Filmmaker Makes Dinner
film, food, and living simplyA Minimalist Mover’s Guide
This is our closet; there are a lot of empty hangers. We have packed and shipped twelve (small-ish) boxes of only the most necessary things, and somehow we are still surviving (quite happily, I might add) without it all. I don’t even remember what was in those boxes. Actually, I do know because I wrote it down knowing I’d forget—it’s mostly cookware and audio-visual supplies. I suppose that, as a cook-from-home artist, this is acceptable. It’s liberating to be free from it, though (even if it will be waiting for us when we arrive at the home base next week). I am getting a glimpse of true minimalism.
And I like what I see.
As I look into my drastically reduced closet today (keep in mind what it looked like eight months ago), it feels right. As I admire the spare closet, I am content. I love the freshness, the lightness of our developing minimalist life. We haven’t even embraced it fully, but I can feel it’s magnetism, it’s power, it’s freedom.
I think it’s easy to see what a burden possessions can be when you are trying to box them all up and move to a new place. Somehow things take up more space when they are in boxes. Unfortunately, this means that it’s easy to let the stuff back in after you’ve moved. I’ve learned a lot about moving ever since my husband and I tried to move out of an overstuffed three bedroom house…in horribly humid 100+ degree July heat…with a fever…wearing jeans (why!?)…with no movers…while subsisting only on Gatorade. That was before I learned to say “no” to things I didn’t need. We were in way over our heads.
So here’s what I’ve learned about facilitating a low-stress, minimalist move:
Make no assumptions.
Sometimes you don’t know if you’ll need a particular object. I assumed that we’d need an end table to “fill out the space” (which sounds ridiculous to me now). It held a lamp for which we never bought a light bulb. Now we are trying to sell said lamp and end table. Live in the space for a little while to see what you really need. You’ll know pretty quickly what you can’t live without (like a bed?), and you might be surprised by what you don’t miss.
Avoid stuff that holds stuff.
Think you need bookshelves? Maybe you just need fewer books. Think you need a big garbage or recycling bin? Cut it off at the source and buy fewer packaged items instead.
Think “multi-purpose.”
I own a blender, a food processor, a hand mixer, a submersion blender, and a whisk. I no longer think this is reasonable. Also, the one big furniture purchase we made that I was pleased with was our pull out couch. It was a much better alternative to paying for a larger apartment with a guest room that would (1) go unused most of the year and (2) be another space asking to be filled with stuff.
Oh, and if you think you’ll be moving again in less than a year, save your packing materials! ;)
