In case you’re wondering why you haven’t heard from me this week, we’re in the process of moving from our home from Colorado to a new home in Montana. The past two weeks have been spent sorting and packing our treasures for the 1000 mile trek. And boy, has this brought up a lot of stuff for me!
Physically relocating from one place to another is just like moving from one place to another emotionally, through the changes in our life.
Why is it then, that we wait until we’re ready to move to rid ourselves of excess baggage, in both a physical and metaphysical way?
I don’t want to carry a packed box from one place to another any more then I choose to carry worries, fears or other baggage with me in my mind or in my heart.
This really hit me when i spent the last two weeks going through boxes in storage and in the basement. Not only did we pay to keep these ‘valuable’ thing, but these were boxes that were still packed and had never been opened from the last move! These were things that I thought I needed, yet I didn’t even know the contents of the boxes!
What makes me think that I need this stuff now that I haven’t needed in years? Where does that mentality come from that tells me to take it with me “in case we’ll need it” later?
Enough! Maybe I’m just tired of sorting through our treasures for two weeks, or maybe it’s just time to let things go. Nature abhors a vacuum, so why wouldn’t I release these ‘things’, so that our coffers can be refilled in a new way?
We’ve given away more than 10 trucks full of stuff- things that we didn’t need then, we don’t need now and we certainly won’t need in the future. I only wish we’d done this years ago, which brings me to the point of this post.
What are you still hanging onto and moving from place to place in a physical or emotional sense? What extra baggage are you carrying around that if you let it go, might be replaced by something even more wonderful? 
Don’t wait until you have to make a physical or an emotional move to do it- get rid of it now!
This process has been so freeing for me. As I sit here late the night before the moving van arrives, I’m wondering what else I packed that I can leave behind. Our moving van has a finite amount of space to fit all of these items. What’s the most important? The furniture? The 8 boxes of picture albums? The library of books from our Luminaries?
If I had to, I could walk out of this house with just Darryl, Koda and me and start life wherever, and be just fine. Few of the things in life matter.
I was personally so inspired by writing this, I just pushed the laptop aside, went for a midnight walk through the piles of boxes in the house and found two more that we can give away. Woohoo! This is fun!
I wish I would have been at this place of release two weeks ago. It would have made this move so much faster and easier! That’s why I felt that I needed to share this with you, so that maybe, just maybe I can save someone a week of going through box after box.
Interestingly enough, each little decision of whether to keep, give away or trash, adds up to make a huge difference, not only in the size of the piles, but in the quality of our lives as well.
Gail, great insight! I too have been going through boxes and our stuff to lighten our load. We are one of those recipients of your past stuff, which we especially value as it came to us in a time of need. An important lesson, our ‘baggage’ can be someone elses ‘treasures’ not just in the physical, but, our experiences, our learning life lessons sometimes disguised in loss, gives us a new insight and opportunity can come from that loss. and that lesson. When we write down our life we share ourselves, our pains, our joys and others learn, they can become inspired by what we have given away, and that we have shared.
We had sold or given away everything to go on a trip to find another home and bring people back to Montana to start a therapeutic play park and healing center. After visiting and enjoying our trip, but not finding what all three of us wanted, we decided to come back ‘home’ and start over again. We had nothing and it was at this time you called me to help with your move. You gave us boxes and boxes of stuff that gave us a new foundation, and after three months of trusting that an opportunity would arise while working for our new future, we received a call from you in New York – someone was looking for us to caretake and that led us to our current position which we have had for six years. It feels as if a circle is completing itself with the news that you are moving back to Montana. We are grateful for all you have given us and so very proud of the work you are doing with this website. I look forward to becoming one of the luminaries! Love, LT, K, and N
Hello Gail,
Lots o luck with the move. Love how you shared. This post is applicable to many situations. Moving in September – but have not yet decided if I will leave NY. It;’s possible… this post is inspiring to try something different.
Warm Regards, Judy
This is such an important message.
We went through a move from NJ to FL 5 years ago and downsized substantially. Having no basement in FL seemed like a bad thing. Until I realized that the only things that went in the basement were the things I had no time to deal with. While we may think out of site, out of mind, I have come to believe that isn’t really the case. It’s there, under the surface and unattended to and whether we are looking at it or not it is a drain. I think we do that with our emotional baggage as well.
But it often takes a major change or traumatic event to give us the motivation, and sometimes even the courage, to deal with the messes under the surface (or in the basement!). Knowing we “should” deal with it does not seem to be enough of a motivation given the effort involved, at least not for me. The cost, which I think is energetic in nature, has to outweigh the payoff of avoiding dealing with something that is hard to do or to face. Not sure this is something that is easy for most people to see on their own. This is one area where having a good coach can really payoff – I do not know what I would do without mine!
Wishing you well in your new home and on whatever adventures are in store for you there!
Amen! Though I am not going through the exercise of physically moving my homestead, I am currently in the exact same place when it comes to unloading baggage. Sometimes I wish that I could just lose it all and start over with nothing due to the enormous amount of items that must be sorted through categorized and decided upon. It can be overwhelming and that’s why I think all of these home organizing businesses are in existence today.
If I can focus on what is really important, then the stuff will fall away if it is not a tool to help me achieve a goal, fulfill a passion or enjoy living. That’s a big IF though. I have so much clutter that it prevents me focusing on the very things that I need to in order to purge the very stuff that is diverting my attention. Can anyone say “Catch 22”?
So I am clinging to this little Biblical gem “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God . . . ” Thanks for the post. May you be blessed in abundance in your new home : D
It’s only when you get rid of the supposedly “important stuff” that you realize what is really important. Several years ago I moved from Indiana to Florida. I sold or donated nearly all of my possessions. I decided if it didn’t fit into a cargo van, I didn’t need it. It was amazingly therapeutic to rid myself of all the crap I had accumulated throughout my lifetime.
I just moved a month ago from a house double the size of my current one. We have been forced into majorly downsizing and it is the best thing that has happened to us. On the reduction side, it has been amazingly positive to get rid of “stuff”—clutter that was making our lives more chaotic. It has also been nice to sell and get rid of things—things that we placed high importance on, but that, as we have learned, don’t matter. And, on the other hand, it’s been nice to find important things—things that weren’t properly stored, like photos. Reliving some of our most important memories has made this move valuable and positive.