We are moving to Oregon (from Michigan) in just 4 days.  My boyfriend, Chris, me and our 2 labs.  I’m just glad I get to drive his car while he drives the SUV pulling the 12 X 6 trailer with some of our shtuff.  Those dogs brew some pretty horrendous smells in the back of the SUV.  You see, we are moving from a 3-bedroom house to a small 2-bedroom apartment in Oregon.  We are doing this, temporarily, until we sell this house in Michigan (you know how the market is right now if you live here).  You can probably imagine the chaos in our house right now … and to top it off, we are having a going-away party here tonight.  Aaagh!  Yes, even the Zenplicity Coach freaks out from time to time!  But … fear not … I am taking a deep breath and resorting back to my “happy place” to remind myself that everything does  NOT have to be perfect.  People will understand.  These are out friends, after all.  Aaaah … much better.

If you’ve ever moved, you know the chaos and emotional uproar it entails. 

• You have second thoughts.
• You feel like you’re forgetting something (even though the house or apartment is completely empty … what, did I forget to look under the floor boards?)
• You feel like if your head weren’t attached, you’d accidentally put it in the recycle bin and ship it off to the recycling plant.
• You feel scared (what if I HATE the new place? What if I can’t make new friends? What if the weather is bad?)
• You burden people you love (Can you come over and help me pack? Pleeeeeease??)
• You eat crappy because you don’t want to do any big grocery shopping before you leave.
• You worry about getting your address changed and hope that the mail forwards it on time and doesn’t screw up.
• You spend too much money (gas, moving, utility fees, hotels, food, etc.).
• You bicker because you are ALL on edge. 
• The dogs get worked up and anxious because there’s all this random shtuff lying around, and they are confused.

My point?  It can be one of the most overwhelming experiences of your life.  But there is one small difference for me this time.  My life has been simplified to the point of “everything has its place” and I know what I need, when I need it, and I know where it is.  That makes packing for the “temporary” move to the apartment in Oregon a whole lot easier. 

(BEWARE, A STORY LIES AHEAD …) 

Back ten years ago, when I was 18, I moved to Michigan from Ohio.  I had a lot of shtuff.  A LOT of shtuff.  You could say I was a hoarder of “things”.  I had too many clothes, shoes, 2 sets of unmatching dishes, too much tupperware, junky jewelry, an overabundance of office supplies, old stuff, new stuff … it didn’t matter, I had it.  And when I moved into my Aunt’s house, I lived with all this stuff for a few years.  It got dusty, and I sneezed a lot.  I dreaded cleaning my little 8 X 10 room because I had too much crap.  I liked my crap (I thought), so I kept it even though it was unhealthy having so much packed into a little room.  I also had to put boxes of stuff out in my Aunt’s garage as well as some of her closets in the house.  I was your typical pack rat.  It was sort of like a “closet” pack rat though, because I’ve always been very organized, and I could make a lot of shtuff look good by lining it all up like little soldiers.  “See, look at all my pretty STUFF!”  Only my Aunt really knew the real “me” since I was taking up so much room in her closets, laundry room and garage.  It was almost embarrassing how much stuff I had — I felt like a spoiled brat, really.  It wasn’t good.

I moved again a few years later to a tiny loft apartment which came with friendly centipedes.  I respected them so much that I decided to move out 2 months later to let them have the run of the place.  Then I moved into a friend’s parent’s house.  Then I moved back to my Aunt’s.  All the while, most of my boxes remained in Aunt’s garage & closets.  How rude of me.  Then, I moved out again into another friend’s house.  That friend became my fiance, and we were together for 5 years.  It didn’t work out, and I had accumulated even MORE stuff.  Now, I was moving into a small apartment with a girl friend of mine.  It was at this point that my stuff started bothering me, so I started to pare down, finally.  Little by little, I started throwing stuff out.  It was the most cleansing experience of my life.  It’s like I was throwing away things about my past that I didn’t like.  It felt so good.

Then, I moved in with my boyfriend Chris a couple of years later, and this is where we reside now (Michigan and off to Oregon in 4 days!)  My stuff no longer rules the house, and it no longer rules me.  Once pack rat, now minimalist … it is possible. 

Sometimes The Horrors of Moving (especially 7 times in 10 years) is worth the end result — less stuff and more time, creativity and love.  Just thought I’d share with you the real story behind The Zenplicity Coach.  We all have to start somewhere.

This past weekend, my boyfriend and I visited a very small town in Ohio that doesn’t have very much going on.  We were visiting his mother in the town where he grew up.  Even with sunny skies for the first couple of days, it was still depressing … the town is old and homes and buildings seem uneven as they slowly deteriorate from the inside-out.  It’s very sad, and it makes me very grateful for what I do have.

A funny thing though … I remembered something about “stuff”.  When someone doesn’t have the means to buy something new “just because”, they have a tendency to hold on to EVERYTHING.  My boyfriend’s mother has a tiny upper flat, maybe 600 square feet, that she shares with her other son, who is 18 years old (who’s in that very angry stage of life!)    When I walked into her abode, I noticed pictures, ranging from very old to very new, scattered haphazard all around the living room … on walls, on tables, on shelves.  I also noticed buttons from when her 18-year old was in midget football (the kind with the picture in them that you pin on your shirt … the kind that screams “proud mother!”), and she had all of them lined up on her mantle.  And the lamps, oh the lamps…there were so many of them, but none of them matched, and they were never used!  She always used the bright, artificial overhead lights and never touched the lamps.  I didn’t have the heart to ask her why.  This woman takes pride in her belongings, but I noticed how difficult it must be to dust all of that stuff!  The poor thing has to individually lift and dust under so many things that it must be absolutely dreadful everytime she pulls out the cleaning supplies.  But, I can tell that she took comfort in all these things.

With one son grown and successful and another one craving freedom, she is left with a tiny 600 foot space of her own.  So, she surrounds herself with as much stuff as possible to fill the void that aches deep within.  My boyfriend saw an opportunity, though, and we decided to go to Target and get her some well-needed items.  We were going to surprise her with some “fresh” things to brighten up the place.  We got her some fresh white towels, new cream-colored sheets and down comforter, TV trays so she wouldn’t have to eat supper on her lap when she wanted to watch TV during dinner, new silverware, a new white (and bright!) shower curtain and some new lamps so that she’d WANT to use them to brighten up her dim bathroom and living room.

She was thrilled!  And, all of a sudden, she was ready to start throwing some things away — it was amazing. 

Although she will probably continue holding on to mementos and pictures that have far outgrown their use as display items, she learned, if even for a brief moment, that it’s ok to let go of things.  Out went the old curtain-like floral shower covering and old towels.  Funny how we bought her 5 towels and she threw out about 15 old ones.    She got the “bug” for a moment, and it was so fun to watch!

 Now … if I could just get her to throw away all those hotel trial-sized, half-filled bath products …