I sometimes play a little decluttering game that I call “Moving in with the boyfriend”, with different parameters like square footage or number of rooms, or fifth floor and no elevator I’m surprised at what things I don’t love enough to want to carry them during my next move, what things I would readily sacrifice if he didn’t like them, and I’m also surprised at how little furniture I would LOVE to keep when merging two households together to a “best of” in a small apartment. This usually gets me to declutter stuff, but of course I’m realistic and don’t throw out anything necessary like my washing machine. (Yet.)

I think there was another blog post here or at another website about things with sentimental value.

What I do is if it is borderline sentimental, I take pictures of it with my digital camera and upload/backup to my flickr account so that I can remember fond memories of that item whenever!

Ofcourse if there is something that is really priceless than that is one of the few things I would hold onto

A funny thing about this game is that you can also make money. How you may ask? Well, there is a lot of stuff that many people don’t realize is actually cluttering up their life that is a goldmine! I made about 4K in about 2 weeks getting rid of things I didn’t need to keep around. Things like Ebay, Craiglist, Myspace, and Facebook have been incredible marketing tools to get rid of my things.

The hard part about this game is that when you are doing it for real, there are many tough decisions you have to make about value and what an item represents to you. It was easy to make the decision to sell my dirtbike, trailer, and gear because I knew I couldn’t relocate that and I had a bad back to boast from riding it. But, the trophies I won as a child and even some of my knick-nacks were hard to get rid of because of the value they had in my heart. So I’d say that’s the single hardest thing.

Another difficult position is when people find out that you are getting rid of things that they may have given you which have sentimental value to them. Your parents may have passed down to you some things which meant something to them but not to you. The funny thing is, if it meant so much to them then why did they get rid of it in the first place. I think many people have a hard time letting go of things and this pseudo way of passing it on is their justification for it.

Anyways… a bunch of rambling, but I like this post!

Currently I’m in the planning stage, so part of what I’m doing is taking time to go systematically through all my possessions and asking the hard questions:

– Do I really, really love it/need it?
– Given the above answer is yes, is it a big enough yes to justify shlepping it to another country? (from which I don’t intend to return)

It’s my goal to move as little as possible — there is a big part of me that would like to go with only what I can check onto a plane with me. Then there’s that other part of me that wants to keep family heirlooms and such.

This also has interesting ramifications for shopping for anything beyond food. Why buy it if I’m not willing to move it?

This is similar to what I do when clearing out my wardrobe I say “would I buy it now if it cost …” if the answer is no it’s out.

Ahh the over seas move, you know I read this this morning and it’s only now, a few hours later that it dawned on me that I moved over seas and back again a few years ago, how could I forget that?!

Tip – living in another country is an amazing experience, if you get hte chance to do it, do it!

When you’re there you’ll be home sick (even if it’s jsut a little), take something homely with you how ever much you downside – I took the crocheted bed blanket my grandmother made. It’ll remind you of home and in my case, that blanket instantly made any room I was in look homely without loads of ‘decorations’.

When you move home, you are acsepting that you will again be home sick for your almost-home for the rest of your life, bring something home with you to remind you of it all, even if it is the really quite hidiouse cookcoo clock you bought in the black forest but still love

I miss snitzle… >sniff<

Two questions govern our choices:
Do I want to clean/dust it?
Do I want to move it?

Though we should have done it before the dollar tanked, we are only going to buy actual furniture (we’ve been using the Army loaners) next week.

I did manage to completely furnish the kitchen, across the voltage barrier! from the thrift shop on post.

I’m perusing Unclutterer for ideas about organizing our new home, which is much smaller (this is OK! it’s just us and the cat!) thanks for all the great ideas!

Edge

I highly encourage fellow readers who are motivated by this great game to take a circumspect leap and actually move overseas – if this is what inspires you, why not find a way to do it?

Some of you already know of Timothy Ferriss and ‘The Four Hour Workweek” and blog of the same name – check it out.
I found your site through another favorite, Zen Habits.

FYI, we had only six weeks to prepare to move overseas – this was four years ago – sold cars, and left behind new dinnerware and appliances that we’d received as wedding presents only several months prior. Each of us checked a suitcase, and had a carry-on. We shipped heavy coats and favorite books in two boxes.

Today we have accumulated the basics for an attractive but minimal home – we paid a fraction of what things would cost in the States for household goods, and have accumulated a minimal amount of towels, bedding and kitchenware that furnish a three bedroom flat.

It did hurt to re-acquire a kitchen full of “basics”; if I/we had known we would be in the same city for several years, we’d have shipped more of those items, only because we have better quality in storage.

It will make you definately get away from emotional attachment. suddenly not everything was perfect to take.

Regarding real international moves, however: I’ve done this twice (away and then back home) and I did a very careful analysis which revealed that it was *less expensive* to get a moving company to move my books (which despite being heavy can be packed quite compactly) and at least some of my furniture along with clothing, kitchen goods, etc. To rebuild my large library of books and recordings – many of which I need for my work – would have cost me a fortune, if indeed I’d been able to find the older/rare items. Ditto replacing the furniture, which I would have had to store for three years if I hadn’t taken it with me (another cost in itself).

Yes, you do have to pare things right down to what is most important, valuable and useful to you. But my advice to prospective movers: don’t rule out getting your stuff shipped if you know you’re just going to have to acquire it all over again when you reach your destination.