Two Tons of Fun.

The weekend before I left for Biloxi, I carted years of accumulated debris from my house to the dump in a U-Haul truck. According to the scales, two tons of junk. This did three things:

1. It cleared up a lot of space. This space was promptly filled with other junk for future trips. It's a start, but the job will likely never be complete.
2. It made me hurt. Moving that much weight was probably a bad idea, but as I won't return before the snow flies, waiting would have meant that stuff would have sat around until spring or summer, when hopefully I will be on round two. I paid for it, and spent a good bit of time in bed waiting for my shoulder to stop screaming at me. My doctor would not be pleased.
3. It made me a little depressed. While a lot of it represented junk I just never figured out how to get rid of, some of it was hoarded stuff that I once saw as "valuable" but now realize has no actual value to anyone anymore. It was just taking up space. Some of it was outdated. Some of it was worn out. Some of it was from pursuits I don't take part in anymore. Most of it represented a large sum of cash spent over many years that will be covered over with dirt and examined in 3,000 years by an advanced culture yearning to comprehend why mankind ever thought CB radios were cool. That money could have been saved for the future. It could have gone towards something of lasting value. It could have gone towards a vacation or any number of other experiences. Instead, it's going in a landfill.

I'm slowly clearing out the junk, but for a consumer like me, this is a slow process. Part of it is taking stock and deciding who I am and what I want to be when I grow up, then jettisoning the stuff that doesn't support those goals. Some goes to friends, some goes up for sale, and some, unfortunately, goes to the dump.
 

The dump trip did make me feel like I accomplished something, like I was finally acting like an adult. I still have far too much, and far too much of it I don't need or use. Minimalistic is not how I would describe my lifestyle, but I'm working on it.
 

I'm working on it.