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Tuesday, June 12, 2012

How Much Is Enough?

I've been living in two cities since January when my job officially relocated to Atlanta. To explain, most of my stuff is still up in my house in MN while I'm in Georgia with only some of my things. Until I can get my house ready to sell, close on it, and find something down here, this situation will continue. It's stressful, time consuming, and expensive.

One of the interesting things, though, about this experience has been being separated from most of my stuff.

The big thing is that I haven't missed most of it. That's enough to give one pause, isn't it? How much of what I have am I keeping out of inertia or because I spent money on it? How much do I really need to move down here?

Oh, there are definitely things I miss--my big television (not as big as most people's TVs, but big enough for me). Watching baseball on the 19 inch set I brought down with me is passable, but lacking. I also miss having a DVD player down here. Not the recording part of it. I never record anything because I never watch it. Ever. But the only DVD player I have is on the laptop and it's just not convenient to stop doing stuff while I watch a movie. (I also miss some of my DVDs that I left behind.)

I miss some of my books. When I was pruning my book collection, I was reminded of old favorites and I want to reread some of them. Many of these titles are not in ebook, and if they are, priced too high.

I miss my desktop computer. Unfortunately, that's the machine to which my iPod is synced, so I can't load new music. The desktop is an iMac, the laptop is a PC and that's the problem. I could go on about the technical issues here, but I'll spare y'all. :-)

I miss my computer printer. I miss my reference books. I miss my bedside lamp. ( I know; weird thing to miss.)

But for all things things I wish I had down here with me, there are 10 other things that I haven't given a thought to since I left. And that's what has me wondering if I can get rid of some that without regretting it later. I've already donated something like 30 boxes of stuff to various veterans groups and I've donated (so far) 2400 books to the local library (not a typo), but can I get rid of more? It's made me think.