A Second Thought on Downsizing...

There are way better ways to do this whole get-rid-of-half-your-possessions thing. That is, if you have a bit more forethought, and not a surprise $1000 rent increase and a roommate deciding to go on a last minute cross country rendez-vous.

In my defense, the free box method is a time honored Portland tradition, and probably the reason that I have most of this shit in the first place. However, there comes a point when your free box just becomes some sort of grotesque illegal dumping situation. We were definitely toeing that line for a while there.

And yes, the whole freegan love thing is pretty cool, but donating it somewhere may actually be a better way to go. Goodwill's an OK option, but should probably only be used as a last resort. I can't lie though, that is definitely what we did after we let our neighborhood have their pick of it.

What I probably should have done was give it to an organization that could have put more use to it than those craigslist trolls.

Well, shit. In my regret, I've decided to mention some of those organizations in my area that do great work with all that non-trash trash out there. I'll use them for the next half of this inventory reduction. Holla.

• The Arc of Multnomah/Washington County - These guys run a resale store to fund their programs. Clients from their programs come and volunteer with me at my work.The have a long list of things that they don't accept, but definitely worth it to sort out the things they could use. 
• Volunteers of America - They do a similar thing. Volunteering at the Food Bank every once and a while too. Great things both these programs are doing
• SCRAP - an amazing arts and crafts reuse center! They are definitely getting my fabric collection.
• The Community Warehouse - They take bigger things like furniture. But remember to keep it classy. Charities don't want your junk neither.
• William Temple House - They run something similar to a Goodwill, and have a social services and emergency assistance piece, but they are a faith-based organization...and I tend to avoid that.
• Oregon Food Bank - Lest we forget, cleaning up the kitchen. Oregon Food Bank accepts unopened non-perishable & perishable food  items for our neighbors in need. 

Anyway, yeah, after its all said and done, and my lackluster Goodwill donation was complete; I am still left with a bit of trash. OK. A lot of trash. There is a random bed, that I don't know where it came from, and a futon cushion from a futon that I definitely never owned. I snuck it over to my new house in the middle of the night and stuck it behind a truck in the front lawn. Definitely the opposite of classy.

Goddammit, what do I do with that thing?!

I think I"m going to burn it. Yeah, I'll let you know how that goes.

Downsizing

Everything is finally in its place. It feels like it has taken months to get to this point. All the sorting, and agonizing, and scrubbing, and worrying. This move has definitely been trying..

To be frank, I have the hardest time throwing things away. My slight obsession with trash really compounded the stress of  moving. I imagine it living out the years of its life on a garbage pile in Southeast Asia. Depressing. I know, but really it forces me to think about the million ways I can make everything I own not trash.

What made the cut.

I started with the garage sale. Honestly, it wasn't worth shit when it came down to the dollars and cents of it all.  I think we made maybe $60 total. The best part of it was deciding the difference between the things that I could keep and the ones that I couldn't. You see, I lived in a huge 3+ bedroom house, and furnished and filled the whole damn thing. I had couches, kitchen stuff, washer & dryer, clothes of all sorts, bike things, tables, chairs. The whole nine. I was moving to a 12'x12' room in a house that already had enough stuff to fill its walls, its garage and then some.

More than half of it had to go. "Sure. A dollar. Yeah, take some clothes too. The guys stuff is over there."

I sold my kitchen table, two books by Obama & a Cookbook to an 80-year old couple in a minivan for ten bucks.




People were pretty stoked around seven o'clock when we introduced the "mostly free yard." "Yeah, you got a truck? Sure, take the two tables. Yeah, those lamps too."



Letting it all hang out. 





I was really appreciating the cleanse.



The next day I had the free garage. I put up an ad on craigslist and had a handful of people come over and take a look. At one point, we just had a father and his son load up a truck to furnish his dorm room. Seriously. We gave him a desk, a full kitchen set, chairs, a whiteboard

 

A lot of crap that I didn't plan on keeping somehow managed its way into my new abode. A 27" inch television from 2005? A cooler? A can of hairspray? a whole bag of spices? really? really? Where did this stuff come from?! Less. Less. I want less stuff.

All craziness aside, I'd call it a 60% reduction in inventory. Not bad, but there's still a lot of work to do.