Moving: FAIL & WIN

I'm moving this weekend. I've been preparing to move for about a month now, so as the last few days of final action happens, I've had a chance to reflect. This move has provided an excellent opportunity for me to examine if I have indeed been pursuing a simpler lifestyle in the last few months. The true tale will be told this weekend by my parents since they helped me with my past three moves (yeah, I move a lot. side note: I'm hoping the weather will be nice. two of those moves included 98% humidity with a 105F heat index & the other was a blizzard).

This move will take me from a three bedroom duplex with garage & lots of space down to one bedroom in a house with three other girls. The house is already furnished so I won't need my kitchen stuff or any household furniture. Fortunately, I can store stuff in my parent's basement until I need it in the future. No point in getting rid of my favorite RED kitchen stuff since I know I will eventually need it again.

So here are my reflections, FAILs first-

FAIL: Me being a minimalist. Ok, it's not a complete fail, but I'm not as far along down that path as I thought I was. However, I think living out of a bedroom will help me figure out what I really need & what can really go.

FAIL: I don't know what to do with my pair of orange Banana Republic dress pants. Plato's Closet didn't want them, but that's no surprise. The minimalist in me says, "Donate them! The last time you wore them was to work on Halloween 2007!" Another part of me thinks, "They fit like a glove. Too bad they're orange. Keep them for a costume!" What kind of costume involves orange pants? Wait! Carrie Bradshaw!

FAIL: Realizing I'm ok at maintenance cleaning, but I haven't done deep cleaning of my apartment since...um...

WIN: I took stuff to Plato's Closet & they bought some of it!

WIN: Donated a lot of stuff to Goodwill

WIN: Sold the coffee table on Craigslist!

WIN: Being able to move a whole bunch of stuff to my parent's basement before the actual move.

WIN: Finding out I can buy homemade wheat bread by the slice at the Mennonite Deli near where I work. $.25 a slice! Ok, that might not be a direct moving WIN but I'm quite happy about it anyway.

The WINs outnumber the FAILs so I'm really quite happy with how things are going. I'm packing up the kitchen tonight, so we'll see how that ends up. Here's to moving!