NEXT STOP: UNPACKING PARTY

Three more days to move to BASTORA!

Next week, I will have to begin unpacking. I have decided to try out what The Minimalists Ryan Nicodemus and Joshua Fields Milburn advocate and that is

      AN UNPACKING PARTY. 

Well, actually, they don't call it that. 

They called it 

              A PACKING PARTY. 

WHAT IS A PACKING PARTY?

To quote The Minimalists:

'A packing party involves packing up all of your possessions as if you're moving home. As you go about your routine, you gradually unpack items as you use them. By the end of a set period (e.g. a month, a season) you donate or sell what's left in the boxes.' 

Now, you guys know that I AM REALLY MOVING, so I have done the first part. What I will, therefore, need to do once I reach the new flat is NOT TO OPEN OUT all my boxes and start shoving things into empty spaces just because I have brought them home. 

I will have to consciously open only what I need as the days go by for the next three weeks.

Gosh, this is going to be really tough because I love UNPACKING all at once and settling things as quickly as possible. Having unpacked boxes around for days on end or even weeks will be a first for me!

But I want to try this method out to see if it works. It could be a game changer big time. 

Another game The  Minimalists advocate is the 30 day challenge. For this game, you need to put one item in a donation bin on day 1, two items on day 2, till you reach day 30 when you put 30 items. By the end of those 30 days you'll have a total of 495 items to donate/sell/throw away. I  tried this game once but couldn't get beyond the sixth day. 

This UNPACKING PARTY, though, sounds doable. As the days are drawing near and I am putting things away, I realise that I can manage without all the spares and duplicates. It is inconvenient but not impossible to live without much of my stuff. I can see - the few items that I do need - in a different light, now that they are not lost in all that EXCESS. And I'm beginning to  like seeing empty spaces and not  having to constantly fill them up with things. 

So, next week is gonna be UNPACKING PARTY TIME at G5, starting with Aaron's 21st birthday on 30 Oct. Do keep him in your prayers. 

Till my next post, its Shalom Shanti from CS7. 

Taken from the website of THE MINIMALISTS

"Instead of going through your possessions and trying to decide on what you no longer need or want, a packing party lets you re-introduce possessions organically. You don't force items back into your life. You get an accurate picture of what you actually use."

"The problem with storage is that it hides what you own and you forget about it. Your possessions sit there redundantly until you move home. Only then do you sift through and remind yourself of all the lovely things you have. You pack them up carefully, move them to your new place and keep them in storage until the next time you move. The cycle will continue until you try a packing party. You'll realise it's ok not to need as many things. It's ok to let go. It's ok to give your things to someone who can get more value from them. You'll be surprised at how quickly you'll forget what you gave away."

Read more at

https://www.theminimalists.com/packing/

Excerpt from the above article:

Each box was labeled so I’d know where to go when I needed a particular item. Labels like, “living room,” “junk drawer #1,” “kitchen utensils,” “bedroom closet,” “junk drawer #7.” So forth and so on.

I spent the next twenty-one days unpacking only the items I needed. My toothbrush. My bed and bedsheets. Clothes for work. The furniture I actually used. Kitchenware. A tool set. Just the things that added value to my life.

After three weeks, 80% of my stuff was still in those boxes. Just sitting there. Unaccessed. I looked at those boxes and couldn’t even remember what was in most of them. All those things that were supposed to make me happy weren’t doing their job.

So I donated and sold all of it.

And you know what? I started to feel rich for the first time in my life. I felt rich once I got everything out of the way, so I could make room for everything that remains.