Friday, September 22, 2006

Do I Want to Move This?

I am still on the fence about moving, though the fence is sagging and leaning toward the moving side a little heavier every morning, when I watch the morning news with the Crime Story du Jour. Orlando is now Miami - you get the overnight body count with your morning coffee.

Next month we have a homeowners' association garage sale. Normally this is grounds to get the hell outta Dodge for the day, because I hate garage sales. I really do. I've had a couple in my life, and it was a surreal experience to put my worldly goods on the driveway to be picked over by strangers, but this year I am going to squelch my natural revulsion and participate. Yes, I am. Because right now I am looking around my house with a jaundiced eye, and asking my Self the tough question: Do I want to move this?

And for 75% of the contents of the house, the answer is, "Are you effing kidding, Self? You don't use it. You just pay a big fat mortgage to store it." And a lot of IT is stuff charities won't take. I know, I've tried. The ones that provide furniture for families don't have a burning desire for multiple bookcases, an old exercise bike and an unused espresso machine.

So I am going to spend a chunk of the next two weeks tagging many garage sale items, and then I'm going to Asheville, and then the weekend after I come back I will suck it up and be a big girl and put on sunscreen and pour a giant thermal cup of iced tea and sit on the driveway with the crap I can't even get charity to take. And if it doesn't sell, that's it, Monday is garbage day. It goes. And I will continue to identify and give away things I can give away, and donate things that can be donated, and then screw it, trash the rest. I tried to move it on, but the universe didn't want it.

I may move. I may stay. But either way, I will empty this house of a decade of this and that, odds and ends, clutter and crap, and that in itself will change the energy here. If I move, and I probably will, I will move only the things I truly love and care about. If I don't move, and I may not, I will live with only the things I truly love and care about. I don't see a downside to this.

7 comments:

Mia said...

Just remember that pricing is everything for a garage sale. And if you really want to get rid of the stuff take offers. And think of this as extra money that you wouldn't have had otherwise. Good luck clearing everything out.

And please don't take any offers for Murphy. He is priceless.

Sue said...

Good for you. I'm doing the same thing.
My neighbors just moved and put more yit on the street than I had ever knew could fit inside their house. The pickers came by, spread the yit all over the place and sold it at their own yard sales. It inspired me to make my own yit pile, not sellin' just tossin'.When the pickers come by I will instuct them to be neat.

I hope you love Asheville as much as I do. My peoples come from there.

Catherine said...

I've always cleaned up at garage sales Mia, because I consider it the last stop before the pickers and price accordingly. I don't much care how it leaves, but if somebody is going to sell it, dammit, it will be ME. I will give one day to selling and that's it. If it doesn't get sold, it gets put at the curb. I just resent the idea that I put it at the curb and somebody else gets cash for it at THEIR garage sale, because I am ditching NICE stuff.

Catherine said...

I am as excited about this trip as if I'm going to Paris - because while I'll never actually move to Paris, I may actually bag Florida and move to Asheville. But it's all about earning a living, and though my needs are pretty basic, I do have a bottom line.

Anonymous said...

Don't forget Craigslist and Freecycle.Both are excellent for passing things on. If that espresso maker isn't too big I might be interested, btw. and I'll be passing by on tuesday on my way to Utah...

ChelleC said...

Definitely on the right track sorting that stuff BEFORE you move. Ask me how I know - I've recently made a move and didn't do it right. You're so smart!

Catherine said...

I am a mover. I started my married life as a military wife and spent the next two decades as a computer industry wife/tagalong career spouse. One thing this family knows how to do is move. We are a machine.