Temporary Downsizing

Years ago, when we moved to Melbourne, it was into temporary rented accommodation, while we sold our previous residence and hunted for our new home.  It was rather a complicated time in our lives and it made sense to simplify and settle before launching into the next stage.

The house we chose was small.  That choice was deliberate.  We needed something that would put a roof over our heads for as little money as possible.  We also needed time to concentrate on settling children into new schools, starting new jobs, house-selling and house-hunting, on top of all the other stuff life throws at you.  So we didn’t want to spend a lot of time maintaining someone else’s property.  The deal we struck even had the landlord doing the gardening.

One consequence of this temporary downsizing was putting anything that wasn’t absolutely necessary into storage.  The property had a large shed, which we filled with boxes holding all our extras.  And there it stayed for 16 months.  Ok, I confess, just once I did need to go retrieve something from a box in the shed.

And then came the day we moved into our new home and unpacked all those extras.  For adults and children alike it was like Christmas, seeing our old friends again.  Most of those possessions were welcomed back warmly.  But there were a few I didn’t even remember we owned, and others made me wonder what on earth I was thinking!  Of course before the initial move, we’d decluttered.  So nothing we didn’t love, use or need should have made the cut.  But lo and behold, there were things coming out of storage that had us in fits of laughter at our poor choices.

This little exercise brought into sharp focus which stuff had been important to us, and which most definitely wasn’t.  So, even if you do it on a small scale – pack one boxful away for a month – I encourage you to give it a try.