Does the Burden of Moving Have You Stuck in Place?

HUMOR | LIFESTYLE | ESSAY

In the battle for control, my stuff seems to be winning.

Have you ever felt like you might never move again because it’s just too hard? I should clarify, I mean moving out of your current dwelling and into a different one, not moving, in general. If you feel like don’t ever want to physically move again because it is too hard, you should probably see a physical or mental health professional. Now, where was I? Right — moving.

My wife and I have been considering selling our house and moving into something smaller that better suits our current needs. While we aren’t quite empty-nesters, we are well on our way. The two acres of property on a slope that we loved 9 years ago still provide great sunset views, and the privacy we crave, but also more yard work than either of us is willing to do.

It ends up that simply noticing the blackberries are taking over the yard and the shed is not enough to stop them. Noticing is about the extent of effort we enjoy putting into yard maintenance. As for the house, the cobs, creators of cobwebs, seem to be winning the battle for control. It might be time to admit defeat and allow them their victory.

Now is probably a great time to sell our home. It’s a great market for sellers. This could be our best opportunity to make a bundle selling our house. OK, yes, we still have to live somewhere, so will have to buy another house in this sellers’ market, but as I mentioned, we need to downsize. We could benefit from a smaller house, a smaller yard, and some things we don’t have now, like decent internet, a workout room, and a place to park our RV. It would be a shift to a whole new lifestyle without needing to eat Brussel sprouts.

The problem is, we have a lot of stuff. Like all good consumers, we’ve expanded our possessions to fill our space and now there are zero bare surfaces, partially filled cupboards, or closets that are not stuffed. We’ve accumulated, stored, and piled whenever and wherever seemed appropriate over the years. Not even the garage, too hot or cold to be in much of the year, has been left untainted by our collection of stuff. (Hey — you never know when you might need 20 stainless steel water…

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