Moving’s fun. Packing’s not.
A terrific by-product of moving around has been a lack of accumulating stuff. I aspire to get to the point of –if I haven’t touched/used/reviewed/worn/dusted/thought about it in a year it’s game for my favorite donation center. I’m close. Sort of. I track donations pretty carefully, most have enough value to serve as an ever-so-slight tax deduction. Actually I photograph them in the event of an audit. Apple, Inc neatly logs and catalogs them for the potential audit. Each year I’m amazed at the stuff that’s been loaded up, hauled out and donated. It makes it much easier to pack for a move. Usually.
This move is different as it’s deliberately temporary. We may or may not be gone for more than 12-15 months. We may or may not sell the house. We may or may not live in a house or apartment if we’re gone for more than 15 months. Under those circumstances it’s surprisingly difficult to figure out what to stuff into the car with me, Walter and Samantha (and their things of course!) for the road trip east.
For example, should I bring a blender–I use it routinely, yet infrequently. It’s a nice blender and as such it’s heavy and breakable. I wouldn’t buy a temporary replacement of that quality, I’d pick up one likely 1/3 the cost. So is that (1/3 the cost) worth wrapping and packing and the $.05 more in gas to carry it along. Plus the opportunity cost of something else that could take it’s place. Such as another pair of shoes. An example of what’s made up a couple hours of every day for me the last week or so. At this point I have bags, tubs and boxes in four separate rooms–all of them actively being worked. Controlled chaos.
Consistent with the minimalist theme is the clutter theme. This is a great move as I need to figure out what type of paperwork may be needed for a temporary period of time. Vet records, birth certificate, some tax records, auto maintenance records. The list continues. Each of these is in permanent files–but only bits and parts of the files is needed. Result: reams of unnecessary paperwork have been destroyed the last several weeks. How necessary is it to hang to the last 10 car payment coupons when both the vehicles (plus the scooter!!) have been paid-off for years and we just need to bring a title. File shredded. Is it really necessary to keep vet records from every visit–even the routine ones several years ago? Destroyed. The full-sized shred bin has been jammed every week for a couple of months.
I’ve decided I’ll bring more than I need. Some of it will deliberately be donated once we move back–the cost of bringing it will be less than buying it new and we’ll decide when we return how badly we really need it. Following that line of thinking I realized I need more space. Spending for a small u-haul trailer is out of the question when a simpler solution exists: an upgrade to the car roof rack.
A decent quality rear hitch and rack were installed a couple of years ago; now it was time to research for the roof. Most of the options are more than really necessary for this age of vehicle—I don’t need locking mechanisms, brackets for sporting equipment or any other possible fancy features. Simply a little stronger, more secure. Turns out a little more difficult than anticipated. Fortunately e-bay knows few limits and I’ve got something that’ll securely hold as big of bag as I can find. Problem solved, the packing continues.