6 Lessons From A Cross-Country Move
I’ve lost eight pounds so far this summer. Yay me. But last summer I lost a couple thousand pounds…in furniture, clothing, and books! In a way, I’m trying to scale back everything. The first time I downsized was when I moved across country and I’ve learned a few tricks since then.
Decreasing anything, from waistlines to bookshelves, takes planning and discipline. Keeping the “weight off” requires long-term commitment. What’s the good of clearing your closet out if it’s just going to inspire you to go on a massive shopping spree? 
I am an Olympic-level downsizer. Seriously, I’ve given away several households of stuff in my lifetime. Consequently, during the time I own things, I enjoy them, but I don’t get overly attached.
My First Time Downsize Strategy
The first time I downsized as an adult was when I moved from Chicago to the Pacific Northwest. As with most of my big moves, I knew where I wanted to be, but not exactly where I was going to live. Also, I was ready to get rid of furniture that had served me well, but no longer fit my maturing style. Adieu, white wicker headboard. Sayonara, sleeper sofa.
Actually, the reason for divesting was more practical; costs for a cross-country move went up with each big piece of furniture and funds were tight. It made sense to apply the shipping cost to a new piece of furniture once I’d settled in.
Then there were the houseplants. I’m blessed with a green thumb so plants tend to take over my homes if I’m not careful. One pothos vine was about 12 feet long. Clearly, the greenery wasn’t going to survive a week long, cross-country trip in a moving van.
But even though I was an amateur downsizer, I learned a few key lessons:
1. Decide What You Need to Keep
I convinced a friend to take the sleeper sofa for a small fee. I should have given it to her considering she had to move it down three flights of stairs. Then I put all the furniture I wanted to keep into one room and cleared around it. Chicago has a well-developed scavenger network. As I hauled armchairs, bookcases, computer desk, and nightstands down to the alley they quickly disappeared. Know what didn’t disappear? My ancient desktop computer. It sat there for days. 
Years later when I moved overseas, I packed three suitcases with a few clothes for every season, a laptop, and measuring cups. Hey, I don’t cook in metric. Once I had the essentials, I cleared everything away without worrying that I’d toss something important.
2. Give Yourself a Deadline
The movers were scheduled to pick up my goods mid-week and were going to deliver them to Portland, Oregon 5-8 days later.
“What is the delivery address?” The moving coordinator asked me. This was a sensible question.
“I don’t know yet,” I replied.
Somehow, I convinced them to put my goods on a Golan’s Moving truck and drive across country on the assurance that I would a) have a place rented by the time they got there, or b) we would deliver it to a storage facility.
This meant that everything I wanted to ship had to be packed by moving day and I had to get rid of everything else by the day after the movers came because I was hopping on a plane. Because I started by setting aside what I wanted to keep, it made the sorting process go much faster when I was down to the last few hours. It was not so much scaling back as it was a major purge.
Miraculously, I was able to fly to Portland, find an apartment, paint the walls, and stock the kitchen with groceries by the time the movers called to say they were in town. Talk about focused.
3. Use Textiles as Packing Materials
I love table linens and always use cloth napkins for meals. Recently, my young neighbors and I went to the hear symphony in the park and brought a picnic. I took old napkins that I’m not worried about losing. As my neighbor handed hers back at the end of the evening, she said apologetically, “It’s a little dirty.”
“Good,” I said. “That’s how it’s designed to work. 
Napkins also make great packing materials.
Place a tablecloth or runner at the bottom of a box, wrap napkins around individual cups or plates, then insert them into the box. Your dishes will stay snug and chip free and you’ll eliminate the need for a separate box for the linens.
The same thing goes for towels which make great packing material for artwork. Sure, you have to do laundry after unpacking, but you were going to do that anyway.
4. Don’t Expect to Make Money From Your Stuff
I let everyone in the building know that they could have my houseplants and left my doors open all weekend so people could wander in and out. After a while, people would point at whatever object caught their eye and just ask if they could have it. They pretty much always got a “yes”. It took on a festive quality. The more they took, the less I had to pack or drag downstairs.
This come-and-get-it strategy has worked for me many times, but most recently I tried to sell bigger pieces of furniture. Big mistake. I spent valuable time taking flattering photos, writing scintillating sales copy, and posting it online, then fielding calls from lots of creeps and indecisive people. I sold ONE item; my desk.
About Rummage Sales
Tag sales are where hoarders and downsizers converge. After living in the Pacific Northwest for years, I moved overseas and had to get rid of EVERYTHING. A friend advised me that if I had a rummage sale, the weirdos would arrive before the start time (they did), and nothing would sell after 1:00 (also true). My favorite weirdo asked if the random crap from my junk drawer was free then scraped every last broken pencil and paperclip into a plastic bag, saving me the effort.
5. Only Keep the Well-Made Things
That first move, I kept my dining room set, a mattress, and a TV. But because I liked to host dinner parties and brunches, I had invested in decent dishes and those table linens which filled more boxes than almost anything else.
Don’t get sentimental about dilapidated furniture thinking you will fix them up after you move. You won’t because you’ll be busy fixing up the place itself. You can buy crappy end tables for a song if you really need them, but wouldn’t it be nicer to gradually replace the tired, old furnishings now that you have the chance?
As luck would have it, shortly after moving to Portland a local department store had a big sale and I got a gorgeous aubergine sofa that I loved until, well, the next big downsizing. Interestingly, I started collecting mid-century modern furniture which marked me as an eccentric back in the 90s. I could hardly give it away when I left Seattle in the early aughts. Five years later, though….
6. Fashion Differs From One City to the Next
I’d traveled enough to know that every foreign city has its own personality. What I hadn’t considered was that the USA is a big country and what’s cool in Chicago might not work elsewhere. Portland was a pit stop; my ultimate destination was Seattle. Amazingly, I arrived with no hiking boots and no REI fleece outerwear.
What I did have were suits, lots and lots of business suits. I’d worked in the financial industry which expected a more formal dress code. This led to much misunderstanding.
At my first job in Seattle where I was basically a temp who had been promoted to oversee a big project, I initially came across a lot of resistance for my ideas. Finally, a coworker told me, “Everyone’s upset because the company let go a lot of people then brought in an expensive consultant.” 
“Who?” I asked, prepared to gossip.
“You.”
Uh, no. The only work clothes I had were silk suits and high heels (hand-me-downs from a friend’s lawyer mother, actually), which led people to think I was earning wwaaaayyyyy more than I actually was. Once I convinced everybody of my lowly status, it was time to go shopping.
Favorite Clothes Might Stay in the Closet
The same thing happened when I socialized. In Chicago at the time, we wore cocktail dresses to house parties. That first party in Seattle I thought I had scaled back my style enough by wearing a pleated skirt and sweater. Ha! I was the fanciest person there. Dweeb.
The point is: don’t assume that your entire wardrobe is relevant in a new city or even a new job. This is especially true if you haven’t spent much time in your future home. Also, even if your new home is similar sartorially, you don’t know which social circle you’ll fall in with and they might all have a different vibe from your old network of friends.
If you are relocating, bring a core wardrobe of well-made pieces and a few articles to spice it up. Don’t pack everything. You might not be able to get rid of it. Remember those fancy suits? They were so worthless that consignment shops wouldn’t even take them.
Conclusion
We will get into advanced downsizing in other posts, but now I want you to remember the five things I learned the first time I tried to reduce everything:
- Set aside the things you want to keep before you start clearing away clutter.
- It doesn’t get done if you don’t have a deadline.
- Reduce the number of boxes by using your textiles as packing materials.
- No one gets rich from selling used furniture and it takes too much time anyway.
- Keep the good stuff; replace the old and worn.
- Your clothes might not be in fashion in your new home town, but keep good wardrobe staples.
Even before you start divesting yourself of your belongings, if you get your head in the right place, it will help you once you start to seriously scale back. And hey, good luck in your new life. 
