A few months before my big move, I decided that since I was basically “starting over”….I wanted to do so with a lot less STUFF. I’ve always been good at purging my home at least once a year, but even then I had still managed to accumulate way too much.
Stuff I thought I’d definitely use sometime or another. Stuff I thought held sentimental value. Stuff that I thought one of my kids would want later on in life. Stuff. Stuff. Stuff.
Having too much stuff gives me anxiety, and has always made me feel weighed-down. I also knew that the less stuff I took with me, the cheaper my actual moving container options would be. This meant a lot of little things had to go….and so did most of the big things.
This move was the impetus I needed to not only purge, but really do a complete home detox if you will. I started slowly going through every drawer, closet and shelf in each room. Yeah, I actually made a list that I could check-off….because organizational freak over here. About a month before the move I had gone through everything, and then came the yard sales.
I held two sales and made some nice little cash. Everything else that remained I stuck by my driveway with a “Free Stuff” sign and watched people come out of nowhere like a line of ants to a leftover sandwich. People love free stuff….and the old adage that “One man’s trash is another’s treasure” is, and forever will be, pretty damn true.
When it came to appliances and furniture that I knew I wasn’t taking because it would’ve cost more to move them than replace them….also IKEA isn’t meant to last 20 years….or is it?…..I listed it all on Facebook Marketplace. I knew the value of this stuff, but I also knew that due to the current state of pandemia I wasn’t going to expect or ask for much. I just wanted to get rid of everything as fast as possible and maybe make a few bucks in the process. (Also, in my old neck of the woods, you really couldn’t donate anything because of Covid. All donation centers were limiting what they could or would take, if anything at all.)
That’s when things got really fun.
Facebook Marketplace is undoubtedly great for finding deals…and getting rid of stuff. What I didn’t know was that it can quickly become a part-time job. I was already losing my mind juggling all the moving parts of a major relocation…and then came the avalanche of Messenger notifications. For every item I listed on Marketplace, I kid you not, I got at least 30-40 messages all in rapid succession.
This is a good thing, right? Good because you know you’re gonna get rid of your stuff quickly…but…..it’s also insane. I mean, I’m a stickler for responding to everyone. Any comment on a post, email, letter, smoke signal…I’ll respond to it….remnants of codependence and all. So, I felt the compulsion to respond to every single one of those messages letting people know the availability status of whatever I was trying to get rid of.
Then things got funnier. I decided Facebook Marketplace was something of small psychological observation of the different types of people we co-exist with in society:
-You had the really polite folks happy to wait and see if the first person to take a bite changed their mind.
-You had the aggressive ones that would message incessantly “checking in”.
-You had the sneaky ones who would offer to pay more if you cancel out on the person you had already promised the item to.
-You had the ones who decided to use Messenger as a dating app.
-Then the ones who clearly didn’t want to take the time to read the item description and asked for details I had already written.
-The folks who committed to picking up something only to tell you last minute that they live too far away.
-Also Marketplace has bots that try to get your phone number via messenger acting as if they need it to ask questions about your item. I hate talking on the phone, so that was an immediate no from me…plus major red flag. Also, pretty sure if you’re on another continent you’re not going to come to Los Angeles to pick up my old dresser.
-The people who then try to randomly friend request you….why??
-And the ones who come to pick up furniture that can’t fit into their vehicles. Not sure about you, but I would never try to fit a dining table into a Fiat. Call me crazy.
So yeah that was an adventure, but it worked and I got rid of enough stuff. Anything left over I decided just to post on my local Buy Nothing group and that ended up being the best option of all…10/10 recommend.
The Buy Nothing group allowed me to give away a few large items to families in my old hometown that I knew actually needed them. These people were on time and even came with handtrucks to help move the stuff out of my garage and into their vehicles. I even had one gentleman offer to pay me for an item I had listed for free, a couple said a Jewish blessing for my family and I to wish us well on our move, and another woman broke down in tears of gratitude because my kids’ old beds were now being donated to a family that had been split apart for 2 years due to the dad being placed in an internment camp.
Trash.
Treasures.
My home now is devoid of clutter and feels more “me” than any other home I’ve lived in since adulthood. Clean lines, and minimal decor. I kept some bins of memorabilia that my kids will want to look back on once they hit adulthood…and a couple of bins of my own youth saved in the confines of Rubbermaid’s finest. (Stuff that hopefully doesn’t melt in an uninsulated Arizona garage!)
If I ever need to do another house purge I’ll go straight to my new town’s Buy Nothing group and save myself the insanity of Marketplace.
I’ll also not forget that the things we take for granted are things others are dying to have.
Perspective.
(Also the only thing I regret selling/giving away are books. Every move I’ve made from age 21 until now has forced me to part with more tomes than I care to think about because it breaks this nerd-girl’s heart. I just hope whoever has them now cherishes them all as much as I did….and to be honest it does make me happy that in a time when everyone seems so lost in screens, people still want books. So that’s the silver lining to that.)
**header photo by The Bialons @unsplash
**As an affiliate, I make a portion of each sale made via links in my blog.
