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I made the move from Australia to Germany with little more than a small suitcase and a hiking pack. Looking back it's not something I would repeat. You've got
by grumpy-de-sre 5y ago
I made the move from Australia to Germany with little more than a small suitcase and a hiking pack. Looking back it's not something I would repeat.
You've got to be absolutely ruthless about what you sell or dispose of but seriously consider getting a pallet. It took me a long time to replace the stuff I sold for pennies on the dollar.
In the end I didn't find it particularly liberating. Though I think part of that is I went from living independently to relying on furnished apartments for a couple years. Living in a place that's not your own can eventually become grating.
- stevekemp 5y agoI'd agree with that. We spent a busy few weeks getting basic things setup (sofa, table, tv, book-cases, etc). Over time I started to get annoyed that because we'd bought things used with no real planning we had different colours/styles/designs all mishmashed together. There was nothing wrong with any of the things we bought, but over time it did become annoying to live in such a state. I can imagine that if we'd moved into a furnished house we'd have had similar views and even less control about replacing things to match. Feeling more like a caretaker than living in "our home".
- rightbyte 5y agoYe I don't get the liberating thing. You need stuff. Screwdrivers, cloth hangers, spoons ... I feel like just ditching it all and thinking of your self as unbound to earthly possesions is self-deception, since you just buy it again. It is acctually consumerism and spree shooping.
- 2muchcoffeeman 5y agoI think it’s an over correction from being too consumerist. You go from extreme to extreme. I see this with people who didn’t exercise, and now they are all in with the gear and the diets etc. But I wish there were certain things and spaces that were able to be rented. I don’t need a drill all the time. Sometimes I need a workbench and more clamps. There’s a lot of community level optimisation we could do.
- braincrumbs 5y agoMost hardware stores do rent tools. And many towns and cities have tool lending libraries.
- emodendroket 5y agoI think a drill is the one tool pretty much everyone could stand to have.
- 2muchcoffeeman 5y agoI own a drill and would probably advise the same thing. But I clearly don’t use it more than a few hours a year.
- emodendroket 5y agoTrue. But also true that you can't really do quick, impromptu fixes if you have to rent the thing.
- eertami 5y agoYou need them sure, but you don't need them to be _new_ screwdrivers, clothing hangers or spoons. When moving, I sell leftover things to people who need them. And then when I arrive, I buy things second hand from people who no longer have a need for them.
- rightbyte 5y agoSure, it was the "moving with just a briefcase" I was commenting on mainly, not getting rid of superfluous stuff - which of course by definition you don't need.
- grumpy-de-sre 5y agoThere's absolutely an element of truth here.
- emodendroket 5y agoI was thinking about a job opportunity that would involve a move recently and started to feel ridiculous when I realized how much of my apprehension had to do with all my stuff, much of which was boxed up and hadn't been touched for years. Then I read the Kondo Marie book and started doing it. An unexpected side benefit is you come to appreciate the possessions you do want to keep a lot more when you separate them out from ones you're keeping around "just in case" that you didn't really want.