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The amount of space I have in this house continues to astound me. Some of the rooms plus the attic are still mostly empty. The basement is mostly full, which is because when I was moving stuff by car, I'd park in the garage and unload there, out of the reach of any foul weather, and the basement is the first stop from there. Eventually I'll move some of that to other rooms. Things that aren't really affected by temperature extremes can go up to the attic.
Yeah I know about the rule of thumb about "if you haven't unpacked a box in (however much time) then get rid of it", but that's not how I roll. I've truly lost count of how many times I had something sit idle for years, then all of a sudden I needed it, and having it meant averting disaster. Or, I'll be sifting through a box and find something I really was looking for.
I'm not saying I never get rid of anything. I do go through stuff every now and then, and I either end up with a good pile for trash, or recycling, or giving away, or some of each. When that goes out and stays out, it feels good. It's that much less to kick around. Sometimes if I'm not sure, I'll ask myself "if I got rid of this, would I regret it". That could be seen as a more forgiving (lax?) variation of the KonMari "does it spark joy" question, which personally I think is too strict. I mean, a toilet plunger doesn't exactly spark joy in most people (if it does then hey I'm not going to judge), but I'm not about to get rid of it based on that.
Anyway, with the house, it has double the official living area of the trailer, and total usable area is about 4x. As well as having more room overall, there are more specific places to put things. There are more shelves, cupboards, drawers, nooks & crannies, hidey-holes, and so on. There are about the same number of closets as there were in the trailer, but they're much more spacious here.
And in a way, having all that extra space, that extra capacity, it kinda scares me. It scares me because I know I can have the tendency to expand into that space. Not that I'd go ahead and become that guy who stores things like stacks of newspapers from 20 years ago, it's more like there are things that I'd get based on the logic of "I've wanted this and didn't have the room for it before and now I do". Knowing what I went through with packing and moving out of the trailer, the idea of possibly needing to do the same thing eventually if I decide to move again with 4x the amount is downright horrifying. It's easy to say "I'm never letting that happen again" but clearly, I've let that happen before and aside from my own vigilance and awareness, there's not much to prevent that from happening again.
I'm hoping I can use this space for productive and noble purposes. Fun things. Things like large Lego builds, setting up a train layout, putting anime figures on display instead of keeping them in their boxes, having a workbench of some kind suitable for electronics projects (something that's not going to melt or burst into flames if I touch it with a soldering iron), and so on. I like to think that I'm already headed in that direction; as I'm using my garage for the intended purpose of parking my cars in there and working on them.
In the meantime, I'm keeping busy. Or at least I try to.
Yeah I know about the rule of thumb about "if you haven't unpacked a box in (however much time) then get rid of it", but that's not how I roll. I've truly lost count of how many times I had something sit idle for years, then all of a sudden I needed it, and having it meant averting disaster. Or, I'll be sifting through a box and find something I really was looking for.
I'm not saying I never get rid of anything. I do go through stuff every now and then, and I either end up with a good pile for trash, or recycling, or giving away, or some of each. When that goes out and stays out, it feels good. It's that much less to kick around. Sometimes if I'm not sure, I'll ask myself "if I got rid of this, would I regret it". That could be seen as a more forgiving (lax?) variation of the KonMari "does it spark joy" question, which personally I think is too strict. I mean, a toilet plunger doesn't exactly spark joy in most people (if it does then hey I'm not going to judge), but I'm not about to get rid of it based on that.
Anyway, with the house, it has double the official living area of the trailer, and total usable area is about 4x. As well as having more room overall, there are more specific places to put things. There are more shelves, cupboards, drawers, nooks & crannies, hidey-holes, and so on. There are about the same number of closets as there were in the trailer, but they're much more spacious here.
And in a way, having all that extra space, that extra capacity, it kinda scares me. It scares me because I know I can have the tendency to expand into that space. Not that I'd go ahead and become that guy who stores things like stacks of newspapers from 20 years ago, it's more like there are things that I'd get based on the logic of "I've wanted this and didn't have the room for it before and now I do". Knowing what I went through with packing and moving out of the trailer, the idea of possibly needing to do the same thing eventually if I decide to move again with 4x the amount is downright horrifying. It's easy to say "I'm never letting that happen again" but clearly, I've let that happen before and aside from my own vigilance and awareness, there's not much to prevent that from happening again.
I'm hoping I can use this space for productive and noble purposes. Fun things. Things like large Lego builds, setting up a train layout, putting anime figures on display instead of keeping them in their boxes, having a workbench of some kind suitable for electronics projects (something that's not going to melt or burst into flames if I touch it with a soldering iron), and so on. I like to think that I'm already headed in that direction; as I'm using my garage for the intended purpose of parking my cars in there and working on them.
In the meantime, I'm keeping busy. Or at least I try to.
