When is too much, TOO much?

So I'm sure most of us have had to move at one point in our lives. It's generally then when you find that missing broach of your grandmother's, you remember when you tried to take up metal punching or come across that letter you wrote to such and such giving them a piece of your mind but never had the nerve to send. I've moved enough in a 15 year period of time that I am becoming a lobbyist of how lovely it can be to live SIMPLY. without clutter. without junk.

One of the last times I moved I had the pleasure of downsizing my personal items by the greatest degree. It upset me at first, but after I had the time to reflect on all my missing pieces, I realized that the things i was missing were just that, pieces. Things I would not even remember owning unless I was promoted into finding them. If you are forced to remember by stumbling across these things, then these things can probably be thrown away and never missed. If, when you find them, you find something nostalgic about it like - i remember when i stole this mug that late night when we went to Pete's to try to suppress our drunkenness...good times. well THIS item is a KEEPER. If you stumble across a sandwich maker that you used once because you thought it was the coolest thing to keep your cheese from falling out from the edges of your bread....well...the coolness sure wore off after you used it once...and it sure wasn't cool enough to keep making your sandwiches like that....and so i would think that your sandwich doesn't really need to be that cool....ever again.

Try to remember this when you have to pack up to change location. A solution to this quandary...leave out all the things you really would not mind tossing and letting your friends take dibs on all the things they want....when they come over to help you move. Now I know I was lobbying to promote living a more simpler, uncluttered life, but I am a firm believer that what is one man's trash, is another man's treasure. Hey, who knows...one of you could've used that sandwich maker...on a regular basis...and made it a treasure.

I no longer believe in keeping those squares of wrapping paper...for the "little" boxes I might have to wrap next year, OR the shoes that were so comfortable that now have holes in the sides and the soles that i wore in high school for the sole purpose of reminding myself how cool i was in high school, OR the plastic ungodly ugly plant that was at my old office because...i could spray paint it and use it for ... something.

I will no longer be a pack rat. I will no longer save things for the purpose of what "may" become of them...because I would like to remind myself that the house I moved into has this wonderful nook that was one of the reasons i fell in love with it....and i haven't filled it with junk.