Friday, March 29, 2013

Deciding What to Take and What to Leave

I've done this 'move hundreds of miles' thing before.  In 2001, I left my old life in Michigan and moved to Florida.  In 2002, the man I was with at the time got a job in Salt Lake City, so we packed it all up and moved across country.  In 2004, after that guy and I broke up, I found my husband - he just lived 600 miles away in eastern Colorado.  So we moved again.

And now it's time for the process one more time.

When I left Michigan, I got rid of most of my stuff.  I only had the one trailer with which to move.  Pare everything down to basics.  We're back to that again - only this time it'll be a small truck worth of stuff.  The moves from Tallahassee and from Salt Lake were done with movers and a big truck, so I took everything I could.  But even with those, there was a paring down.

What to take?  What to leave?  Am I going to regret taking something because it took up room and I could've re-bought it once we got there?  Am I going to regret leaving something because I'll discover too late that it had sentimental value?

It's no wonder I have crispy-brain.

Then again, it's kind of like editing.  Only what you choose to take or leave - if you regret either one - can be rectified by going back to an earlier version. 

There are no earlier versions here.  The best you can hope for is finding another likeness of the thing you lost, or that you didn't waste too much money moving that bag of dirt.  (Yes, I paid United to move a bag of potting soil, and I still kick myself for it.  It was DIRT for petesakes.  It cost me more to move it than I would've paid for a new bag of dirt.)

Yesterday, I got rid of the rest of my 'books I don't want to move'.  Do I regret it?  A little.  They're books.  I would've taken them all, thrown them on the floor of my new house and rolled around naked in them if I could've.  But that seems a little extreme.  A friend asked me why I didn't just keep all the ones I hadn't read.  Think about it - Let's say I hadn't read half of those.  That's a thousand books.  Let's also say I read a hundred books a year.  It would take me 20 years to read those books - and they keep printing new books I want to read! 

Umm, yeah.  The books went bye-bye.  I kept the ones I really did want to read, and the ones that were precious to me, but the majority... :waves:

Now, I've also had some inquiries into the kitties.  Rest assured, Max is going with us.  And, of course, Her High Grand Princess Kira.  The rest of them will have to go back to their regular routine of scouting out food sources without having my house on their route.  I'd take them all with me, but the boys are all feral, and the girl would be one cat too many in my car.  (I'll find a home for her if I can.)

Okay, so that's enough about me and my decisions.  What about you?  Ever take something you regretted taking when you moved?  And since we've all left something behind at some point, tell me what you left that you regretted most.

7 comments:

  1. When we left Cleveland for Farmington Hills, MI I moved years worth of Redbook magazines and a huge box full of wood for the fireplace. I learned the Redbooks I didn't need but we had a huge ice storm right after we got there and the wood - we used every piece.
    Most of our moves have been good ones. WE always seem to land where we need to be and with what we need to make it work. I love the memories we've made and don't miss what we left behind. Life is too precious to use up time missing stuff.

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  2. I had to pare down a lot when I moved from Alberta to Virginia. Clothes I haven't worn in years, books I would probably never read again, and knick-knacks I'd hung on to for no apparent reason. I still brought a lot over (we used a ReloCube from ABF), but it honestly wasn't much after I got rid of so much. So far I haven't regretted bringing anything or leaving anything behind, but there's always time ;)

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  3. Yay for Farmington Hills! (I'm from the Flint area, but FH was in my sales route.) Ugh, I hear ya on those magazines, but hurray for the wood. And exactly about life being too precious for wasted time.

    I bet you did, Natalie. That's a longer single move than any of mine. So glad you haven't had any regrets. :hugs:

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  4. Would you believe I have a box in the back of a closet that hasn't been unpacked since Lawyer Guy and I got married and moved into our first apartment? I don't even remember what's in it. Hey, it's been 30 years after all! Some day, when I clean out that closet, I'll open it and see what's there--sort of like a time capsule.

    I'm getting better about giving away books. Now I only keep the ones that I will reread or have sentimental value (signed by the author to me).

    The one thing I regret is my yearbooks. Yes. I tossed them in a move. We were going from a house of 7500 sq. feet to one of 1800 sq. feet and I was so sick I couldn't climb the stairs without resting halfway. There was mold in the house and it had almost killed me from the lung infection. The good news is, I quite smoking! LOL

    But yeah, I tossed the yearbooks--high school and college--in the trash and didn't look back. I was angry about a lot of things and decided to cut ties. Yeah, buddy. Now, I sort of regret it but... I know now that things aren't important. Life and loved ones are.

    Best of luck with the move!

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  5. LOL, Silver. I can believe it. But if you haven't opened it in 30 years, you didn't need what was in it anyway. ;o) I still have my two year books from high school - and two from elementary. And I use them when I'm talking to Mom and neither of us can remember someone's name. LOL

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  6. I'm still looking for a box of laundry detergent that I KNOW I packed when we moved fourteen years ago. Prolly when we leave for the retirement home, it will surface...

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  7. I occasionally regret leaving behind an oversized hope chest my father had made (even though I don't have room for it).

    Good luck with the move!

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