More Decluttering
Notes from a still imperfect home
There’s a line from Tina Fey’s Bossypants, where she’s quoting Lorne Michaels about Saturday Night Live: “The show doesn’t go on because it’s ready; it goes on because it’s 11:30.”
That’s kind of where I’ve gotten to with my decluttering. Am I done with decluttering? No.
But is my place perfect now? Also no.
But did I at least throw everything in my storage unit away at last?
Also no.
BUT I did make a ton of progress. After years of tedious sorting, we went from paying $200+ a month for a large storage unit, to $50 a month for a small unit, plus another $50 for a massive amount of document storage.
A note about offsite document storage: as a writer, I have finally accepted that I will always have many boxes full of papers. This way, I can keep them in deep storage far, far away from me, and keep up a vague illusion of orderliness. I don’t need to put up with seeing all the boxes in my living space OR deal with them the next time I move. Also, there’s a bit of future-planning here too: the document storage place actually charges the same for just a few boxes as it does for 200+, so if we do end up relocating or moving into a smaller place, we can store all our books, cd’s and dvd’s at no additional cost because it all counts as “media.” So that’s gotten me to where I can now say…Good Enough!
Good Enough is Good Enough, and I’m very tired, so I consider the lion’s share of all this craziness “sorta done-ish for now.” (That’s the closest I’m going to get to “truly done.” Sorry, Pinterest.)
Of course, there are still ongoing projects — all on a wing and prayer, with a fool’s hope that I will turn a corner on my health and be able at last to move to Spain.
Only my fool’s hope keeps me going, so based on that, this year I am trying to strike the right balance between preparing to make a future move easier vs. prematurely optimizing for a move that may never happen.
On that last point, of preparation vs. premature optimization, I will say a few more words.
To me, premature optimization is where you unnecessarily constrict your present based on a vague idea of the future — one that may never even become reality. You don’t live in — or even enjoy — the present because “soon” you will be doing something different. You get rid of all of today’s little joys and pleasures and coziness, because maybe, in your ‘real’ life in the future, you might not need that stuff anymore. (On the other hand, you just might! That’s why it’s premature optimization, and not just “optimization.”)
By contrast, the main point of preparation is doing all the soul-suckingly tedious stuff that you’re supposed to be doing anyways, but, if you had to make a big change, you’d think, “Thank goodness I already did _____, because now, there’d be no time to deal with it, and it really makes this big life change easier and smoother!”
Stuff like:
Returning those ill-fitting new clothes for store credit
Gathering all your cords, cables, and old phones in one place, and consciously getting rid of the outdated digital detritus
Taking a hard look at the things you’ve been holding onto “just in case” and getting rid of the things you haven’t used in years
Backing up your computer (and knowing where things like your backup hard drive is located) (or buying such things now, rather than…after your computer crashes)
Digitizing media you need with you, but would rather keep in storage un-schlepped-around until you actually have a garage / attic / spare room for it
Actually taking your shoes to get repaired instead of just thinking about it
Keeping an eye out for sales and making sure to replace any items nearing their end of life, instead of suddenly realizing half your wardrobe is falling apart
So basically, the goal is to get your present-day life streamlined, well-maintained, and efficient, so in the event a big change comes, you can just pack all of your (functioning!) items up…without sorting, repairing, or panic-buying at the last minute.
So that’s where I’m at: still culling, still taking a hard look at what I use, but in a bit more equilibrium than I was — while still having a ways to go!
And I got here, to my “sorta good enough for now” place, little by little.
As just one example, a while back I wrote about my angsty realization that I should get rid of most of my old shoes, because I was now too disabled to walk in heels. I did that. And a little while later, I also got rid of my old beloved cowboy boots - a true acceptance that the “traveling troubadour” part of my life was over.
Then I realized that if I was too disabled for nice shoes, I certainly didn’t need to keep all my old interview clothes anymore, for all those jobs I was now too sick to work. So I donated those as well.
And then I realized that I’d mostly been using my father’s old antique dresser to store all those clothes and shoes I no longer needed. And as a piece of furniture, it didn’t serve me anymore, because the drawers were heavy and awkward, and I have trouble bending over. And now that it was empty, I gave that away, too.
And so it’s gone; pebble by pebble until I occasionally dislodge a boulder. I still have stuff, but it’s getting to be more and more the stuff that supports the me I currently am, the stuff that acknowledges the limitations and needs I have right now.
It’s a lifelong process, but I’m happy to report that I’ve made a dent in it.