Counting Possessions

Moving makes you reflect on what you own. We live in a small house and have been through everything to get here. We are moving to a bigger house, but don't want to bring stuff we don't need.

This is different than Marie Kondo's reflection of joy. After disposing of our parents items after their passing, we don't want to pass this task on to each other or our immediate family. Nobody needs to wonder why I keep those high school newspaper. I can look at one last time and recycle it.

Hundreds of articles of clothing. Maybe more if you count individual socks. Thousands of pieces of paper. Artifacts, news clippings, business cards.

There an emotional weight of letting go of these possessions. I joked that my biographer won't need the short stories I wrote in college for a retrospective of my career. But I don't even know if I want them anymore. (Between us, I did keep those because I want to at least read them again).

Donations, giveaways, recycling and trash. Did more go that direction than in boxes to move? Hard to tell, but I may dispose of a little more once I unpack. That will give me some time to deal with emotional loss of what's gone before taking on a little more.