About That Box....

This weekend a new friend was discussing moving. She moved to our area 2 months ago. She has yet to unpack all of the boxes. I was reminiscing my last two moves. When I moved into my house 14 years ago, I had so much stuff. I can't really even define how long it took to unpack. It was a very gradual process. I remember going out to the garage one year after moving and thinking I had better open the last few boxes so that unpacking wouldn't take longer than a year. I can't even fathom that kind of thinking now. I had boxes with stuff in them for a year. I clearly didn't need whatever was in them. I don't remember what was in them.

Then 4 years ago I found out I would be moving again. This time I was moving from an 1850 sq. ft. house into a 1250 sq. ft. apartment. I knew it couldn't all fit. I was moving from a house with 24 kitchen cabinets to an apartment with 14 kitchen cabinets. So I began to give half my stuff away. I had dishes that I used in the winter and dishes I used in the summer. (Yes, I know. I started off with a crazy amount of stuff.) As I got rid of my stuff life became so much easier. I got rid of dishes I didn't use. I got rid of movies that I hadn't seen in 10 years. I got rid of college text books that were no longer relevant to our fields of study. I got rid of the notes that went along with those text books. I got rid of clothes that didn't fit. I got rid of books that I had no desire to read again. The list goes on and on. This time when I moved, it took 2 guys 4 hours to pack our home into boxes. And it took me one week to unpack all of those boxes and put away everything in our apartment. The point is not to boast in how fast I got it done, but to show the contrast. My first move took a year my second move took a week. That is a picture of how minimizing simplifies life.

I'm going to venture a guess that whatever is in the boxes that my friend hasn't yet unpacked, isn't needed. It probably isn't even loved or helpful. Or it would already be unpacked. About that box... Do you have a box like that? Do you have more than one box like that? Boxes left over from your last move? Perhaps you don't even know what is in it? I challenge you. I challenge you to get rid of that box, without even opening it to see what is in it. I know you are thinking, what if there is something important in there? There isn't. If there were, you would at least remember it, and probably would have already torn it open looking for it. If you refuse to get rid of that box without looking inside, I challenge you to take care of it in September. If by September 30th you have not felt the urgency to look into it, will you get rid of it on September 30th? You will feel so much better knowing you have finally finished your move.