Moving is never easy, especially if one suffers from the western genetic mutation called consumption.
And moving to another part of the world, as I am this autumn, makes the process an even greater challenge because I have too much stuff. Even though I have no plans to bring any stuff to Bangkok, I have equally strong plans to leave little behind; the more you leave behind the heavier the mental and physical chains. I’ve had enough of the chains in my 50 plus years.I don’t think of myself as a consumer. I have hardly bought anything in the last three or four years. Most of what I got was obtained in my formative consumer years, which go back to the 1990s.
And have I got a lot. My last consumer era consisted of buying Asian films from the cheaper than cheap Chinatown in Toronto. Before that, earlier this century, I followed some terrific TV series, such as Battlestar Galactica, Deadwood, Heroes, Dead Like Me, Wonderfalls, Firefly, and well before that, Babylon 5. In the early ’90s, I geeked out on Babylon 5. I have the novels, comics, calendars (OK, now I’m embarrassed) and collectible cards. Before that it was comics such as Sandman and Death (do you think there’s a theme here?).
All along the way I read science Fiction. So I have a lot of books and DVD movies, and VHS movies and series, and music CDs (I even threw out some music cassettes this week!). What to do with this stuff? Since I have entered the age of common sense, which is only about four or five years ago (it happens when you turn 50, hopefully) I will not carry stuff from place to place. And, thanks to my stronger sense of living lightly, it must go. All of it.
Which is a long about way to say I am looking back on my accumulating years and going, What The F--k was I thinking? Frankly, none of this stuff is worth much. Never was. Back then, when I had the full-on collector virus, you accept the consensus that all of this will be worth something some day, at least more than you paid for it. Ha! What a sucker! Those were in the Boomer Era days, when old stuff was gaining popularity and desirability. Suddenly, that old 33 rpm record was worth 10 times what you paid for it. Now, well, I just sold 40 albums from the 1970s rock years for $40. (Don’t ask me why I carried this anchor for nearly 40 years! Paying to move it each time, with its cumulative cost of . . . I don’t want to know!)
Of course, better technology and cheaper products overtake most of the old stuff.
So it’s out with everything: sell it, dustbin it or give it away. I was ruthless. I’ve up-ended boxes of novels into the recycling bin or trundled better ones to a local library; dragged bags of clothing, and DVDs and CDs to charity services; and I’ve bagged useless stuff and sent them plunging into the building garbage compactor.
If you think you’ve weeded out a good hunk of domestic driftwood, think again. You have always got more stuff than you think. One night I spent 4.5 hours in my building locker pawing dust-laden boxes and asking myself why did I think I’d want to see these cancelled race track tickets again? Ever? Or track ID badges? Or cheap automobile souvenir models? Or news clippings? Or calendars from some obscure industry?
That’s not all. I’ve got enough souvenir t-shirts that would probably clothe the entire populace of Monaco, should anyone be needy there. You see, I got rid of a lot of stuff back in late 2008 just before embarking on my six-month sojourn in Bangkok. I really did. Or I thought I did. You see, I really got rid of only half of it. So the lesson here is: Be Ruthless. You will never need anything in your garage or locker or basement ever again if you haven’t look at it in a year. Ever! No qualifications.
The only thing I salvaged was some personal pictures of relatives and friends in my earlier years. They were good memories. They all fit in a shoebox. That’s all I have left. Oh, plus financial papers, which are a must to keep for are least seven years in Canada.
Over the last few weeks, I’ve been selling a lot of stuff to collectors (Cf. dictionary definition, suckers) through online classified services. I discovered 1/18 scale race and road cars (but not 1/43 scale) are desirable, vinyl record albums (but only if they’re pristine, not like mine), DVD movies, music CDs, and last and least, books.
I’ve been going out every night and coming home with empty bags and more than a $100 in my pocket from selling off DVD movies ($4 to $20 each) and music CDs, the latter practically worthless (e.g. 5 discs for $2). Sad to acknowledge how little value there is in books. I have some good ones, but while I haven’t tried to sell any, just a perusal of second-hand shops tells you all you need to know. They buy them by the pound. Or boxful. Not the title.
I’ll own up to the fact I bought a lot of travel books on Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. But did I really need five or six books, phrase and language books on each country? Plus multiple maps? I think you know the answer; they’re now lying in the recycling bin.
So in my preparation for my departure from Canada for a long-term stay in Southeast Asia this autumn, I really wanted to leave very little behind, only my apartment and some furniture. That’s my goal and I’m almost there. Really!
