Sylvia and I recently installed new hardwood floors in our entire home. Bedrooms, closets, kitchen, hallway, etc. Everywhere except the laundry room and 2 bathrooms, which received new tile the month before. The process of doing this in an occupied home required a packing and moving of stuff not dissimilar to actually moving. Every part of the home had to be emptied out completely, just not all at once. So we migrated piles of stuff from one part of the house to the other as the new floors were installed. Meanwhile, we lived in a semi-construction zone for 10 days.
I learned a lot about wood flooring and the install process, but this article is about our stuff. I heard myself say at some point, while carting boxes out to the garage, and will now quote myself, “how is it possible that people who have gotten rid of so much stuff still have so much stuff?!”
No joke, our living space over the last 4 homes in 12 years looks like a bell curve. We’ve gone from 2,000 sqft to 3,700 to 3,300 and now down to 1,800 square feet. During each move, we’ve parted ways with what seemed like massive amounts of stuff. I’ve always enjoyed that aspect of moving. The cleansing and thinning out of the material barnacles that cling to us as we live life. We could fill a semi trailer with all the stuff we’ve given to Goodwill over the years. Especially on this last move going from 3,300 sqft down to 1,800.
Yet, here I am trying to move stuff out of the way for new floors and I just can’t believe we still have too much. How do people who’ve unloaded so much still have too much? By only getting rid of the easy stuff. Now it’s down to the emotional stuff, and that’s harder. Way harder.
