Moving is generally considered one of the top life stressors, up there with major illness, job loss, death of a loved one, and divorce. We haven’t moved yet, but in getting rid of so much stuff (stuff removal update below) it is like we are having a mini-move before our move. And you can ask people who have known me for a while – I don’t deal well with these kinds of changes.

“But Val, what does this have to do with being stuck in a rut?” you might ask, because by now you have realized that my post titles tend to be a setup for the posts themselves. First, what is meant by “stuck in a rut”? People use that term when they feel they are stuck doing the same thing, day after day, week after week. They may feel that there is no excitement or energy to what they do, or that the effort of doing something different is too great to alter their routine. Eventually it just becomes easy to do what you always do. You can just go with the flow without much thought. And eventually get bored.

Most of the time people don’t like doing the same thing, day after day after day. You start feeling like there is something missing, like you could be doing something more. Or at least something else. But when things go topsy-turvy that rut can help out. When life starts knocking you around, when things get rough, having an easy path that doesn’t require much mental effort to follow can be a lifesaver. You can save that brainpower to deal with the emotional turmoil -whatever the cause.

—

Declutter update:

Jules continues to do amazing work. She is our extrovert and has already sent off our dining room table, my old bike that I haven’t ridden in a decade, and a propane grill off to new homes. She has also found a new home for the piano, but the new owner needs to arrange for a mover. She has also taken a bunch of stuff to Goodwill – both hers and some of the stuff I pulled out from under the stairs. I have some skate gear to go through to either donate to my league’s loaner gear or sell. Today is also the day I start going through the bedroom and moving more stuff into the donation room. I also need to check on selling some drums.

Why am I doing this? What is driving me to get rid of stuff that I have had for decades? Yesterday I decided to get rid of things that I have had for 20 years. I’m sure that there are older items yet to come.

Simply put, I have finally come to the realization that stuff does not equal happiness. Oh, I’ve known it in my head for years. But I didn’t really understand it. It was one of those things that “everyone knows” but that no one ever follows. I was dissatisfied with something in my life and felt that the next knick knack or doohickey would bring me happiness. But now all this stuff does not support what I want to do or who I want to be.

As I said in my very first post – Jules and I want to get a tiny house but we own too much -some people would say it owns us- and would never fit into a tiny house. We talked about getting a storage unit but that seems like it isn’t the right solution. Oh, we will probably have one for seasonal items, like camping gear or winter clothing, but there is no need to store things away forever.

Now we might not end up in a tiny house. We might just move into a small apartment. Either way we cannot do that until we have less. Our stuff requires space in the form of a storage unit or a large apartment and that costs money. Prisoners of our possessions.

So, in that vein, here is what I am finding another place for today:

On top is a food mill. I used to make chile sauce out of various dried chiles I found in a local market. It was fun and the sauce was very tasty. But it went bad before I could use it all and I never started canning like I wanted to preserve it longer. Someone will use it.

The other is a bin full of nail polishes. Some of them were mine from a period when I actually used them. Some of them were presents. Some were left to me when roommates moved out. I think I’ve worn nail polish once in the last 4 years – and it wasn’t one of these.