In the short two hours of sleep that I was able to grab last night, I dreamt that I had moved, but I had kept the dogs and most of my junk in the old house. When I went back into the old house after about 6 months, I was first of all appalled that I had left my dogs in such squalor for so long, without food or walks or attention or love. Their eyes were crusted over and they were hungry, and when I brought them out for a walk, they squinted in the harsh daylight, not having seen it for months.
Whatever, those dogs are so loved it’s ridiculous! I’m not even going to feel guilty for dream-abandoning them, although in my dream I was wracked with guilt.
However, the second part of my dream focused on all of the junk that I had left behind. I was meant to be going back to clean the place out, but looking around me at the piles of trash and clothes and books and…stuff, I was overwhelmed. I left the house for some air and returned, and miraculously someone had come in and just thrown everything away. Every little thing- the place was wiped clean.
I have never felt such relief from a dream. I looked around the place and thought, “Awesome.” I tried to think of something that I might have wanted that got accidentally trashed, but nothing was so important that I needed it.
This is exactly what I need someone to do in real life- just come in and get rid of some of the burden of having all of this stuff. I look around sometimes and just seeing things shoved in corners or piled on my desk gives me this horrible claustrophobic feeling, as if I am drowning in stuff, stuff which has no proper place to be stored and yet I feel I can’t get rid of for the sentimental value.
And it’s not even like I have aquired a lot of stuff for my age. I know friends back in the States have houses full of stuff that they have acquired by now, including children and all of the mini-stuff that comes with that lifestyle. So by comparison, the things that I have in my small Dutch apartment are fairly inconsequential. But the amount of things still makes me feel heavy, trapped, and cluttered.
I am slowly but surely working towards just trashing everything. I think it will be quite a nice feeling to finally unload that literal baggage, finally free of piles of stuff that I don’t need, don’t want, and can definitely live without. I’m not completely there yet, but nearly. Nearly.
And you know another thing? The more you write ‘stuff’ the more ridiculous it looks.
Your dream was sort of a reality for me when we moved here. We left behind a house where we had accumulated a fair amount of stuff, but we didn’t get rid of it all before we left (house hadn’t sold), so my parents are essentially the magical fairies who went in and took care of getting rid of it all, one way or the other. For that, I am eternally grateful. I miss the occasional piece of stuff, but I also know I wouldn’t have room for most of it here anyway. I’m much more conscious of what I accumulate now, since there’s so little space to store it away.
My mom has some stuff of mine, held over from years ago. I’ve begged her and begged her to just throw everything out, but she refuses. She’s worse than me when it comes to stuff.
I came here with only a few suitcases and every time I go back, I go shopping in my own closet – thankfully I’m able to store all of my stuff in my dad’s basement.
I did the same, only came with what I could carry, and my dog. But over time it has all caught up with me, until now I’m surrounded! So be careful! It could happen to you!
I can come and clear out stuff, i will start with your facebook friends and get rid of them. starting alphabetically…. Andrew Fleming !!!
What a friend you are!
the hardest part is getting over the sentimentality- then once you realise you don’t need that poster/ticket form that amazing concert a year ago, extra plant, extra table, old magazines, ect… then it’s pure bliss.
just ask yourself for each piece…: dies this lil guy make me happy? ponder… say no, and then trash!
haha I can just imagine you holding up each thing in your place and going “hey lil guy, how’s it going? listen, we need to have a talk…”
I’ll try it.
Wow – it’s like you were reading my mind! This weekend, I was searching for a piece of paper for the tax return in a room that is literally filled floor to ceiling with stuff while we renovate the loft and I just broke. I need to get rid of it all. Fortunately, an overseas move is planned for sometime in the next 12 months, and then my hand will be forced. How lame is it that is what it takes?
Hi Keanie Beanie!
You know, my move to Amsterdam was fairly liberating, but eventually it caught up with me. Where are you moving to, if I might ask?
New Zealand. D and I got married on a 10 week visit there, figuring a private little ceremony was a better idea than choosing either his island (Britain) or my continent (America). We’ve lived in both places now and are ready to move on to a new adventure.
I would love to visit Amsterdam sometime…
We had a very similar situation a year or two back, where we had mountains of “stuff” that had accumulated over the years. Before moving to Amsterdam we did the world’s biggest decluttering, throwing out way more that we kept.
A lot of what I had was there for sentimental reasons (i.e. my final primary school uniform… WTF?), but I took a single photo of each of those items and stored them in a folder called “memories”. It’s backed up in several places, just in case.
Essentially, this lets me keep the memories of those items without all the physical baggage of them. It also lets us look for a smaller house next time we move!
That’s a brilliant idea! I’ll have to give that a shot.
I get you on the uniform thing. I have my slippers from when I went to high school in Japan. Can’t get rid of them, I really really tried. They’re even broken. Time to take a photo, me thinks.
LOL, I didn’t know Jase had replied to this but I’d clicked over to say, “I get the same feeling when I think about our storage unit.”
Bear in mind it’s two people’s lifetimes of accumulated stuff in a fairly small unit, and most of it is functional – bed, couches, fridge, washing machine, etc. I still dread going back to it though.
After living in Amsterdam with, like, 3 t-shirts and 2 trousers, I was so excited to get back home to more clothes. Except now I look in the wardrobe at piles of options and wonder what to wear.
I know exactly!!! I open my wardrobe- clothes falling out, piled on the dresser, drawers bulging- and go, “Crap, I have NOTHING to wear!” WTF?!?!?!
I am a huge stuffer with so much stuff that my stuff needs to have a rental storage for more stuff. When you finally are able to get rid of your stuff ….please share the secret on how to do it. Uncle Mike and I need it desperately. We sometimes start doing it and then the task seems so overwhelming that we then get bored with it and start to do something else….more fun…..like go shopping for more stuff!!!!!! LOL!!!
haha well I’m no expert (yet) but first of all- stop buying more stuff! lol Honestly I do think that is a first step, I’ve been looking at things long and hard now before buying and thinking “Do I really need this? But where would I put it? How often would I use it?” and I have cut down on buying things tremendously. Which is also good, you know, in the recession and all blah blah blah!
I don’t get this. You DEFINITELY didn’t get this from me. I love Stuff. All kinds of Stuff. And I’m definitely sentimental about Stuff. I don’t see anything wrong with this.
I am, however, getting ready to get rid of a lot of Stuff. I’ve started going through all of these boxes from the move. I’ve thrown out a lot of things but some of it is good and I want to donate it or have a giant boot sale. So now I have boxes of Stuff I’m Getting Rid Of. Sigh…
See me in two years when you are forced to downsize and I guarantee you’ll have those same anxieties!
We have also gotten rid of most of our stuff since moving abroad. I felt so bad about leaving a crap-ton of it with my mom, but she doesn’t seem to mind.
Our apartment here is pretty minimal but there’s already a list of things I want to get rid of; mainly two nasty cabinets the last renter left on the balcony and our two broken office chairs. What’s stopping me though is I literally don’t know how to get rid of this stuff, I know we at least need to hire someone to move it downstairs (we’re on the 6th floor and the elevator is to tiny for any furniture plus between his bad knee and my preggo belly, taking down the stairs ourselves is out of the question) and then once it’s downstairs I have no idea what to do with it. I don’t think we can just put it out by the curb. Arge!
I feel your frustration. We both need some magical person to just come and solve all these problems for us. Like the tooth fairy of Stuff! If they got rid of the crap and left money under the pillow that would be super awesome.
OMG I have the same problem! Where does unwanted stuff go in the Netherlands? Luckily there is a “big trash day”- think its the first Monday of each month, but we keep missing it, so in the meantime all the stuff lays around for the next month while we hope and pray that we remember it next time!
Also, I have HUGE guilt issues with throwing things away, knowing they will end up in a landfill eventually.
I hate that. Although experience has shown that when you put things out on the street here in Amsterdam (for instance before big trash day) people will pick it up and carry it home. haha! We once put out tons of stuff, and then went to walk the dogs an hour and a half later and it was all taken already! Recycling at its finest!