De-Clutter New Beginnings

We're moving on Tuesday.

Nothing new for us. 

We moved into a hotel for a month last year and then we moved into this fabulous apartment which we thought would be very temporary. (as we thought our entire lives in Australia would be very temporary) We've come to accept this as part of God's sense of humor for us...the second we think something is going one way, and we feel comfortable with it, it changes. Needless to say, both Ben and I have come a very long way in flexibility since being married. 

Moving is something we've grown accustomed to every 6-12 months for over 8 years now, yet it never seems to get easier. There are a million and ten very un-glamorous/annoying/irritating/frustrating things about moving, but there are also a few great things...these are what we're trying to focus on.

Look at all the fun places we've lived!

Longview, TX ~ 9 months

Abilene, TX ~ 12 months

Chicago, IL ~ 2 months

St. Paul, MN ~ 5 months

Athens, OH ~ 3 months

Eastford, CT ~ 3 months

Paducah, KY ~ 3 months

Pueblo, CO ~ 5 months

(This is the point we made some life-changes, switched careers, and started over)

Colorado Springs, CO ~ 12 months

Edmonton, Alberta ~ 5 months

Sherwood Park, Alberta  ~ 26 months

Ft. Saskatchewan, Alberta  ~ 3 months

Brisbane, Australia (3 moves including Tuesday) ~ 13 months and counting...

A great part about moving is the de-cluttering of your entire life. 

You have no choice but to organize and clean every single thing you own. Although it takes time, it is such a relief in the end. So many tips come handy with each move, especially Oprah's famous 'if you haven't touched it in a year, throw it out' rule. It's easier to let go of things that don't matter, and have a small collection of sentimental things that do matter. It's a way to let you realize 'stuff' is just 'stuff.' Everything you own will probably get chipped, or broken or lost or thrown out at some point when you move as much as we do, so finding more important things to cherish has been a necessity for us. As a culture, we get into hoarding modes and think we need to save everything, and buy everything, and have everything all the time. Frequent moving completely cures you of that idea. Less is more is really the only practical philosophy we can have if we want to keep our sanity. 

This move isn't extravagant. We're staying in our same building, just going upstairs 33 floors. Our lease is up and the apartment we're currently in is furnished...with our new little bundle heading our way, well, we don't have a need for the extra mattresses that don't belong to us or the modern glass/shiny-everything...and the abstract artwork with computer innards hanging on the walls don't really scream 'new baby'. So we'll try the same building concept with some of our own things now and see how it goes for the next 6 months. At least everything has been sorted through and cleaned again. Moving into an unfurnished place presents us with the joy/grievance of getting, well, everything. Not to fret, we found a set of dishes for $5 today because they had been a 'display' model. Hooray! That will make it easier to just throw out or give away when we're finished here...we've always got to be thinking of the future when investing in anything we purchase, and not the future of needing something to last forever, more like what do we really 'need' that might be one step up from paper plates. 

Fresh starts are always wonderful, they just take a lot of work. 

On a completely un-related note, I've been to Starbucks twice in the past year. Both times within the past month. Have you tried their new Christmas flavors? SO GOOD! Who cares if it costs half a paycheck and accounts for an entire days worth of calories...sometimes it's the little things that can really make your day just great. :)

Have a wonderful weekend!