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Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Well, the packing has started in earnest.


We are smack dab in the middle of two moving phases. We have already passed the "Steal and horde as many boxes as possible from work" phase and are moving into "Put every thing you own in a box and then ever so often realize you still need half of it and tear apart the packed boxes looking for a pan" phase

Each day I am more and more surprised at the amount of CRAP we have managed to accumulate in our two years at the Sea Street Palace. When going through my closets and cabinets and under bed storage it's almost like peeling away layers of my life since I moved out on my own, And by layers of my life I mostly mean shopping habits.

There is the box of remnants from my "I finally have my own place and MUST DECORATE but have no clue with what" spree of late 2004. This yielded all sorts of horrid wall decorations, urns, candle holders, odd sculpture and faux flowers bought at multiple TJ Maxx and Marshalls excursions.

Then there is that cache of cheap shirts from when I first discovered AJ Wright. There was a time when I believed that buying an entire ensemble for under $15 was a great way to spend a lunch break. Multiple times a week. That time is closer to recent memory than I would like to admit.

There are SEVENTEEN wine glasses but somehow only three spoons. I expect more to turn up as the excavation (I mean packing) continues.

There is that "inspired" pastel drawing of the Red Sox that Adam's mother bought for us two ears ago which I promptly hid in the back of the closet. And he saw me do it and instead of protesting, kind of looked relieved.

There are three Rubbermaid tubs of Christmas decorations but no one complete set of towels because we always bring them to the beach to use as pillows.

I guess what I mean to comment on is how taking stock of your apartment is really taking stock of your life. What is important to you (in our case, wine and Christmas), your memories, all the days and nights, weeks and months and years you spent living in 3 small rooms can be boxed and categorized or, in my case, mostly thrown the F out.

It's cathartic, really. You build up all this crap you don't need and in one day you get rid of most of it and re arrange what stays behind. Life begins anew. As does the re-accumulation of more crap.

Could I make moving sound any more like a colonic?

9 comments:

Stacey said...

I'm finding much grosser things as I purge my closets - like silverfish! Eew. Today, I wrote about my encounter with one in the wee hours.

Sarah said...

stacey: ahh!! i'm glad you provided a picture because i have never heard of that but now that i have seen the horrific thing I know exactly what you are talking about! eek!!!

kim: haha it was worth a shot. you should definitely come AFTER i am moved in though. you are both always welcome!

Me said...

My experience:

You do a through dumping of stuff now....and then you move in and you look at addtional stuff and go "Uhm, WHY DID WE MOVE THAT?"

Moving is great for sorting through stuff. I learned that because I moved like, let me count, 7 times in 6 years....oh my. Still have a lot of crap though.

Sarah said...

i'm scared that's what will happen to us too. especially since the "maybe" pile is MUCH bigger than the "throw out" pile.

Anonymous said...

Oh man. We are going through this too!.
Over the past 3-4 years I've moved about... 8 times, and lugged around about 12 boxes. But I've only unpacked about 4, Gary FORCED me to go through the other 8 and they were filled with CRAP- meaningless papers, empty cd cases, just all around junk. I was SO mad at myself for bringing all that shit around with me for sooo long.
Now we are packing all of our shit and dahlia's to get ready for the big move in 3 weeks.
p.s.
where did you get all your boxes?


Kristen

Anonymous said...

The other great exercise for purging is selling a house. You are forced to get rid of things you tucked away because total strangers will be looking in your closets and cabinets. I actually care if they think I am pig. Plus I grew up with a packrat mom who still has boxes to unpack from three moves ago. It's scarred me for life.

Sarah said...

Kristen, i stole all my boxes from work! I have a ton so after next week you and Gary are totally welcome to all of them!

san said...

thank you sarah what you've said above ;) i'll definitely grap this girl [kim] sometime and get her out to boston... have your spare room ready for us!

oh and i am with you on the packing thing... i am really glad i can't take all the crap to LA that i have accumulated at my parents' houe *lol*

have a good move!

Sarah said...

still in the same complex we're in now...only a bigger apartment.