Monday, September 24, 2007

Fall Solstice Destuffing, Part I


A couple of years ago, I was packing up to move after living in the same apartment for 4 years. As happens to the best of us, I had accumulated some stuff over the years. (I didn't actually mean on my hips, although there too.) I cleverly planned to sort through everything as I packed my boxes, and then take the appropriate boxes to the booksale collection spot, Goodwill, etc. During the spare time I'd have between packing and moving, of course. I think I pictured myself sipping homemade iced tea with a sprig of fresh mint while I did it, too.

Any of you who were around for that move may need to take a short break for hilarity as you compare the reality of the move to that pretty, pretty image. As I recall, the only way I had time between packing and moving was because the movers were three hours late. I was ready an hour before they arrived. Why yes, 3-1=very bad planning (and no fresh mint). I did manage to cull about 7 boxes of books from my extensive collection, but I was so panicked about getting moved that I didn't ever take them to the drop site. So they moved with me, and lived in my storage room for another year. Efficient, no? I swore then that I would destuff regularly, and never when I was moving. The solstices make great landmarks, and unlike my initial plan (the equinoxes), they tend not to line up with other major panics, like Christmas. So, solstice destuffing was born.

Destuffing has really come into its own since I moved in with my current roommate. I am what you might call "stuff intensive". My roommate also is stuff intensive. The combination of the two of us results in an apartment whose storage areas are easily mistaken for the formative stages of a black hole. There's definitely more stuff in there than can be explained by conventional theories of mass and energy. In case you don't believe me, I present for evidence the above "before" picture of our storage room.

Next: what happens when the containment barrier around our storage room breaks?

1 comment:

Unknown said...

"stuff intensive" is such a polite, PC term. Thank you for referring to me as such! I think for me it's inherited...you should SEE my parents spend money on stuff no one really needs. Like mother and father like daughter. :)