salmon
New Member
Joined: December 2009
Posts: 54
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Post by salmon on Jan 19, 2010 18:14:20 GMT -5
I used to think that moving to a new living space would help me get organized. I guess squalor can be left behind to a certain extent.
15 years ago I moved from a small apartment to a bigger one. In the small apartment I was starting to get piles of stuff, but it was really only bad at the end of one room. When I moved I couldn't believe how much stuff I had. I got an extra 2 rooms in the new place. Well I ended up using the smaller room as a place to just toss things. After a while I couldn't even walk in there, but the rest of the apartment was ok.
10 years ago I moved into a house with a basement. When I started packing a few months ahead of time I was extremely organized about it and I labelled everything. 2 weeks before the move I realized I was not going to be ready in time and I started desperately throwing stuff into those big black trash bags. Not to throw out, to take with me.
Well, 10 years later a bunch of those bags are still in the basement. I never went through them. The living space has gone from fairly neat to level 1/2 clutter. I am not even thinking about the stuff in the basement from 10 years ago.
In my experience moving doesn't help de-clutter unless it serves as a motivation to do an organized pack before you move.
Salmon
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Post by illuminata on Jan 19, 2010 18:31:45 GMT -5
Surprisingly enough, I was thinking about this just a few days ago. I think that squalor is like that foam insulation that you spray into cracks around the windows...it expands to fill the space allotted to it.
We moved into this house, 2000 sq/f, from a house that was about 800 sq/f, ten years ago in March. I thought it would be better since I'd have more room. Wrong...in so many ways it was worse. After the fire, I found boxes in the back room that I'd packed when I moved out of my mother's house in 1988!
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Post by illuminata on Jan 19, 2010 18:33:29 GMT -5
[deleted...double post!]
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Post by messymimi on Jan 19, 2010 20:41:10 GMT -5
When you move, you take you along.
If you do not change the behavior, moving won't make you suddenly get neater, just like if you don't like you, moving to another city for a new start won't change you.
On rare occasion, among people who are naturally well organized and who truly live in a space that is too small for the needs of their family, it may help.
For people like us, there is no magic except in us changing our behavior and tossing the stuff.
Good question, I'm looking forward to finding out if others agree, or have different experiences.
messymimi
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Post by illuminata on Jan 19, 2010 21:27:44 GMT -5
When you move, you take you along.
If you do not change the behavior, moving won't make you suddenly get neater, just like if you don't like you, moving to another city for a new start won't change you. Exactly! I've said it for years now: "Wherever you go, there you are." |
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Post by paperpiler on Jan 19, 2010 22:05:48 GMT -5
I've gone from a one bedroom apartment to a 15 room mansion, and everything in between. The clutter perfectly filled each home. Amazing how that happens, but then again, not really. The one thing in common is ME.
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Post by yearning4order on Jan 20, 2010 1:55:00 GMT -5
When you move, you take you along.
If you do not change the behavior, moving won't make you suddenly get neater, just like if you don't like you, moving to another city for a new start won't change you.
messymimi Part of my desqualoring involved me finally going through the boxes I had been carting around through *3 moves* over almost a decade. One box was garbage, papers that should have been recycled, no clue why I boxed it up and moved it *3 times*. The others weren't quite so blatant, but more of the same. All moved 3 times.  |
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Post by shopgirl on Jan 20, 2010 3:21:42 GMT -5
Yes, moving helps. Fresh start. Purge before packing. And it REALLY helps if you move to a smaller place!
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Post by CrimsonKat on Jan 20, 2010 4:27:03 GMT -5
my DH and i moved from one apartment to another slightly larger apartment about 4 years ago, thinking it would be a new start. we were wrong. our current apartment got worse than our first one. next time we move, which will be october 2010, we are getting a SMALLER place. we have worked very hard for about 2 years now REALLY changing our behavior and getting rid of stuff. REALLY letting it go, once and for all, and NOT bringing new clutter into our lives.
so, this time, instead of feeling like we are running away from something (ourselves, our mess, etc.), we feel like we are truly going to have a new CLEAN start, with a different outlook and improved set of coping skills. it is scary, but very exciting. this time, we stayed put until we got well into doing the EMOTIONAL work as well as cleaning the material things out.
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Post by Buried-in-books on Jan 20, 2010 7:58:20 GMT -5
I Hope SO!
I am moving to a bigger house with a garage and shop for BF BUT it has no attic. I'm thinking we can get everything in the house that I choose to keep and we've built high shelves in the garage for storage of things. Like Christmas decorations, packing supplies for the business and my mothers stuff I'm not ready to let go of. But I KNOW I will not be able to get through the attic here physically and mentally in time to move. My daughter is moving into this house - I'm hoping I can leave the attic until she moves in and we can maybe rent a dumpster and throw the trash out from the window?
MizSeeker
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Post by breakingfree on Jan 20, 2010 10:19:19 GMT -5
Moving actually helped me. I went from living in a large farmhouse to an 1100 sq ft 2 br townehome. That was the beginning of desqualoring for me. Yes, I did move too much stuff initially but it encouraged me to get rid of stuff because I did not want to have to pack all that mess up if I ever had to move again! It took me a couple of years to finally desqualor after the move but I have to say that yes, the move was a "trigger." I had to change my mindset and decide what was going to enhance my home and once I did that it was so much easier to get rid stuff!
BF
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