As some of you know, I’m about to embark on a trip to become an expatriate. I turned twenty five a few days ago, and I accepted a job offer overseas a few days before that. I am a long time resident of a smallish college town in Texas, made famous by the college, football stadium, and its small string of bars just north of campus. I moved here at eighteen and have never really looked back. I worked on my degree and never really thought that I’d stay here forever. I ran the off campus BONFIRE for a couple years, and traveled all over the tri-state area speaking at former student clubs, and meeting people from all walks of life. I got a job just outside of town immediately after graduating, and just kind of never left.
That’s all about to change. I’m moving to a small Sultanate in far East Asia by the name of Brunei. Brunei is a very small country made famous by its Prince’s wild spending habits, oil money, and the fact that the Sultan used to be the richest man in the world. I’m going from a very Republican area of the United States to a country where the Sultan is also the Prime Minister, Defense Minister, and Finance Minister. The country has been under de facto martial law since a revolt in 1962. To say that there will be a culture shock would be a bit of an understatement, but that’s not really what I’m here to talk about.
How does one go about paring down possessions for an overseas move? I will be in a company furnished apartment, I do not need to bring furniture. I will have company furnished transportation. I do not need to ship a vehicle. It’s amazing the amount of stuff one accumulates over the course of seven+ years. There is a personal finance guru by the name of Dave Ramsay who said what I’ve been thinking quite a bit over the past few days very simply –
We buy things we don’t need with money we don’t have to impress people we don’t like.
I have so much shit. I’ve got books overflowing on my four bookshelves. I’ve acquired a bed, two TVs, tens of plates, huge amounts of silverware and kitchen utensils. I have video games, two laptops, a random bowling pin from my fifth birthday. I own many pictures of Bonfires, fishing gear, four pairs of boots, a kitchen table, a sofa, a love seat, and a stupidly large collection of Blu Ray movies and DVDs. Over the years I collected two whiskey decanters, twelve whiskey glasses, a serving set, twelve coffee mugs (I DON’T EVEN DRINK COFFEE), random sports memorabilia, a dresser, a plethora of stolen pint glasses from bars, a couple of flags. Do not start me on the clothes, I am not one who dresses extremely well, but damn if I haven’t kept every fucking t-shirt and polo for some god forsaken reason.
Don’t get me wrong, that was by no means an exhaustive list. I have actually done a pretty good job of getting rid of things as I moved around town from dorm room to college apartment to house to professional apartment to a cheap ass place in a mediocre part of town. The issue is the amount of crap that one accumulates throughout just day to day life, and then figuring out how to actually start getting rid of it all. Here were my steps –
- Clear a space on the floor. Make sure it’s a large space, and it’s clean.
- Start in one corner of one room and bring everything out and place into piles. I picked five piles, but whatever works for you, mine were labeled TAKE, STORE, SELL, DONATE, TRASH. Don’t agonize over it’s place, go with your gut and move to the next item.
- Once that room is complete (I started with my closet) evaluate the piles. Can you actually sell what is in the sell pile? Does it make sense to store the hat that a coworker gave you six years ago? Are you sure you want to trash the painting your ex gave you right before you broke up?
- Throw everything in the TRASH pile away, do it immediately. Take everything in the DONATE pile where it belongs, and do that immediately after you went to the dumpster.
- Evaluate the piles you have left. Is there more trash? Probably. Do you need fifteen different t-shirts where you’re going? Does it make sense to keep the outdated TV that you paid $500 for six years ago? Take it seriously, you’re de-cluttering your mind and your life. Your TAKE pile needs to be feasible to pack, whether it is in a U Haul trailer or a suitcase.
- Move to the next room, and repeat steps 2-5. I found the process worked better if I did one room a day because it is an emotional process getting rid of all your bullshit. I don’t care how minimalist you claim to be, if you’re at a point where you have to pare down your belongings there is an emotional attachment to the Mad Men Season 3 DVD set you got from a friend because you had been going through a rough breakup. Anyone who truly doesn’t care about the stories of their things is full of more shit than your apartment.
This process took me roughly a week. I’m packing up my STORE pile and selling off the SELL pile, but here’s everything that I will have with me in the very near future.
Top Image: Wikimedia Commons
