Jane again...

Art got our apartment yesterday. He sent me pictures, and it looks pretty neat, so that's great. He's going to have a few big shopping trips for the things we need to have right away, and to replace essentials we're not taking with us, but then hopefully he can settle into a kind of a routine soon. There are a lot of little things we aren't taking. Spatulas and colanders and that sort of thing - if they were treasured heirloom spatulas from my grandmothers maybe, but we don't have much of that nature. So I give them to Goodwill here and get different ones from Goodwill there. One things that's been a boon to us in this move is our tendency to get furniture without much $ value and fix it up. It's made it really easy to just get rid of it. When you've picked up a side table at the side of the road and washed it and spray painted it silver (to add that special touch) it's hard to justify paying to ship it to Alaska. You just put it back by the side of the road and move on. I recently read an interesting book on the subject That Might Be Useful by Naton Leslie, and one of his theories about living your life with second-hand sensibilities is that while you tend to have more respect for stuff, you also get less attached to some of it. I'm finding it's true for the most part. There are still some things I can't let go of, but most of the stuff is just stuff.