Living With Less

With my recent move, I had to go through the dreaded process of going through my closets full of crap. I'm a packrat and have trouble throwing things away. I can always conjure up some kind of justification for keeping something, but with the move to New York and the inevitable space imbalance that would be my new apartment, I knew I needed to shed some weight. So as I prepped for my move, I went through all my stuff and begrudginly threw things away. I had a large trash bag of junk thrown out every day for a week straight. I donated 3 large bags of clothes to Goodwill. Still, it felt like I hadn't made any progress.

So I made an agreement with myself. Once I got to New York, I'd continue to purge myself of all unnecessary things. The only "junk" that would get to stay were things with true sentimental value. Luckily, New York is so much more expensive than Connecticut that basic economics prevents me from buying too much more stuff (though my inner shop-a-holic will probably find some way around that) so in theory, I should progressively have less and less stuff.

This whole process which I've dubbed "purging" has been very difficult, but has led to some good reflection. My original plan was to move to New York no matter what. Luckily, I got transferred for work, but if I hadn't, I had thoroughly intended to pick up and move myself. I now realize how hard that would have been for me (let's take note that it's taken me 2 months to actually move to NYC). I'm not easily mobile. This is not because I'm not a good traveler; I've traveled enough to learn how to get around with less. No, I'm not mobile because I'm weighed down by so much stuff, most of it physical (let's not get into the emotional and psychological shit right now). I've never truely been in need. My parents provided for me growing up and since high school, if I needed or wanted something, I had enough money from my jobs to get it. I've become accustomed to luxury and it's kind of sickening.

One of my goals with this move to New York is to learn to live on less, but also appreciate more with less. Part of this process has been the purging of my physical stuff. Craigslist and eBay will be my best friends in the next couple of months. I'm also really trying to stick to my budget and enjoy the free things that this city (and life) have to offer. Wish me luck.