Pack Rat Reformed: Moving Cross-Country

This post was originally written on March 18, 2015 when we lived in California.

A.K.A: Getting Rid of Half Your Stuff Fast and Moving Cross-Country

I used to be a pack rat. Not one of those people you see on Hoarders (my husband might tell you I was headed in that direction), but anything that “might be used later” was “put in a safe place”. This generally meant that when I did actually need it, I couldn’t find it in our too-big-for-a-family-of-only-3 house in New Jersey.

Then in May 2014, my husband got a new job in California, giving us about 6 weeks to sell the house, pack up, and move across the country. The truly amazing thing about a house that’s larger than what you truly need is that the actual volume of your belongings is not obvious. That is, until you need to sort through said belongings to figure out:

1. What is worth paying $.68 cents per pound to have movers pack up and schlep across the country for you,
2. How much will actually fit into an apartment less than half the size,
3. What has a reasonable chance of surviving the journey,
4. Where to donate/sell/burn the things that don’t fit into the above, or that movers won’t take, and
5. Which things you don’t want the movers to take because you can’t live without them for somewhere between one month (if you’re lucky) and forever (if it arrives broken or not at all)

To top it off, I had the pleasure of doing this organizational exercise while suffering from a terrible case of the Coxsackie virus, a parting gift from one of my daughter’s classmates. We’ll talk about this another time.

For now, let’s just say that the ridiculous amount of stress during this period made something snap in my brain, and I’m now obsessed with getting rid of anything non-essential to our existence. Working from home and having ample time between (during?) conference calls to notice extra things fuels the obsession. We’re also renting now, facing another move in the not-so-distant future, so continuing to whittle down the unnecessary objects is going to prevent stress later.

Things That Didn’t Make the Cut

Looking back on some of the items left behind, we have the following “prized” possessions:

1. A full box of VHS movies and a VCR, last used in college
2. Three early 2000s-era computers, including one <1Ghz processor tower built in college
3. Stacks of notes and printouts carefully archived from my Masters’, never to be read again
4. A box of 3.5″ floppy disks containing U.S. History papers from high school, and hundreds of archived AIM (that’s AOL Instant Messenger, for those not online between ~1995 and ~2004) conversations that, while both hilarious and cringe-worthy, have been destroyed to protect the innocent. And by innocent, I mean our kids. Luckily Facebook didn’t exist to preserve our shameful, juvenile dialogue for all of eternity back then.

A few more things that didn’t make the cut. Excuse the baggy eyes and horrible lighting:

There were, of course, prized possessions, minus the sarcasm:

1. Our huge, only 3-years-old, family room couch, that we thought would last us 20 years.
2. The brand new, custom cut, non-returnable window treatments for the front room that I agonized over for months, that our realtor said not to install so potential buyers to envision their own style. I will forever believe they were *perfect*.
3. The dining room set and rug. Well, mostly just the rug. Like the window treatments, I looked for the perfect one for months before discovering it at HomeGoods. (I love HomeGoods! (no affiliate link needed here)) Luckily, my brother- and sister-in-law gave these a happy home, where they look absolutely wonderful.

For a sense of scale, take this part of the discard pile, and multiply by about 50:

Despite the initial anxiety of leaving things behind, dropping off piles of things at Goodwill caused an amazing endorphin rush. Suddenly, the sun was shining! Fresh air was flowing (yes, even in NJ)! My hands stopped itching for a minute! And, I felt like I’d lost at least 100 pounds.

In case you’re wondering, I wasn’t totally ruthless when making cuts.

Items that Insisted on Getting on the Moving Truck

• Exhibit A. We still brought about 30 large boxes of kitchen stuff:

• Exhibit B. Our storage closet:

• Exhibit C. My first CD player (with cassette player), purchased with my saved allowance when I was 11 or 12, now a hi-tech door stop:

In summary, next time I’m in need of a “fix”, there’s still plenty of opportunity, but I’m looking forward to it.