The Great Reduction

 

Virtually everything thing we kept fit in this 15 ft. U-Haul.

The first hill to climb on our journey seemed to be reducing our stuff. What do we need? How restrictive should we be about keeping things?

Many of you told me: “I could never do what you’re doing because I can’t part with my stuff…” and ”I don’t want to go through my things…”. I’m on the other side now. It may not be as hard as you think.

It Begins with a Deadline 

It quickly became clear that we needed to be out of our house by mid January, a 4 week deadline. This was a huge task being thwarted by procrastination.

As with anyone overcoming procrastination, I broke down the reduction challenge into smaller pieces. I tackled one drawer at a time. 

Stuff fell into a few categories: giveaway, sell, donate, or trash. First, I tackled selling furniture, predicting it would take the longest. As it turned out, some things took a month while it surprised me that others took one day. Note: Used furniture sells on the weekends. 

Memory Lane is a Bumpy Road

It turns out that it’s really hard to predict how long it takes to go through drawers. You just can’t predict how many speed bumps you’ll hit because memory lane is a bumpy road. The good news is it became easier to make decisions as the weeks progressed. 

We would see something sentimental and stop to show each other or send a text to someone with a photo. For example, there was a wooden citrus juicer that Mike’s cousin Doug made for us—Doug passed away in 2021. Mike unearthed his Kappa Sigma fraternity composite. On the final days, Mike stood on the library ladder and on tippy toes, pulled out AJs matchbox cars, as well as our favorite bedtime books from the back of a tall cabinet.

We are taking the juicer with us, Mike digitized the composite photo and routed it to his frat bros, I gave away AJs cars to a thrilled grandma in the neighborhood and I drove the books to my niece’s house for the newest member of our extended family, my grandniece. 

Lightness

Giving things away was my totally unexpected joy in the process. Knowing that stuff that was tucked away, unused, would make someone else so happy brought me happiness as well as relief. In addition, I met quite a few interesting characters in my neighborhood. Every time someone picked something up, they shared their story about their plans for the item. Connecting with people face to face in this way was satisfying and great therapy post-corporate life. Connecting in a warm, unhurried way is important to me in retirement. 

To be honest, we missed our deadline by one week. Will it affect our house sale? We’ll never know. 

What I know is after The Great Reduction I feel lighter. More peaceful. I can focus on logistics for our upcoming adventures. And in the end, the bulk of my stuff is just not that important to weigh down a shelf--or me.

XOXO, 

Elaine