Too Much Stuff

My stripper friend who had to move out somehow got a two-day extension, so she, her man and her man's son both had August 1 and 2, yesterday and today, to finish packing, moving, and painting the apartment she, in fact, has to move out of.  So after helping her for two days, she texts me asking for more help last night.  Although I had plans on doing some alumni club stuff, I relented and went over there to help.

It was only a few hours, so instead of painting and hauling stuff to their storage space, both tasks that took up a majority of my time on my previous two visits, all I did last night was pick up odds and ends and carry furniture to the curb.  They were headed to their storage space when I came in; they said the side door was open and there were clothes and other knickknacks that can be thrown into these huge, construction-grade trash bags that were laying all over the house.

And I've got to be honest: At some point I had to stop throwing crap into these bags because there was so much crap.  There were big items, small items, things that looked valuable and things that looked like trash.  I didn't know what had to go, even though I had the sense that with less than 48 hours to go, everything had to go.  But it was so overwhelming to see all this stuff that still remained and had to moved out.  They had roll upon roll of trash bags, but it still seemed like such an impossible task that I froze, thinking that I can't even start if I can't see when all of this was going to end.

This was the point where I started thinking about my stuff, and the house.  I couldn't help but think, as I was helping out cleaning her basement, all of the things that are in our basement -- the tapes, the old clothes, the tools, etc.  I started mentally walking through each room and feeling this metaphysical gut punch at all the stuff that would have to be removed if we had to move.  How do you start?  What's valuable and what's not?  And frankly, if there is stuff that's not valuable, why do you have it now?  It's only going to weigh you down once (and not if, once) you are forced to move.

I am uniquely sentimental about my stuff, and I clash constantly with My Father over cleaning up my room and throwing things away.  But if moving is inevitable, I am so feeling this need to trash things, to get them out of my way so that any potential move I need to make as a result of an unexpected event doesn't leave me behind the 8-ball, like it apparently is for those three.  I know that when someone moves they're shocked at all the material things they've accumulated.  But moving cannot be the time when you start picking through them and figuring out what to keep and what to toss.  Right now, I am of the mindset that the fewer things you have, the better.

Shoot, I really just might start -- gulp -- cleaning my room after this, and gladly!