Stuffocation and Why Packing SUCKS!
We have been planning this for several months now and have been gradually donating more and more clothes and, more recently, we’ve sold a bunch of furniture and our television on Gumtree. You’d think a couple of months of planning would mean now, less than a week from leaving, we should be pretty sorted right? Wrong.
We had planned for our last week in London to be this wonderful relaxing week of sightseeing, seeing friends, drinking coffee in our favourite cafes and properly saying goodbye to our home here.
Unfortunately, the universe didn’t like that idea and we’ve had a series of mishaps and things that have gone wrong over the last few weeks that have meant we’re not really where we wanted to be at all.
First, I broke my wrist playing my last game of indoor football and after many hours in waiting rooms, getting X-Rays and MRIs I was left in a splint and not really able to use my left wrist for 6 weeks. I’ve just thrown the splint out and although my wrist is a lot better, carrying anything heavy or putting weight on it is still not working. Great when you’re constantly sorting through and lifting stuff.
After that I thought if Dayna can do it, so can I and I put my neck out so badly I’ve had a migraine for the last week. On days that I was meant to spend sorting out our house I was stuck moaning and feeling sorry for myself in a darkened room instead.
Through all of this we’ve been dealing with one of the worst bits of humanity: people who buy stuff off Gumtree (like Ebay or Trademe for those who don’t know it). About 10% of these people are perfectly normal functioning human beings. The rest are late every time, never follow through with what they said, struggle to piece together a coherent sentence and can’t read a basic ad. On the plus side we have had some entertaining emails. I think my favourite was the offer to swap our playstation for an old cracked Ipad. No thanks!
One of the hardest goodbyes was to “Sharky”. Dayna even told the lady working at the donations shop, “Make sure he goes to a nice person. I’m very sad to give him up”.
We still have a few more loads to do but the final hurdle now is the fact that our stuff just doesn’t fit in our bags. Not even close.
Stuffocation
The amount of stuff you accumulate over a few years is amazing. We went to a talk earlier in the year by James Wallman, the author of “Stuffocation”. He pushes the idea that we should all value experiences more than material possessions and that decluttering can have a huge positive impact on our lives.
We agreed completely and at the time we went through a bit of a spring clean (ironically donating our 2 copies of Stuffocation). That process of throwing stuff out and clearing more space in our house was really good for us and I thought we had cleared the bulk of our “stuff”.
More than that, getting rid of things we didn’t need or use cleared our heads and eased up the subconscious stress we felt from our flat being cluttered.
I mean really, why do 2 people need 16 dinner plates? We never have friends over and would keep using clean plates instead of washing the dirty ones until they filled our sink.
Six months later and we still seem to have an incredible amount of “stuff”. There has been a lot of times in the last few days where I have turned to Dayna and asked what something is. If neither of us can work out what the thing is for or what it’s a part of then we throw it out. I’m sure this will backfire at some point when we’re missing a crucial Gopro accessory but oh well.
And friends & family, we will no longer be accepting gifts of “stuff”. Experiences, accommodation, or monetary gifts are great but I don’t think we can handle any more sad discussions about throwing out sentimental items! (but maybe the odd shark related item for Dayna)
OH man, I so feel your pain with this! Packing up is actually the worst (oh wait…no…contemplating your storage unit which you packed 5 years ago and clearly need NOTHING from is actually the worst!). Before we left the UK I played the Mins Game (read more here: http://www.naturallyleah.com/lifestyle/playing-mins-game/) which was actually a lifesaver – it cut down so much crap, and like you, we felt so much less stress and lighter by getting rid of it all. Now having travelled for nearly a year with just backpacks (you get VERY good at throwing things out constantly) I am so keen to keep our lives to a minimalist form. Having your entire backpack stolen is also a very good way to cut down on crap, and it does make you realise it’s all just STUFF. You guys have done an amazing job, and in a month’s time you won’t even remember what your threw out/ donated/ got rid of.
Although I am sad for Sharkie. He was awesome.
I already forget most of what I got rid of (save Sharky 🙁 ) and can definitely see us getting rid of more as we head out on the road. Stuff is just too stressful and I’m really looking forward to only have 1 bag to keep track of.
Since we moved into the motorhome, we’ve definitely minimalized. But into 2 bags??? – Gail would be wearing only jewelry since she couldn’t part with her one case of jewelry. woohoo!!
Hope you’re both feeling better now? I remember how much random stuff we got rid of when we leaving London too; your flat looks just like ours did! I also remember the nightmare of selling stuff on Gumtree, trying to haggle over how much a hand-mixer should cost! You’re nearly free though so focus on the amazing journey ahead – can’t wait to see how it goes!
Thanks – we are definitely feeling better now. We’re in San Francisco and already quickly getting used to days filled of sightseeing and our biggest stress just being agreeing on a place to eat. We managed to get there in the end with our flat and actually got to enjoy the last few days in London too. We’ve still got a bit more downsizing to go to meet our next flight’s more stringent baggage sizing but hopefully it’ll be easier to get rid of things on the road! Hope you guys are enjoying being back home for a change 🙂