By David Crow
Conversations
David Crow
At the beginning of December, I cleaned out my office space. With that came a need to move furniture and files and office supplies out to somewhere else.
Moving is always stressful, for two main reasons. The first is always the sheer volume. You don’t know how much stuff you’ve accumulated in one spot until you’ve got to pack it in boxes, stoop over and pick it all up. It is truly amazing what a person can squirrel away into a confined space over a long, uninterrupted span of time. I managed to amass an astounding pile of stuff in my office over the past 13 years, and moving it all meant picking it all up.
That leads to the second reason moving is stressful. With the realization that there is an enormous mountain of stuff to move comes an inevitable question: Is all of it worth picking up and moving to the new place? Once you allow yourself to ask that question, then the winnowing process has begun – whether you meant for it to begin or not.
In the beginning this winnowing process is pretty easy. The most obvious “don’t move” items are easy to spot. For example, if it’s been in a drawer for a decade, it’s probably not necessary to pack it up, pick it up and move it. This also applies to the “What the heck is that?” and the “Why did I keep that?” items found in all the nooks and crannies of the space you’re leaving. These items are easily relegated to the landfill pile and don’t really require a lot of thought.
Juxtaposed to that is the “must have it” pile. These are items that simply cannot be discarded and must be boxed up, picked up and moved to the new location. Again, this isn’t a hard decision to make. These items are promptly sorted out to the side for the moving van.
The truly hard calls come with the items in between those two poles. For instance, what are you going to do with those coffee cups? You don’t really need them at the new place, but they aren’t damaged and still do the job of holding coffee very well. That leads to a consideration of the coffee maker and then the coffee filters and the sugar packets. Before you know it, you’re so far down a rabbit hole that you can’t see the light of day.
Then you run into the sentimental value objects. Just what will you do with the pile of birthday and holiday and thank you cards you have accumulated from your family, friends and clients over the years? It seems a shame to pitch them, as they are little reminders that people care about you. But exactly when was the last time you got them out and read them? Did you simply not read them because you might remember who it was that wished you a happy birthday and you failed to return the sentiment on their birthday? To heave or to move? Which will it be?
These decisions can quickly become paralyzing, and if you add another person to the mix it can spiral into weird moments where one person is taking things out of the “landfill” pile and putting them in the “move” pile while the other is taking things out of the “move” pile and putting them in the “landfill” pile. Sentimental value, it seems, is a subjective measurement.
The only solution I have found (and the solution I recommend) is a piece of wisdom my uncle bestowed on me when I helped him clean out a shed once. He took everything out of the shed and set aside a few items he definitely wanted. Then he went and got a bucket loader and unceremoniously piled the rest into the back of a dump truck, drove to the landfill and dumped it out without a second thought.
After that was done, he gave a firm nod and said, “When it doubt, throw it out.”
Words to move by.
I’ve decided to take a more, shall we say, affirmative approach to all the cards I receive from here on out. It is my newly considered and adopted policy that all cards of any kind will be promptly opened, admired, appreciated and then deposited in the recycle bin. I encourage you all to do the same. We’ll put that one down as a lesson learned.
Until next time, y’all come out!
David Crow lives in Orange with his wife and three children. He practices law and he asks everyone to call him “Dave.” Only his mother and his wife call him “David,” and only when they’re mad at him. You can contact Dave at Sit.a.Spell.and.Visit@gmail.com. He’ll always find a half hour for a good chat.