2010
Me at lots of different ages!
Kelly & I just moved from the east side of Austin to the south, from a 3 bedroom house to a 1 bedroom apartment. We had massive amounts of THINGS to get rid of, much of which we had accumulated to fill a house that was too big for us! We decided to be much more intentional with the interior design of our new place.
Kelly sold most of our furniture & useful things on Craigslist, & we donated around 15 bags of clothes, accessories & kitchen items. But I was still left with boxes of photos, trinkets, & mementos. I wouldn’t say I’ve reached a state of minimalism yet, but with Kelly’s help I am well on my way. I think that my amulet to ward off attachment really helped! Here are a few things I learned from the move…
- Get rid of the easy stuff first. Photo doubles, picture frames, matchbooks, gone. I found it helpful to sort out the empty ephemera first, because I needed to build up some momentum to keep going!
- If you’re not sure about keeping something, put it in a pile to look at close to moving day. You’ll probably feel a lot less attached to it with an impending deadline!
- Keep only your nice things. And then use them. Kelly had me choose between keeping a crappy plastic cutting board and a beautiful wooden cutting board made by my dad. I was all, “no we use that plastic one all the time!” and then I wondered what the hell I was saving the nice cutting board for, Thanksgiving or something?
- Get rid of things you’re REALLY. NOT. GOING. TO. USE. I live in Texas. I wear a layerable series of hoodies throughout the mild winter. It snowed once last year. I do not need four heavy winter coats. In Illinois, I had an excuse. In Texas, I now have one winter coat.
- Make a pile to digitize & toss. I had to bring my photos with me to the new place, so I could figure out how to part with them. I ended up photographing my photos! I tiled them all together & photographed them with a nice camera so I could preserve the memory (in my lifestream) but get rid of the paper. Want to see my adolescent life? A MASSIVE amount of photos below. If you have any tips on letting go of things, please let me know! Click the images for larger view.
First communion, easter, siblings
Playing clarinet in marching band!
8th grade!
8th grade with the quadra
8th grade was a romantic year
8th grade graduation
Freshman year homecoming I believe?
Early high school years, around 97. Six flags. Sophomore year.
probably the end of freshman year
definitely freshman year & Paul's birthday!
sexy goth 15 year olds!
Freshman year, New Year's...
another freshman year dance
sophomore year at catholic school
Shepp ranch, playin guitar, Florida
Shepp ranch, junior year
sophomore year in high school, yum
sophomore year & gawthin it up
Keane & me, mostly junior year
senior prom!
Young Keane, college me, Six Flags
Paul and me, Keane and me, Muffin!
Keane and me, another homecoming perhaps
Keane and I took lots of pictures
My first time with pink hair!
More Keane and me and dances and parking lots
Piano recital action and more Keane!
Dead bunny, young Keane, Scott & Alan
Graduation, swingset, dad, college exhibition
Sophomore year, leftover dances and parking lots
Young Keane, college me, Six Flags
A trip to California with my friend Paul
Tarot cards, young kitties, Erin Paige
i think the tip about putting things aside until closer to moving time is a great one. the more shit i got rid of, the less i was attached to shit. i noticed that shit i cared about early in the process meant nothing to me the day of the move. once you get rid of soooo much shit its just like ‘GET IT ALL GONE!’
loved seeing your old pics, i think a lot of people will like this one
Muchas gracias Kel! Wow that just made me want a drink. And a taco.
What the.
Part of me still feels so much guilt for accumulating all that crap in the first place!
ahhhh, fifteen year old goth jess – CUTE! (; hehe
haha thanks jetta