Packing is Stressful

Statistically, studies show that moving is one of the most stressful things a person can do in their life. I am trying not to cave and be a statistic but it is really difficult. Over the weekend, fueled by a trenta black iced coffee and very berry hibiscus refresher (for Mr. T), we started what will henceforth be referred to as "The Great Purge."

In every sense of the word, this adventure is going to teach us to live simply. After 3 years in the same place, you accumulate a lot of stuff. Not to mention over 10 years of living on your own. I am frankly, really sick of having to move things that I don't need, or will never use so we are donating or throwing away a lot of unnecessary things. Starting with clothes in our bedroom, moving on to the office and living room, at the end of the day, we had 9 bags of clothes (up to 11 now) and 3 bags of books & housewares that we brought to Goodwill (making sure to get a receipt). Even though thinking of the tax write off was amazing, mostly, it just felt incredible to get rid of all that unnecessary stuff. We will be continuing to get rid of things as the week progresses and hopefully when the truck pulls up, we will only be taking what we need to Maine.

All of this is incredibly stressful though, no doubt about it. Trying to condense your entire life into boxes and deciding what is and isn't important in 10 minutes is emotionally and physically draining. You are reliving everything you experienced with that CD or where you wore that shirt, but it's much more economical to hold on the the memories, not the item. Unfortunately, Mr. T rarely feels the same way, he assigns sentimental value to things and I understand it, I just can't do the same for some things. Going through old papers and notes, I found notes I passed with friends in high school and corrected homework from 2000. While it was nice to take a brief trip down memory lane, I can keep the memories, I don't need the physical reminders.

Packing has unfortunately distracted me from the rest of my life. I have been bad about getting together with friends and family before we go and completely distracted me from my Dad's big 50th birthday (tomorrow). I'm taking him to dinner and we got him a gift (which is stuck in shipping) but I feel like a little bit of a schmuck not doing more. In addition, one of my girlfriends and I have been trying to plan a night out (she just had a baby) for a while and just haven't been able to connect scheduling-wise and now it feels slightly rushed. We made plans for this weekend and I am definitely going to enjoy it, but I am wishing we had more time.

Like I keep reminding everyone, this is happening very quickly, but it's not like we are moving forever and we are not going that far. Plus, if people read my blog (shameless plus), they will be able to keep up with me anyway.