the great purge
So we’ve been running around for the past week like chickens with our heads cut off. Posting 10 things on craigslist in the wee hours of the morning makes the next day very hectic. Try doing that twice in a week. We have finally gotten rid of most of our furniture (only a broken desk is left). I dropped off 7 bags of clothes, sheets and towels at Goodwill about an hour ago. The hardest thing was sorting through all the sentimental stuff I’ve been dragging with me forever. I probably had 4 boxes of pictures, notes, writings, etc. which I never really looked at, but brought with me every time I moved. I’ve whittled it down to two boxes. I recycled a lot of the stuff I held onto from Y.O.U. (Youth of Unity) - newsletters, notes, etc. I still feel a little bad about it, as if I’m throwing away old memories. But then, if I never looked at them, what was the point of carrying them around? It’s like that with so much of the clutter we’ve gotten rid of. We carried things around because we might need them in the future. But no more.
I have two-weeks worth of clothes. Seven t-shirts, seven collared shirts, five pairs of pants or shorts, underwear, socks. I’m putting some of my “fancy” clothes into storage. I haven’t worn them recently either. The only furniture I’m retaining is my black “Dr. Evil” chair, which is both very cool and sentimental (my Dad bought it in England in the 60’s and brought it to the U.S. when he moved here). I’m entrusting friends with some books, movies, a socket set. Pretty much everything I own will live in my car. This is how I spell freedom.
February 1st, 2006 at 12:51 pm
I am so glad you have hung onto the “Dr Evil” chair. I have a picture of you (Benjamin) and I (Dad) sitting in it in our London apartment before we moved to the U.S. in 1984, which I will give to you.
My Mom (your grandmother) and I bought the chair, with a footstool in 1965, a year or two after my dad died. We decided we needed to brighten up the house a little, so we went to the G-Plan store and bought the chair and the footstool. At the time “contemporary” furniture, with lots of leather and teak, highly influenced by the clean lines of Scandinavian furniture design, was very popular. G-Plan was one of the biggest manufacturers of contemporary furniture. The chair is even in a furniture museum in England! - here is the link: http://gplancabinets.datagate.net.uk/cms/CMSFiles/news/news948.asp