Clearance, Clarence?

My family moved from my hometown – then back – when I was too little to remember any of it. For the next 18 years or so, I lived in the same place. I moved some of my stuff out before my accident, then moved it all back in, and lived in that same place for another 10 years or so.

Since I finally moved out of my parents’ house, I’ve lived (for more than 6 months) in 4 additional places, and moved all my stuff 4 times. This doesn’t count the stuff that’s still waiting to be collected back in my hometown.

This is why, extremely painful though the very thought is, there are 114 paperback books and a few hardbacks piled on my living room floor, looking for new homes. This is the beginning of a serious ‘stuff’ reduction. I don’t have room for it all, and most of it I haven’t blown the dust off in years. I don’t have the room to enjoy any of it.

(For example, I have an excellent collection of unbuilt plastic model kits. For the last several years, I have not had the workspace to build any of them, nor a place to display them if I did. Yes, a fair proportion of those are going to good homes as well.)

When I realized that composing this year’s Christmas list consisted partially of considering where things might even be put, I realized the time had come. Hello, treasures. Either you’re In… or you’re Out.

Tags: , ,

7 Comments

  • raininva says:

    *puts ice skates on xmas list now as hell has frozen over*

    Not being mean – just remembering the look you gave me the one time I brought up maybe getting rid of some of your books.

    Glad to see the change.

  • Mikhail says:

    I’m not offended, it’s a fairly appropriate reaction. I don’t think I would have ever seriously considered this before. Maybe it’s my version of a mid-life crisis 🙂

    I’m planning on clearing out some of the RPG and game card stuff too. Needless to say, much of that was acquired while we were together, and I’m willing to give you dibs on some of it.

  • raininva says:

    Kewl – if you don’t mind make a list and let me see next time we get together. I’m clearing stuff out too but do have a gaming group again and might be interested in some of it 🙂

    *hug*

  • meiran says:

    *whispers* PaperBackSwap.

    ; ) It’s really helped me get rid of stuff. Though you get a credit to get a new book when you send one out, I usually am using my credits to complete collections or get books that I wouldn’t normally have the money for. Plus, I’m ordering a lot of kids books that I wanted, so they’re slimmer at least!

    Good job though, I know it’s hard. Especially with books, it feels like you have to keep them, because you just might want to read them again. It’s been an uphill battle for me to get my collection pared down to just what fits on my bookshelf.

  • Anonymous says:

    After gifting to friends you might want to consider a free ad on craigslist for the remainder. Ebay is another possibility, though fee-d.

  • Mikhail says:

    Craigslist is the most likely destination. Most of them are ‘well-loved’ and not worth selling. I’m not even sure if any of my friends will want them.

  • torn757 says:

    Congrats on the “spring” cleaning in winter! I can’t tell you how helpful and awesome it is to go through and downsize. I need to do it again. You just might inspire me to do this!

Leave a Reply

XHTML: You can use these tags:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>