Stuff

While you're not paying attention, you can often inadvertantly accumulate a lot of stuff. I always seem to find this out for myself whenever I move somewhere. Nothing is a better indication of how much stuff you actually have then when you have to pack it up, move it somewhere, unpack it, and then find places for it.

This is also a good time to get rid of stuff you've been hoarding or keeping for no particular reason. It's the time when you can ask yourself: Do I really need a bullet lamp? or Am I keeping these rolled up posters from my teen years for some particular reason?

So, of course, I moved in July and went through this whole procedure. However, this time it was not only a one time moving experience. A couple of months later, at the end of November to be exact, my parents sold their house. So I discovered more stuff that I had, that I never really thought about moving, because it was easily stored in their attic, or in various places around the house.

In particular my books, comic books, and tapes. Stuff that I never really thought about much, but still had, and never really planned of getting rid of. But now that I don't really have room for them abymore, and am not really willing to pay for a storage space for nostalgia's sake, I've come to terms with the fact that these things need to go.

That has been a project of mine in the works for the past few months. One that will take me a lot more months to actually complete, because I'm not just throwing these things out. Nope, they're all going to be read or listened to one more time.

My old tapes are in three boxes in the trunk of my car. So while I'm driving around, or when I'm at work, I'm listening to them all one more time. In fact, right now I'm listening to Notorious by Duran Duran. Some of the cassettes I've decided to keep, but they're relatively few. Everything else gets one last listen then thrown away.

My comic books, which are largely X-Men titles from the 90's, with some Spawn, X-Files, and a few other things thrown in, are all being read once more and then depending on what kind of market I'm seeing on Ebay, will be attempted to be sold or just thrown out. The X-Files books didn't have much of a market, so trashed. Same with the couple of Kiss Psycho Circus comics, and handful of Alien vs. Predator titles I had. Spawn, depsite the fact that they're not very well written, have a small market. I did post them on Ebay, and got $35 for them. Or I would have if the buyer had ever responded to my emails. Currently I'm in the dispute process, which I'm just doing to cover my bases before I relist the comics. I'm working my way through the X titles now, which is a huge pain, as there were about 8 separate titles in the 90's, not to mention mini-series and one offs. As well as numerous crossovers. Doesn't make for easy reading. But I'm working on it so that I can get those 4 boxes out of from in front of my closet.

My books are the toughest to let go of. But unfortunately I just don't have any place to put them. The apartment is pretty full. I had to cut down my book shelf to make it fit in my room, so I can't fit as many books in it. I have three boxes of books also sitting in my room. And while I'd like to keep them, it's just not feasible. But I came to this realization. I can read them once more and then donate them to the library, where they'll be whenever I want them. The library, which has much more room than me for these things, can hold my books for me! I haven't really started that part of the project yet, though, as I also have a nother half-full box of books in my closet which I haven't read at all yet and I'm trying to get through them first.

So, while it would be great to hold on to all this stuff, like I said before, it's just not feasible. I need to get rid of it so that I have space...for new stuff!