Sweet Jaysus it’s just sad, triste as they say in these parts. I’ve started packing and I’m dismayed to see just how much stuff I’ve accumulated. I mean how can a person who sold off all her worldly goods just 2 years ago have so much crap? There’s a pale turquoise vacuum cleaner, an Ikea love seat that I think was once off-white but is now more accurately described as dingy. There are 2 desks, a old dining room table found in a dusty French shop, a wooden étagère that holds stacks of plates and bowls and Rusty’s giant coffee cups. Which leads to a coffee maker and a toaster and a TV and so on and so on.
Naturally, all these things had to be brought into my life in order for me to actually live it. I’m not a total idiot, I do get that. But I can’t help wishing I could sell it all off again, just load up the car and race off, all footloose and fancy free. I know that doing that would come at a cost—money, time and the aggravation of sourcing things in a strange and expensive land (Kitchen Aid mixers sell at over 1000 bucks), but still.
I’m a wanna be minimalist at heart but my brain knows better. Of course I do need a couch and a desk and a chair for my now much written about arse. All is not lost though. We’ve managed to sell off our kitchen appliances which will offset the cost of the move. Sometimes you just get lucky in this life. There is a lovely woman right here in Semur, moving the same day we are, who needs the things we don’t. What are the odds?
Anyway, I’m…what’s the word?…relieved, yes, relieved that in my new Swiss life the fridge, stove and dishwasher (thanks be to all that is holy there’s a dishwasher) are available to me but owned by someone else. And relieved that there’s only so much a one bedroom + den apartment can hold. For some reason, I have yet to turn my shrink powers toward the peace I find in fewer possessions. The less I own, the calmer I feel. And yet having more shoes seems like a good idea. It’s a complicated state of mind.
I have no idea why my stuff is having this effect on me and it’s hard to fully describe—the words edgy and irritable spring to mind. Impending menopause is a likely explanation. God knows I use that one to justify about 90 per cent of my behaviour these days. Alternatively it could be that I was some sort of criminal in a past life, someone who was always on the lam and in need of a quick, unfettered getaway. Or maybe I’m just a crotchety old bag with no tolerance for anything in my house that doesn’t serve a vital purpose.
So, over the next few days my plan is to be more ruthless than I have ever been, purging like my life depends on it. If it’s not absolutely essential to my happiness, out it’s going. Neil is looking nervous and he doesn’t know the half of it. He stops cooking for one night and I’m putting him up for auction on eBay. Something tells me I could make a fortune on him.
Bobbi you made me chuckle with your chuck everything – accumulate – chuck again and move on feeling – oh how I can relate – over the past few years I have divorced, re-married (to a very wonderful man), gained 3 sons to add to my own 2 and merged 2 households which has been unbelievably difficult and emotional, we are constantly saying it would have been so much easier to have burned down the house and started again – imagine how freeing that would be to have no ties – we all have way too much “stuff” – except for the shoes – girl you can not have enough! :)x
Holy Hannah! Now that’s a story and a half. You make me laugh with the burn down the house and start over approach. I’ll tuck that one away in the Ideas for the Future File.
Swap you my Kitchen Aid mixer for Neil–we could use a level-headed cook around here. But you’ll have to pay shipping for both.
Good offer but without Neil what would I do with the mixer? Maybe put a plant in it?
It took me moving away to europe, living there for almost 8 years and then moving back to Newfoundland to realize the “power of stuff” and what it held over me. Now, I’m very happy to say that things & shopping doesn’t have the same power for me that it once did. Of course you need the essentials, but I don’t own 50 pairs of shoes anymore & we’ve def. weeded down the amount of toys that clutter our house & never get played with. My simpler life is def. a happier life.
Less is more.
Less is absolutely more. Good luck with the move!
Thanks Teri. Moving is such sweet sorrow.
You are hilarious!!!
But aren’t us gals who happen to be over 40(or 50-me) lucky to be able to blame most of our behavior on the big “M”-ha ha!!!
It is proving most convenient at the moment!
OH I can sooo relate!!! We renovate and haven’t much “stuff” but it does creep back slowly. Heading to Italy in March and yes everything must go….hmmmm where is the question!
I am also victim lately to edgy and irritable must be going around!
ciao Lisa x
But what if Neil knows how to list on eBay, too? Sauce for the goose/gander and all that :)
Ha, he’s not worried. He knows I would only sell to a very limited market, tall feminist men who can cook and can speak fluent French. Not many of them out there.
I can’t stand the moving frame of mind. I once lost everything I ever owned when we left Somalia in a war torn rush, then vowed never to accumulate. Hmmm. A dozen house moves later you should see what I have piled around me. I pity my kids when I go. If I ever move again – and I will – I will have a three-room apartment. Or a shack next to a lake.
Ah, I can sympathize as I am on the other side of a similar move! I thought I had done a good job of getting rid of stuff before we left France, but here in Washington — faced with squeezing the contents of a large apartment into a small apartment — I’ve become TRULY ruthless. Bon courage pour la suite!
Funny, I have lived now in California for 5 years this January without ALL my life’s belongings. They remain in two crates that I pay 125 bucks a month for storage in N.S. what is wrong with me that I still can’t let them go. I need a remedy for that.
School starts this weekend… maybe someday I will learn a remedy for that one.
Happy Trails Bobbie, keep the mixer and the Man, Neil. As you go thru the next stages your Health and Nutrition will be the only Key ingredients you need, oh and the great Man you have :)))
It is tough love with possessions while walking the el Camiono de Santiago. You buy a pair of hiking sandals; you throw away the shoes that or no longer working for you. Life is a 20 lb pack. I hope I can bring this new discipline back home.