Monday, April 7, 2008

Boxes, Boxes Everywhere

Well, the moving extravaganza feels like it has kicked into high gear over here. We’ve got piles of boxes all around the house and our home is slowly being dismantled, one item at a time. Fewer of the boxes are actually packed full of stuff than one might hope, but we still have a few weeks. We ordered moving boxes from one of those places online that sends you a big “kit”, which was pretty nice. More expensive than trolling for free ones, but much less effort.

Moving always makes me reevaluate my materialistic tendencies. As I pack yet another book/shirt/tchotchke I think, “Do I really need all this stuff to be happy?” Why do I cart all this stuff from one home to another? How much of it do I really need, or even want or like? And honestly my life is pretty free from tchotchkes, as I abhor clutter and am not very sentimental about physical objects. Even so, it is so easy to accumulate belongings. One of my roommates in college grew up in Africa as the daughter of missionary doctors and, because of her background, had a really different relationship with stuff than me with my suburban American upbringing. When we moved in together, it really shocked me how little stuff she had. I aim to be more like her in that respect and live a simpler, less encumbered life. Time for more purging!

So we are now entering the phase of moving that I dislike the most. I think I am (overly?) sensitive to my physical environment and I hate hate HATE living amidst turmoil and disarray. Living in a shambles of my formerly tidy house stresses me out. It is unavoidable, however; the process of moving necessitates taking your house all apart and living in a mess in the meantime. We do have a bit of urgency in the packing as we have to be out of our house by May 1. We are going to be in Dallas most of this week house hunting, so that just leaves a bit more than two weeks after we get back to finish up everything we haven’t done yet. Doable? I sure hope so...

In contrast to living in a mess, our trip to Dallas is likely to be the most fun part of this whole process. Finding a new house! Hooray! Looking for a house can be stressful in its own way (contemplating spending that amount of money on one item would have to be, I think) but that kind of stress is infinitely preferable to worrying about selling a house, at least in today’s market. There appears to be lots of inventory in Dallas these days and we feel good about our realtor down there, and it is way fun to ponder a new neighborhood, a new stomping ground, a new personal geography, a new place to call home.

No comments: