An Estonian girl who has found a home in Sweden.

Friday, October 26

T minus 8 days

October 26, 2007 Posted by Vaire

So I went to Ikea yesterday to buy the furniture and have it delivered next Thursday. No can do. The Box service only delivers the same or the next day. Oh well I'll go back on Wednesday and buy the big stuff then. I wrote down the shelf numbers yesterday and got a bill for the bed so it should go very fast.

I bought all the storage boxes, a throw for the bed and wheels for the sofa table yesterday. I was considering grabbing the lamps as well, but that would have been bit too heavy to carry and decided to leave them for Wednesday.

Meanwhile I've been thinking about minimalism, clutter, materialism, mess and neatness. I like things neat, uncluttered and I abhor mess.

Living with R has been frustrating in that area because for him clutter = comfort and mess is a way of life. When I first moved in there was no space in his apartment to breathe or simply be*. There's a bit more space now that we rearranged the room this summer, but there's still no space to be. In a week it won't matter anymore, but I've been thinking about the new apartment, how much stuff I have and how much should I keep and still stick to the minimalist philosophy.

The problem is that I'm a packrat at heart and stuff seems to accumulate at an alarming rate. Through the six moves in last four years I've gotten rid of much, but it seems that I should seize the opportunity undertake another culling now.

While I was reading Unclutterer I came across this article: Outta here! Professional purgers' organizing tips. This one tip hit like a ton of bricks: "You should own nothing that is not useful, beautiful, or loved," says Izsak.

Wow! What an insight. I've kept stuff because "it might come handy one day" or something that I didn't really like, but "I could make something out of it". You know what, I never did! I admit, some saved stuff has come handy, but all those saved proto-projects? Never.

And how many coffee pots one needs, anyway? Surely not more than one? I have three. Please don't ask me why I've kept the cracked one. Sentimental reasons perhaps? Or the one that's too small and rickety. One thing is for certain — they won't be coming with me.

Of course one can go to the other extreme with getting rid of stuff. I had to leave some things behind when I moved back from Ireland that I could really use now. To make things worse, some of them were gifts. I thought I had no choice at the time, but there's always a choice and I wish now that I'd chosen differently.

While packing I've thought about things that stayed here while I was in Dublin and I didn't even miss. Should I keep them? Toss them or donate them? Put them in storage if they have no immediate use? Everything is subjected to these questions twice: first time while packing and second time while unpacking.

I hope that I can organise my stuff better and keep the things that are "useful, beautiful, or loved". Even if I don't achieve true minimalim, I'll at least have a space to be in.

* be to me means that you can take time off, have space to breathe in, enjoy the moment and not be suffocated by the sheer amount of things in your surroundings. Reload your batteries in peace, without visual, aural or any other kind of interruption. This is something I've not been able to do since I moved in with R, there is not an inch of space in that place you can rest your eyes on or even look at without cringing.