Like You are Going to Move

I recently signed a new lease for my apartment.  12 more months in the same place.  I’ve moved around quite a bit in the last three years, and it’s nice to know that I won’t have to go through the scheduling of the movers, the finding of the boxes, the packing of the boxes, and the physical picking up and moving of the stuff.

Sigh.  Thank you, Universe.

I don’t know about you, but this is where things can begin to slide.  Life is busy—you know it.  So, if I'm not forced to clear out the spare bedroom or the garage or the storage locker, then I probably won’t.  The stuff is just going to stay there, most likely until I am forced by circumstance to do something about it.

This used to be my general mindset until I started flirting with minimalism.  Minimalism for me has become a practice much like chipping away at a hunk of rock to create a masterpiece.  I haven’t been fast, but I’ve been methodical—always on the lookout for things that just don’t belong or don’t serve me anymore.  Slowly carving out a life that is more genuinely reflective of my values and priorities.

So, what if I had moved?  What would I have been willing to pack up and commit my back to lifting and hauling up three flights of stairs?  What haven’t I used or valued in the last year that I have lived in my current apartment?  What boxes are there that I still have not opened?  What is buried in the kitchen junk drawer that is clearly just junk that I would never want the moving company to waste time in packing and gasoline in trucking 500 miles or 5 miles to my next place?  

Instead, I’m going to do it now.  I’m going to live like I was moving.  I’m going to open the boxes, look under the bed, go through the closet.  Finding what does not serve me and letting it go is equally as beneficial to me as finding what does work.  How long do you want or need to hang on to what isn’t necessary?  How does the ‘stuff’ in your life lift you up to your highest aspirations or keep you stuck in the same spot?  How do you want your life to continue to change and evolve?  Make that move now.  Happy moving!