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My move yesterday went smoothly. It took about 6 hours to pack, move, and unpack my setup in Oakland.
However, my second carload of stuff, which was destined for my public storage locker, was a disaster. My storage locker was efficiently packed once upon a time, but I had been less efficient with my adding and removal of stuff over the last couple of years. Last night I reached a point where the carload of stuff I brought necessitated a complete reorganization of the whole storage locker. Some of this was me pushing the envelope -- eg, mathematically speaking a 12ft beam does fit in a 7.5ftx10ft storage locker, but practically it's a huge pain -- but really, it was just time for a reorganization.
However, the whole time I was feeling like my pile of stuff was just weighing me down. I want to get rid of things.
If you have wisdom in matters of purging, I'd be curious for your input.
My stuff falls into a variety of categories:
( Taxonomy & analysis of Matt possessions )
---
It is tempting to ignore the problem entirely at a cost of up to $2880/yr (I got two lockers during my travels and have not really "moved in" since getting back). However, it feels like a bad allocation of resources to have all this stuff locked up when people could be using it.
I think I should aim for maximum efficiency and minimum effort with my downsizing of stuff. In a vaguely GTD-ish spirit, I think there are four actions I can take for each item.
- Keep. Put the item in a labeled box if possible and store it. I have learned over the years to standardize my box sizes for easy storage and transportation. This makes moving a hell of a lot easier. The kept items should be reevaluated every year or so.
- Release - sell / donate / trash: If the replacement cost/effort is low and/or the likelihood of future use is low, I should let the item go. Depending on the value and time involved, I can aim for sale, donation, or the trash bin.
- Document & release: If the item is of high informational or emotional value but the physical manifestation is large, it can be documented and then sold/donated/trashed.
- Extended loan: If the item is of high but very intermittent value (eg a big couch that I only have room for in some living situations) and high replacement cost, I can see if any of my friends want to borrow it.
The whole thing feels like a big optimization problem.
( An overengineered solution )
---
Also, for items I want to sell, it occurred to me that I could hire a friend to handle the logistics of selling the stuff on ebay/craigslist in exchange for say, 30% of the proceeds. Let me know if this is of interest to any of you.
However, my second carload of stuff, which was destined for my public storage locker, was a disaster. My storage locker was efficiently packed once upon a time, but I had been less efficient with my adding and removal of stuff over the last couple of years. Last night I reached a point where the carload of stuff I brought necessitated a complete reorganization of the whole storage locker. Some of this was me pushing the envelope -- eg, mathematically speaking a 12ft beam does fit in a 7.5ftx10ft storage locker, but practically it's a huge pain -- but really, it was just time for a reorganization.
However, the whole time I was feeling like my pile of stuff was just weighing me down. I want to get rid of things.
If you have wisdom in matters of purging, I'd be curious for your input.
My stuff falls into a variety of categories:
( Taxonomy & analysis of Matt possessions )
---
It is tempting to ignore the problem entirely at a cost of up to $2880/yr (I got two lockers during my travels and have not really "moved in" since getting back). However, it feels like a bad allocation of resources to have all this stuff locked up when people could be using it.
I think I should aim for maximum efficiency and minimum effort with my downsizing of stuff. In a vaguely GTD-ish spirit, I think there are four actions I can take for each item.
- Keep. Put the item in a labeled box if possible and store it. I have learned over the years to standardize my box sizes for easy storage and transportation. This makes moving a hell of a lot easier. The kept items should be reevaluated every year or so.
- Release - sell / donate / trash: If the replacement cost/effort is low and/or the likelihood of future use is low, I should let the item go. Depending on the value and time involved, I can aim for sale, donation, or the trash bin.
- Document & release: If the item is of high informational or emotional value but the physical manifestation is large, it can be documented and then sold/donated/trashed.
- Extended loan: If the item is of high but very intermittent value (eg a big couch that I only have room for in some living situations) and high replacement cost, I can see if any of my friends want to borrow it.
The whole thing feels like a big optimization problem.
( An overengineered solution )
---
Also, for items I want to sell, it occurred to me that I could hire a friend to handle the logistics of selling the stuff on ebay/craigslist in exchange for say, 30% of the proceeds. Let me know if this is of interest to any of you.
