Storing our treasures

Thinking about selling our home and leaving for a year promoted much discussion about what we should keep to use in the future versus what we didn’t need anymore. What was important in our lives versus what was easy to replace. What held value for others versus simply value to us.

The cull started about six months before we left, and over the months we went back through our belongings so many times, sifting and reducing each time. Girls toys, clothes and household items were sold on Facebook groups or given to friends and charity shops. What I realised as we went along though was that there was a danger that so many of the things we didn’t need could end up in landfill (or boxes that were in our storage unit) if we didn’t focus our attention and time on this. In a time when so much focus is on taking care of our planet this felt wrong.

It did indeed take a lot of time to work through everything. Making decisions on each item was at times wearing but I would constantly feel a physical weight of our possessions. I felt joyful at every car load that would leave out house destined for new homes! I spent hours pondering how we had accumulated so many things that we didn’t use, things that just sat in cupboards.

Some decisions were taken out of our hands – like a car needing to be scrapped rather than sold when its engine unexpectedly died! Others felt simple and so right, like donating our family car to a project that helps change the lives of people who can’t afford to buy their own vehicle.

Some decisions were simply frustrating too, like trying to find good homes for our unwanted furniture. It was challenging to find places that would accept donations of furniture that still had so much to give. Indeed, we even took time out with our van rental to deliver a sofa bed to a family, as this was the only way to give it away for free. However, I was determined this was not something that was going to end up chucked in landfill!

I’m not sure if we are perhaps more sentimental than other families (Andy probably thinks we are!) but there were many boxes that went into storage labelled ‘memories’! From swim badges and school ties from our childhoods, to love letters scrawled at uni before email took over, tickets for gigs, and precious ‘first’ items from our girls’ early years, they are boxed, labelled and waiting for us to rediscover in the future.

Despite months of shedding our possessions it still felt like a scramble at the end and, sadly, far more than I would have liked went to the tip. The last boxes that went into storage aren’t neatly catalogued but are a miscellaneous mix of items we were too fatigued to decide about!

I have left feeling like we have probably stored more than we need and will probably ever use again! However, I also know we have managed to bless many people with our extraneous possessions, both those we are close to and local charities. What we are left with are our ‘treasures’. These await our return, along with a pledge to never accrue so much again!