Over the past 13 years I’ve accumulated a lot of stuff. I sort of knew that. But it’s only when I started trying to unpack everything in the new house that I realised a few things:
- I have a LOT of stuff
- I have ended up with extras for a lot of things, because the old house had deep cupboards, so you couldn’t see what you already had
- When you have a dishwasher and hate washing up, you don’t need as much crockery as you did before you got the dishwasher
- I have a lot of books that I know I will never read again. Ever.
I need to do a cull. And I still haven’t even tried to bring over most of my clothes yet!
Books .. I know that there are a lot of novels there that I will never read again. Much as I love Lee Child I am not going to re-read all his novels anytime soon. Same with Clive Cussler and a bunch of other authors. Other books I would obviously keep, like my first edition James Bond novels. There are others that I can see myself reading again, or are simply a really nice edition. But a lot of the other books simply have to go.
Food and cleaning stuff. Most of this is “consumables”. I will use them all eventually. My challenge for now is just finding somewhere to put them so that I’m not falling over them or making the house feel overly cluttered.
Crockery.. I really don’t need to have dozens of wine glasses and loads of “normal” glasses, so I’ve taken a couple of bags full of them into the office. They’ll get used. At home I’ll keep the nice ones I’ve been given by various friends and relatives along with some that I picked up over the last couple of years. As a beer drinker, for example, I really like the Hard Rock café glasses. They’re also perfect for fresh juices or smoothies. And for whiskey? I think I’ve got that covered nicely:
Herbs and spices.. I’m sure some people buy “a” brand which comes in standard sized jars and that all fit neatly into a spice rack. I don’t. And again, due to the very deep cupboards in the old house, I’ve ended up with quite a few duplicates. I’ll use them all up eventually, but it’ll take a while.. (There’s only so much oregano you can use in a day!) I’ve been trying to find spice racks that will take “non-standard” jars. There are a few reasonable solutions out there like this one.
The new house isn’t gigantic. At around 110 square metres it’s more than big enough for me and with a bit of careful planning I’ll be able to get everything into it. However that will require a bit of thought and planning.
For now I’ve organised a couple of things that will help, though it’ll be a few weeks before they’re installed. A local company does custom furniture and interior work and they’ll be fitting out floor to ceiling bookcases in both my home office and a section of the dining room area. Between them they should be able to take quite a lot of the books, though I suspect I might need to get a few low bookcases that sit at about window sill level for a couple of the bedrooms. I’ll hold off on that until the bookcases are in first.
The television and all my AV equipment is going into a custom built unit that will take up most of one wall in the sitting room. The rough drawings I’ve seen and the previous work they’ve done gives me confidence that I’ll end up with something that will do the job. Hopefully the new cabinet thing will also be able to take the bulk of my movies (in various formats) as well as at least some of the CDs.
I’m not 100% sure about how I’ll handle the clothes as yet. However I will need to do a cull. I have way too many t-shirts. I used to pick them up at conferences around the world and I never wear them. Yes, I do wear t-shirts, but I rarely wear “event t-shirts”. A lot of the spare bedding and other stuff that is rarely used should be stored properly, so I was thinking about getting a few of these.
I’ve no idea if the previous occupants of this house took their bathroom cabinets with them when they left, or simply didn’t own any toiletries, but at the moment there’s simply nowhere to even sanely store bandages, medication, aftershave, spare razors etc., For now I’ve got them rather crudely plonked at the bottom of the bath tub where there’s a ledge, but obviously that’s only temporary. I don’t spend a lot of time in the bathroom, but if I need a shave I want to be able to do it comfortably! So I’m open to suggestions on that one.
Back to unpacking …
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