With Moving Comes Enlightenment

Moving shines a very bright light on my habits

Moving is becoming a fascinating process now that I’m in the thick of it. I have twenty-four days to be moved out and so, so, so much needs to be done. At the same time, some of the things we think need to be done can wait until after the move.

We need to put a shed up this weekend to have room for his stuff and what I’m bringing from my place. This has been in his plans for a while as his garden tractor/lawn mower needs a place besides the garage. I have a few things that will need a home too, so this needs to happen.

The chickens have been up for debate for the last week. We don’t know if we will have enough time to put up a chicken coop before the move. One thought has been to rehome the chickens. We had hoped to relocate the current chicken coop, but that is no longer a viable option. We thought maybe putting together a chicken tractor for the time being would work too. I will know more next week about which option is the best.

I've found that I have no problem letting go of things. In fact, Rob has had to talk me into keeping some of the furniture like the dining room table. I have accumulated many things over the years. I needed most of those things because of the kids. Now they are gone and I don’t need all the beds, chairs, tables, dressers, and whatnot.

Every day, I walk through the house spotting things that can be donated to the thrift store or given to friends. I have sold a few things, but I detest Facebook Marketplace. I have had mostly smooth transactions, but some people are very flaky. Some of the messages from potential buyers can also be bizarre. Sometimes it is not worth the effort, but I have furniture that needs to go so I have to suck it up and do it.

Twenty-seven years is a long time to spend in one place. I am grateful for the farm and everything it provided for us. However, I am not sad to leave it. It’s time for another family to enjoy the place and make their own.

But twenty-seven years also means a lot of accumulated stuff that I could ignore over time. That has been almost harder to deal with than the everyday things that I use. I had plans for the things I put away and forgot. Now that I see them, I think I could still do something with them. I know that I won’t and they need to go.

Cleaning out cabinets and closets has revealed a few things for me. I truly think I have some ADHD impulses that cause me to buy unnecessary things just in case. While many of those purchased items have come in handy, many have not. They were a waste of money and time. Most of the time, they were bought from clearance racks, thrift stores, and garage sales, but that still doesn’t justify the purchase. Some of these things were bought with preparedness in mind, but they were chintzy and not worth even a look. I could have spent my money more wisely.

I did not expect moving to be an enlightenment. I did not expect to understand something I had known for a while - I do better with less. I will always have too many books and jars. I will always have an overflowing food storage. I will still have piles of papers. However, I don’t need all the other things. I can still be adequately prepared with fewer things. Life will still move forward.

This is an interesting realization to come to while moving. I will always have a few extras in my drawers because I hate running out of something like deodorant and not having another one in my vanity. However, I don’t need twenty-five bottles of dish soap (I don’t think I do anyway).

I know I am a prepper. Many of you reading this are probably preppers in some way. I have usually been clear about what I want to be prepared for - job loss, power outages, financial difficulties, economic downturns, and cyberattacks, to name a few. I was never really on the apocalypse track because I could only guess at what that could entail and I didn’t see a way to be fully prepared in my current situation.

However, my perspective changed somewhat in 2020 and almost everyone returned home for a while. Preparing while my kids were young is different than being prepared when they are adults. They tend to create and bring home extra people. Suddenly, I felt like I needed more things and had more scenarios that required planning. While the pandemic did not unfold as the experts had planned (thankfully), it still sparked some interesting thoughts and decisions for me.

I went overboard in 2019, 2020, and 2021 buying extras for my stockpiles. In 2019, I had suspected that something significant would happen in the next year. There was plenty of news and speculations that tingled my spidey senses. It did happen, but thankfully, we did not experience the worst of the pandemic's restrictions. I was very grateful to be living in Iowa where our officials decided we were smart enough to handle this responsibly. It could have been so much worse!

Truthfully, due to my response to the pandemic, I have been using up things from that time. I have not bought a bottle of cleaner or dish soap since then. However, I realized I was preparing for something more akin to an apocalypse than a more realistic scenario. I am not saying that an apocalypse could not happen. It certainly could happen. That was not my goal, though.

Moving is offering me a chance to get back on track with prepping and with life in general. We have a smaller place so items will need to be carefully considered and thoughtfully purchased. Realistically, I only need to prepare for two people, a dog, two cats, and eight chickens. Three of my four kids are married and living on their own. They need to prepare in a way that makes sense for their households. I should not need to worry about it.

Moving is also giving me a chance to address some of my bad habits and, admittedly, panicked thinking. I would rather have adventures than a ton of stuff. I need to keep that in mind when I am shopping. I will admit that I am rather impulsive so I need to address that problem as well.

I would love to hear your experiences with moving, especially as a prepper. Did anything change with how you prepare? What have you done differently since moving?

Thanks,
Erica