The winds of change (part II)

After much soul searching, tears, anger and a bit of confusion I bravely accepted the fact that we will be moving into our new home. We were scaling down. Out with the old, in with the new. I had to get ready. Start packing. Get rid of unwanted and not needed items and pieces of furniture. Downscale...like some people say.

Moving the contents of your home can be a daunting task. I have moved house 7 times in 33 years. Not too bad considering some people move 2 or 3 times a year. Quite unsettling, unless you're a gypsy. I have often read that psychologists have proved moving house is almost as traumatic as losing someone dear. Thankfully I have never seen or experienced a move in that light, as most of the times we moved I was looking forward to the home we were moving into, even though packing up everything is such a dread. We were going to move for the 8th time. Packing up was my responsiblity. I had to start saying goodbye and make my peace, but I was not ready for it. It really took an enormous amount of courage and willpower to condition my brain into accepting that we are moving to a place I don't want to know as my new home.
Taking photos of our old home before I started packing brought peace and lasting memories. I had to accept the fact that I will no longer have a lovely studio to teach from. I will only have a small space to fit my piano and music books. On a positive note, I will still be teaching, only from a smaller space. I can live with that...

I have always had to pack all the boxes mostly on my own. The contents of every box was more or less written on the outside with a thick permanent marker. Medium boxes work best for the heavier things, as the bottom of an overstuffed large box can easily pop open, disaster! I secured all the undersides of the boxes with duct tape, to prevent any box from dumping its contents on a hard floor, or worse, the paving! Also, pack the things that you need the least, first. The fragile beauties have to be secured in layers of bubble wrap. I hate wrapping anything in newspaper. My husband would help picking up and moving heavier objects. We have never moved across the waters of the ocean, so I can only talk about my experiences moving between small towns and eventually to a big city, which was the one move I looked forward to the most! Nevertheless, packing always took up a lot of time and effort, because if you had to move your fragile treaures via a furniture removal truck, you really had to pack with purpose, unless you wanted breakages. Some people use the services of the removal company staff to pack their boxes, but to me that was never an option. Firstly I would simply not want strangers going through my stuff and secondly when you have to unpack at your new destination, you wouldn't know where anything was, as all their boxes look the same and they don't care what they put together. Luckily, no truck this time. Everything from furniture, boxes and plants will have to carried down the driveway into the new cottage (still to be finished.)

If you own a lot of treasures...(some people call it rubbish) you really need to take stock of what you absolutely have to keep and what you can sell or give away. I am in the position that I have lost all my close family at a young age and very much had to face the world on my own. I am a sentimental soul and have kept many of their belongings because it makes me feel I have a small part of them with me. It's also a way of recalling special memories that are long gone. People who are not sentimental or who haven't lost anyone dear, cannot relate to that.

It can become a huge problem if you battle to let go of things, or stuff, some people call it rubbish, but in the end they are just objects. I grew up in an era where a middle class family did not always have a great camera and the one that we had was only used on special occasions, such as a holiday or a wedding. The photos were often not that great. I don't have great photos of my childhood and none of us as a family, which is why my parents' belongings are so dear to me. I realised late in life that I am the only one who really love my late Mother's cups and wedding gifts from 1940, my father's gifts to me when I was a little girl, my grandmother's furniture made by her father in law...and the list of trinkets and treasures goes on and on.

When you have to halve the contents of your home to move to a smaller place the inevitable question is...what can go with, what will fit in? How do you choose what to keep and what must go? The answer is simple. Start packing the most precious and special things which you absolutely won't part with first.
It then becomes easier to choose what can stay and what must go. The shock? I have accumulated too many things that I do not need - fullstop! Who? Me? Yes, I had to face and digest the truth and start acting, fast!
The wise people call it "baggage." They are absolutely right, I just could not see it, but the right attitude makes things happen, helps you see clearly, even if you are going uphill. Going uphill with a good attitude is the answer to progress.

No longer The Music Experience Studio. Organised chaos, boxes, crates, all part of the ongoing changes. We are on our way.

It used to look like this...part lounge with my studio in the background.