30 Days Challenge Fall 2018 - Day Two: How Much Garbage Do You Carry With You?
A couple of months ago I started a project which, in theory, should have helped me big time with my intention to move to another country (you may find out more about this in the first post of the challenge, I will not gloss over it again here). The codename of the project was "operation cleanse" and its goal was to reduce the clutter in my life to the lowest level possible.
"Operation cleanse" meant getting rid of everything which I felt was not useful anymore. And the way to determine the usability (or usefulness) was to answer to one simple question: "does it fit on a trolley which should be checked in on a plane?".
If the answer was "yes", then the item would stay.
If the answer was "not", the item had to go.
No matter how attached I was to it, no matter how many memories were linked to it, if the item wouldn't fit on a trolley, then it had to go.
Bear in mind that the answer to the question was more complex than just "how much space it takes?". Because in that trolley I was carrying pretty much everything I need to move to a different country. I had no more space. So it was more of a question of "how much would I really use this for the next 3 to 6 months as opposed to a few dozens of other items which are all competing for the same space?".
I confess I failed miserably at this project.
I mean, it took off relatively ok, with a few boxes of old documents thrown away, but then I simply stopped.
Do you know how deers are freezing in the middle of the road, hypnotized by the lights of the car rushing towards them, unable to move? That's how I felt.
3 days before the flight I realized I was still in the same place as 2 months ago and, if I don't do something about it, I may miss my flight. And jeopardize the entire move simply because I couldn't organize myself.
So I went on the other side, engaging in a strange cleansing frenzy, throwing away huge amounts of... well, just stuff.
In just 3 days I threw away 4 or 5 cubic meters of stuff which, until then, I considered simply irreplaceable, or extremely important, or just worthy of storing.
5 cubic meters.
Old invoices. Fridge magnets. Clothes. More invoices. Cables. Old, completely broken devices: from radar detectors, to memory sticks, from cameras to calendars. More clothes, More invoices. More cables.
5 cubic meters of that stuff.
Today, as I was walking in the new city I'm going to live in, I surprised myself looking with a strange, familiar feeling at dumpsters. Every time I was seeing a huge dumpster, the one they use on construction sites, I was going like: "well, here's another one that I can fill in".
Only I couldn't, really, because I already got rid of pretty much every thing that couldn't fit on a trolley.
You never know how much garbage you carry with you, until you're forced to start a new life, from scratch.
This post is part of a 30 days writing challenge I'm doing between October 15th and November 15th. Read all the details here and if you want to join, use the hashtag #challenge30days. I will upvote at 100% 3 posts each day.
Previous posts in the challenge:
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I'm a serial entrepreneur, blogger and ultrarunner. You can find me mainly on my blog at Dragos Roua where I write about productivity, business, relationships and running. Here on Steemit you may stay updated by following me @dragosroua.
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I get pretty attached to some things because they bring back a lot of memories so but 90% of stuff I feel ok to get rid of
Cheers... To the new beginnings :)
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I moved my house 4 times.
I can’t still believe I carried the stuff that I didn’t even use for 2 moves.
It’s difficult to part at times but I realised i just needed to let it go.
Exactly!
I've been trying to get rid of stuff as well. I'd rather not have the clutter, and I've been able to get a little money for it too. Just one question for you: "What's a trolley?" In the USA it's this... and I don't think you're putting one of these on a plane! Ha ha
source
It's what we call a large suitcase on wheels. :)
Something like this:
That makes way more sense. I thought it might be something like that, but I was picturing you loading up a wagon or something. I figured a trolley like the one I pictures should be enough. We call those "moving trucks" here. Ha ha.
Thanks for clearing that up!
Hi friend! Here my entry: https://busy.org/@jdbs/30-days-challenge-fall-2018-day-two-how-much-garbage-do-you-carry-with-you
Good Day 2 post @dragosroua We are committed to not moving a lot of the stuff in our current house again. But of course, its all still here :)
One of the beauties of the tiny house living is to learn how to live just with the stuff you really need and get rid of the rest. It is an exercise we all should do every once in a while.
This your analogy of a trolley, using it to know which and which stuff to keep is so close to perfection.
I've missed yesterday challenge, I'll have to do that of today then. But still don't know where to start.
From anywhere. Just start.