Epic Fail, Pt II

So I finally get an apartment closer to my job. Takes a while for me to get someone to take over the lease for the one I moved into over the summer.

Not having lived with most of this stuff all Autumn, I think it should take no time at all to load into a standard moving truck -- why, I'll probably have extra room!

Wrong....

While it is true I did not technically fill the inside of a 14-foot, 733 cubic feet moving van (there was space at the top), I did manage to take up a good 3/4 of the truck (around 550 cubic feet). And, it took 4 hours to load, mostly because of my procrastination over the last few weeks, not packing when I had the chance.

550 Cubic Feet is not actually a lot of space, especially for a soon-to-be 48 year old living by himself. But it's a far cry from the 'drown in a bathtub' scope of how far I had wanted to reduce my material footprint.

One area I had failed to consider: kitchen equipment. Pots, pans, skillets, crock pots, waffle makers, microwaves, plates, cups, glasses, mugs. Many of my boxes were filled with this stuff, and I can't see parting with any of it, because I use it all at one time or another.

Time to look at everything, again, while repacking, and find out if this goal is even possible.   --JB

Life, the Monkey Wrench of existence...

So, I put down my last box from moving across town, and get a phone call that I've gotten a new job in Houston, 75 miles away!

So, this lovely apartment I have turned into a very expensive storage unit, as I'm staying with a friend in town while I work during the week, and coming home weekends to check my mail and see my friends in College Station.

Since August, I have not unpacked my stuff from the move, with the exception of some kitchen stuff, clothing, and CD's and LP's.  No books, no artwork on the walls, few pieces of furniture. Very interesting. I can actually live without this stuff, after all.    --JB

Epic Fail

Okay, so the big move comes. I moved to a new apartment, only 4 miles from my current one. Having purged a lot of things in the past year, I figure I was close to my original goal of being able to move everything I own in 2 pickup trucks.

Wow. I was so wrong. Last year my move took 12 hours and required 7 pickup loads, and that was only moving a mile. This year it required a week (!), and took 3 pickup loads and 7 loads in my Honda Accord. I spent a total of 55 hours physically moving stuff.

I do have less stuff than last year, but why did it take so much longer?

Media. Books, LP's, CD's, DVD's. Photo albums and slides. The stuff on my 4 shelf units alone took 3 trips to transport. Compared to everything else I own, they are heavy, bulky and dense. Worse yet, most of their function is backup: they sit on the shelf until I need them, to replace a crashed iPod or computer. The rest of the time, I'm stuck with a strange multicolored mosaic of spine art on my shelves.

This year, I forewent the use of cardboard boxes. I hate cardboard. It's not really designed to be much more than a temporary container. The smooth outside surface makes it hard to grip, and it has pitiful holding strength. I put all the books I own into 4 lawn and leaf bags, which was sufficient for the short journey. When I got them to the new place, I chucked the bags into the hall closet. I'm going to conduct and experiment to see how long I can live without physical books on my shelf. (I'm loving my Kindle!)

My music collection has been backed up and duplicated so many times it's hysterical, but I'm still loathe to throw out literally thousands of dollars of vinyl and CD plastic I've been collecting since I was 12. Sometimes I think, if I could just whittle the collection down to the stuff that irreplaceable (like signed copies of albums, promos, test pressings, limited editions, etc) my physical collection would be more manageable. Even that thought doesn't make me want to part with my ultimate backup. I may be losing this battle, after all.

I'm going to see where else I can reduce, and make a new goal for my next move. Stay tuned!   --JB

Countdown

My lease on my current apartment expires next month, and I'm moving. The whole goal of this adventure was to be able to reduce the amount of material I have to move in order to change residences. I will be taking inventory over the next few days to see how I've done.  --JB

The Big Purge 2: Obsolescence

Obsolete technology really bothers me.

Today I'm considering the fate of the following:

1 - 15" Dell CRT Monitor, still works great
1 - 17" Dell CRT Monitor, still works great
1 - Gateway computer tower, runs Windows 2000, has a CD drive, a DVD drive, a floppy drive and a Zip Drive
1 - Blue and White G3 Mac

I think the next hazardous disposal in our town isn't until October, but these are slated to go. What bothers me the most is that, at one time, each of these were top-of-the line machines that cost a fortune and made huge profits for the companies that put them out. Now they're just wasted space. I've replaced them with a larger flat panel Dell monitor, so Dell continues to make money, even though everything they've made before 2009 is obsolete.

That's not right. Why are we, the consumers, responsible for disposing of these highly toxic machines, when we didn't make them, and we did not profit from their purchase?  Dell (to name one, but all computer manufacturers) should be charged with buying back obsolete equipment, and disposing/recycling them at their own expense. It may cut into their profits in the short run, but it would be a better solution that what we have now.

I tried for a month now to obtain a converter so that I could at least attach a DVD player to the larger monitor. The converters themselves are hard to find (no brick-and-mortar company has one, they're only online), and cost almost as much as the DVD player does. I have newer monitors, so it's not really a necessity, I just hate wasting something that cost that much money.

And I stub my toes on them a lot when I walk around my apartment :(   --JB

Big Purge 1: 2011

Today I seemed to be in the final grips of Spring Cleaning Fever. I tackled my two closets, with the aim of throwing out everything that wasn't useful or worth anything.

I also had a goal of better utilizing the shelf sets I have. Two 6-tier shelf sets have been sitting for a few months now with lots of empty space on them. Time to consolidate.

After 7 hours of work, I now have all my books in one place (at long last, none in boxes). And, I have a new empty set of shelves, on which I can now consolidate various electronic components. My hallway closet is now a repository  for empty containers.

The casualties for this purge were many, but a couple warrant special notice:

     -- my Pentax ME-F camera, purchased at the PX in Augsburg Germany in 1985, along with the 50mm lens it came with, and a 23mm lens and a 70-210mm zoom lens (costing a total of $2200 back in the day). After I got my first 2MP digital camera, I never picked up my Pentax again. It's very sad. But, most film cameras aren't worth a thing anymore, and film just doesn't compare with a digital  image.

     -- my model USS  Enterprise-D, which I spent 2 years applying various details to. I just really have no where to put it right now.

With a few exceptions, I've whittled things down to a place nearing the minimum amount of stuff I can use and keep.   I'll have to do another sweep in a couple of weeks.   --JB

More Records

The other half of my Dick Clark collection, the Music Machine (1974-76), is what I started selling this week. I put a show up for auction at eBay, and... no takers. It's never easy, is it?

Next week I turn my attention to about 30 years' worth of magazines. Should actually be easier to deal with than the vinyl. --JB