Moving, as we all know, is one of those major life events. Major life events are coupled with stress – lots of stress. As Professional Organizers our job is to absorb most of the stress of a move on behalf of our clients. Totally exhausting. Remind me to never move. Ever!
I am increasingly fascinated by life and stuff and how they are connected. Moving, of course, either makes us feel that we should go through all of our stuff and minimize what we take to our next abode or simple ignore how much we have, pack every last possession and take it with us intending to go through it all 'someday'.
One of our recent move clients was totally in the right place to go through every closet, drawer and box it was truly a pleasure to be a part of the process. When someone is ready to shed the past and move forward with no 'baggage', it is truly a transformational process. The new house feels light and airy and truly a happy place to be. Amazingly, every piece of furniture we chose to keep looks like it belongs in the new house – which it never really did in the old house. And he can even put a car in the garage.
The other move I helped organized didn't go nearly as smoothly as the first. I now attribute that to the fact that the client kept way too much stuff from the past and just couldn't go through everything, choosing instead to send piles of old furniture and dozens of boxes of 'stuff' to a large storage locker and the rest to the new house. All the while telling me that it just wasn't the right time to let go of everything. I believe that a lot of what arrived in the new house carried with it the energy of the past and the new place just doesn't feel right.
At the end of the fourth day of this move, as we were unpacking in the new house, my client and I did have a discussion about the quantity of 'stuff' kept and how slowly and perhaps painfully going through a box at a time might enable a shift to a brighter future. I really believe that lightening the load and shedding the pounds of clutter does enable us to gradually emerge on the other side of the clutter and 'stuff' in a new place and ready for whatever life brings.
I am still amazed by our propensity to collect and collect and collect, filling our houses full of 'stuff' only to move and have to get rid of all the 'stuff' we worked so hard to collect. What would life be like if we could only stop collecting and live with what we truly need and nothing else?