Move It!

I'm moving soon. Not very far away, just a few blocks. But moving is moving, and requires the packing up of all the stuff I want to keep and the pitching of things I don't.

Today, for instance, I said goodbye to my college computer, which I built in '97. It served me well at the time, but it is ancient and takes up a lot of room for something that is unused.

I've also been using up half-empty bottles of lotion and bath wash, and will be tossing old bottles of nail polish that isn't really liquid anymore. And cosmetics I used to wear for dance recitals, or in the 90s.

I've been seeing to organization I should have done ages ago; I put addresses and phone numbers from little post-it notes into a wee address book. I put correspondence into one storage box and bills into another, and pitched a bunch of mutual fund prospectuses. I have a whole set of chores (mainly mail related) on my dining table that I will be attending to in the next week, or whenver it is cool enough in the apartment to do so.

I haven't always behaved. I also brought home some more shirts and bought a few pieces of furniture. Today, I will pick up my glorious aqua and gold chair from Pier 1. Gaze upon the Annie Wing Back Chair, you mortals! I also bought an outdoor papasan for my new porch, and some smaller items.

But as I pack box after box, I am finally starting to see progress. And I'm amazed at the sudden cavalier attitude I have toward letting some things go. This weekend I pitched the rug from my front door. It could be washed, but I've had it for ages, and got "enough" use out of it. I threw away a few half-used rolls of old contact paper. I even suspect that I will pitch the curtains that originally came with my second apartment, which have been on a shelf in the closet, and which frankly were in sorry shape when I moved in. I'm leaving the bathroom curtains and towels for the next tenant, since they match that particular bathroom.

So, I've learned that I'm not a hoarder. I have a lot of stuff, no question. I sometimes keep things for sentimental value, even when they are essentially useless. But this moving experience--my first in ten years, and certainly the most complex--is showing me that I am actually pretty sensible.

It helps to know that where I'm going there is a lot of storage space, far more than I have now. It helps to know the dimensions of the rooms, to have photographed them, drawn up graph paper floor plans, and drawn in furniture. It helps to have thought about the general color scheme for each room--green, light brown, cream, and white, with accents of lavender, for the bedroom. White and blue, with dark wood and accents of green for the living room. And so on.

Basically, I'm pretty excited about moving. It's going to be arduous, and the cleaning of my apartments is going to be atrocious (layers of dust and residue in some areas that aren't easily reached). I am also leaving a nest of sorts, a place I've gotten myself dug into, and a place that has treated me well for 10 years. It was my first (and second) apartment, after all, after growing up in one house for 18 years, and splitting time between that and two dorm rooms for the next four. But this new place is a "grown up" place, a place that will allow me to mature my lifestyle a little and feel more like I'm making progress.

I'm ready to make a new home.

P.S. Does anyone have any ideas for cleaning Venetian blinds, some metal, and some plastic? In a tiny apartment?