Restart

[parasitegirl]

The good part of moving is that it gives you the chance to clarify and revisit your living space and what you put into it.

I suspect if I had had to move into an apartment I felt iffy about or was smaller than where I live now, I would have a harder time getting rid of things I don’t use or don’t use often enough to justify keeping them. I’d be clinging to “my stuff” for comfort to reassure myself that I hadn’t lost anything by this unfortunate series of events…I mean, in addition to my money, a possible side trip to Taiwan, and my cool.

But I’m not going to an iffy place, I’m going to move to a place I like. It is roomy: a full room larger than where I live now…and that makes me ready to let go of stuff to make my next space, well, spacious .

The clutter has been getting to me. It’s been forcing me to “manage it” every few days , to chase it into cubbies and piles and behind things and more and more often I’ve just said “fuck it” and slunk into bed. 

I have at least 10 boxes packed already. I have free-cycled books. I have taken in two bags of book and two bags of DVD for trade into Tokyo. I still don’t feel like I’ve made a dent in it and this is spurning me to freecycle and trade-in more stuff…and I will probably reduce some space by getting rid of my ancient 13-inch tube tv and eventually replacing it with a “recycle shop” (used) flat-screen tv a few inches larger. I do have to get a new range top, because I’m switching from city gas to propane…but it’s nowhere nearly as stressfull as having to get a used fridge/rangetop/washer like my last move (items which, in addition to my bed, were delivered to my current apartment and are why I am hiring a moving company for this move.)

I’ve done some of this just to stay busy/productive while being burned-out and stressed over the last two weeks. There was only so much ice cream I could stress eat. Let’s here it for tiny Japanese food proportions keeping me in check.

But now I am looking at my furniture…or thinking about it because I am at city hall. I’m mentally organizing my rooms. I’m wondering what I can do to take everything up a notch on budget. The chairs in the front room will be getting new homemade covers. I think my end table is getting sanded, painted, and maybe some funky fabric decoupage accents. I’m wondering if I want to do my bed to match…the craft table could use a new surface as well.

The station that is a 15 minute walk away? That train line leads to TWO Ikea, but I wanna be smart…I’ll probably haunt the outlet/damaged/clearance areas from time to time…but I think my first trips once I’ve done some planning are for sand paper, primer, and paint…after I’ve explored my fabric stash a little more…and my design idea notebooks filled with a few years worth of things I cut from home decoration mags, ready made, and more…