Wednesday, March 15, 2017

When Life Hands You Lemons, The Universe Is Reminding YOU that You are Not The Suburban Outlaw

We are a mere 75 days into 2017 and I have already been thrown a curve ball. This house, this place Sampson and I thought was going to be our forever home, we have 61 more days here. In early February the Landlord/Owner breached our sale contract and declined to sell the property to me.  After I finished being pissed off, I realized it was the universe reminding me that I am simply not cut out for the burbs. I am a Country Girl with an Urban Heart. The same day we found out about the contract being cancelled I had multiple offers of places to rent. A reminder that I am surrounded by people who are better than the Landord/Owner. I have taken one of them up on her offer. The boy and I are excited about the move, but not looking forward to the actual labor of the move.

I have been wanting to minimize (and I thought buying a smaller one floor house would help me do that). I have learned that every time I plan to review, revise and downsize I come up with excuses. So I decided to get to the heart of the excuses. Bottom line, I grew up with very little, I married a man who could not provide what we needed and I am afraid of not having. So I need to face that. Face that even though I had little, my basic needs were met as a child. I had food, clothing (hand me down and worn out) and shelter. In my marriage my husband did not provide as he promised, but I made sure my kids had everything they needed and MOST of what they wanted. That meant that I went without. It is difficult for me just to let go, because I know that someday it might be needed.

Before Sampson decides I need to start in my own Hoarders episode, I have decided to make the next 60 days about downsizing. Why move what does not serve me? I never unpacked and settled in, I guess a part of me was always waiting for the Landlord to show his true colors. Especially once I discovered he tried to hide a serious foundation leak.

 My goal is to sort all the boxes currently packed in the garage. I plan to move everything to one side of the garage and slowly pack well labelled boxes and stack them on the opposite side of the garage. This way, when moving day arrives I will be ready to load up a truck and move. I have several pieces of furniture that I plan to refinish. That doesn't mean they are coming with me. They are not my style and even refinished I doubt they will serve my needs. I am going to refinish them and then sell them. If they do not sell before the move date, I will donate them to a group helping refugees locally.

My box goal is 40. 10 small boxes for books and 30 medium boxes for everything else. Off the top of my head I know I have my comforter from high school which is falling apart and has seen better days. That is straight to the trash as there is no saving it, and no usefulness left in it. I do wish I had a fire pit, then I would burn it instead of trashing it. I have a ton of old beach towels. I am going to cut them down into paper towel size rags (both the small paper towels and traditional size paper towels). Then once we are moved and unpacked Sampson and I will each get a single beach towel.

I know I have a bunch of kitchen wares that I do not want. I am going to take the first half of May off from Envy and limit my work days so I can move, clean and unpack. I'd like not to go back to Envy after that, but we'll see what my financial resources are and how my private practice is moving along. I'd like to temporarily divert the purpose of this blog to following my journey to minimalize, pack, move and unpack as a method of accountability.

Let's see if I can fit everything into a $19.99 a day moving truck, I think I can.