effect on my life to become part of a dump run. At least, not yet anyway.

I also kept the souvenir frisbee from the tournament I went to in 1979, the gavel I used as Little League president, and the fake ID I used in high school. Why? Because I couldn’t let go of course. I’m sure all of it will someday be part of a dump run. Maybe.

And on it went. The ceramic owl from my grandmother’s house, gone. The barely used sit-up bench, gone. The seat cushion from Super Bowl XXXIX (49ers 49-Chargers 26), not gone! Let’s not get carried away here.

In the end, despite all the things we sold, everything we gave away, and the twenty-two trips to the dump, according to our moving company, we still hauled 14,400 lbs. of stuff to California. Of course there is a strong possibility that half of that weight may have been my books. It’s one thing to part with a genuine football phone but quite another to let go of nearly 1200 books.

Here on the west coast, our stuff is currently crammed, as seen above, into two storage units while we hunt for a house that’s big enough to hold 14,400 lbs. of stuff but not so big that we’re tempted to save things like football phones. And every time I need something from storage it is inevitably nowhere near the front which means I have to move a bunch of stuff to find it. It is during those times I think that I probably should have made another few trips to the dump and I would have, if only I could have let a few more things go.