I have this horse. He’s about 3 feet tall, the color of sage, made of metal, and permanently stuck on a pole. I love this horse. I love him so much that he has moved with us several times. But for the last eight years, he’s lived inside our storage unit in Seattle, patiently guarding our prized possessions.
Twice a year he gets moved. Once when we swoop in during our annual holiday visit to rummage through boxes marked Winter Clothes, Christmas, and Important Papers. And then again, a few weeks later when we stuff everything back, along with whatever else we’d accumulated and couldn’t travel with.
This time, however, we were in Seattle in April to get vaccinated. We had three weeks between shots to decide whether we should downsize to a smaller storage unit while we had the time and decent weather. The rent had ballooned to $300 a month over eight years, and we knew we could do better, so we pulled the trigger.
That meant we'd need to find a new place with some sort of "Move in Special" and commit to reducing the contents of our 10’ x 15’ space to fit in a 10’ x 10’ unit. Five feet doesn't sound like much of a reduction - but we soon learned every cubic foot counts.
Since my horse serves no purpose other than decorative (Michael would agree with that), and we still don't have a home, you might think he'd be the first thing to go. But that was a firm "No!" on my part. Even though his tail has broken off, and he doesn't "fit well with others", he's still beautiful to me. So we set my steed aside and dug deeper into our “Babylon of Boxes” to exhume what we’d been storing all these years.
He’s smiling now. On about day 4 it wasn’t as much fun - but we got it done!
We gave ourselves a week to sort our possessions into three categories: toss, donate, or keep. I called this our "Tiny House Move" because the same steps were required to move a mile up the road to another storage unit as there would be if we were moving from a small house to an even smaller one.
We rented a U-Haul for the clean-out and then hired a moving company with a truck and crew for the move to a brand new CubeSmart facility offering the First Month Free! Even after renting a truck and then paying for the move, we reduced our rent by over half.
I found my favorite black “fascinator”! There were many more “delightful finds” that I wanted to keep, but Michael kept me on task, and eventually, we got down to a manageable amount of “stuff” (I kept the hat)
All the tools and snacks we’d need to get the job done. Champagne is in the cooler.
Ground Zero. Most every photo, article or Tip Top sample passed through this sorting process. (Tip Top Creative was the name of the graphic design company I had for over 25 years.)
We set up a sorting station spread across two folding tables and went to work. We set aside the best of the kids' artwork, school projects, report cards, photos, and any other special mementos from their childhood. It would now be up to them to decide what to keep. Or not.
One afternoon we must have looked particularly frazzled because a young woman walked past us and then backtracked to observe us for a moment. She came a little closer and tentatively asked “Uhm. Is this a divorce situation?” We looked at her, and then at each other and simultaneously said “Not yet!” We all laughed and I gave her a nice big jar of Jo Malone lotion I couldn’t take with me.
A nice woman took this picture of us, but only after watching us for a minute, and asking if we were in the middle of a “divorce sort”… is that a thing? Our answer was “Not yet! Come back tomorrow.”
We hauled three large boxes of photos and memorabilia to our Airbnb to sort through. We unearthed some real treasures, including rare pictures of Michael as a child with his father who died when he was very young. Pictures of me with my sister, who has also passed away, and photos and press coverage from Michael’s racing days. My task was to sort through thirty years worth of samples from my career as a graphic designer and art director.
My parents saved newspapers from important dates in history. It was fascinating to go through them.
This is the picture that started it all. Michael really wanted to find this image of him racing in France and he was pretty sure it was in one of the boxes. After lots of searching and sorting, he didn’t find the actual photo, but he was able to track down the publication that ran the story and get this digital copy!
I took snapshots of some of my favorite design sketches. These were for a logo for Tom Douglas’s Crab Cakes to be sold in retail stores circa 2010. I loved rendering concepts using felt pens. Once a direction was approved my designers turned them into finished art. The winner was the one on the top right.
If you remember the recent blog I wrote about the overwhelming task of sorting through 50,000+ digital images, well, this was the hands-on equivalent. And even though we threw away hundreds and hundreds of printed pictures it felt like the boxes were bottomless. Just like the photos on my computer!
We discovered family photos we didn’t even know we had! Michael found several of his biological father and I found new images of my sister and me (we had a lot of hair in the 80s). Here Michael compares his senior picture with his dad’s. Moments like this made the whole process worthwhile!
I found a digital “photo therapist" in David Wagner, known as Lightroom Guy. He and his partner Dimitriti helped me come to grips with my digital library. I was happy to learn there is no right or wrong way to go about it - as long as it works for you. David taught me to think like a magazine editor - keep just one or two photos that tell the story, and also how to use the “Blink” method:
“The Blink method based on Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Blink, can be applied to photo editing. When looking at your photos (family, travel, events, etc.), only mark the ones you like as a favorite. You know what you like in a second. Don’t invest time on the rejects, as there will be many more rejects than favorites.” - David Wagner, Lightroom Guy
These tips helped me sort through piles of “real” photos, too. Although it turned out to be more difficult with physical pictures. Everyone we held conjured up memories, and somehow it seemed sacrilegious to throw any of them away. But we did, and even though there are still hundreds in a box, at least they are sorted into large envelopes or have been given to family members. In some cases, we just snapped a photo of the picture and sent it to a friend or colleague with a note saying how much we enjoyed being together on that occasion - and then we tossed it.
Moving day arrived and Adam’s Moving Company sent their A-team. Darrien, Russell, and Lopez were affable, professional, and fast! We’d done all we could at that point, so we stood by while they excavated the boxes and furniture we couldn’t get to. There were a few more decisions to make, but we didn't open any of the sealed boxes from the very back (next time). Finally, they were down to the last item - my horse, of course, all loaded and ready to roll in under two hours.
The lads! Russell, Darrien, and Lopez with Michael in front of our new space. These guys were fun to work ,with and very careful with our worldly possessions.
We were dubious everything would all fit in the new space, but Darrien was a Storage Unit Savant. He directed his sidekicks on where and in what order to put each box and stick of furniture, including two sets of queen-size mattresses until there wasn’t an inch to spare. The only thing that didn’t fit (no, not the horse) was our old dining room table and we could live with that.
My horse is back in her rightful place - front and center in our shiny new storage unit. And…I found her tail.
Was it worth it? Yes! Beyond the savings, it was interesting to look at what chose to store eight years ago with fresh eyes. We had to laugh at some of our choices. This time we were able to be more strategic and less sentimental.
We left Seattle much lighter and with a renewed commitment to our Senior Nomad lifestyle. Next up Paris on July 8th (fingers crossed) to see our grandchildren for the first time in two years!
Thanks for following along,
Debbie and Michael Campbell
The Senior Nomads
p.s. We are currently in San Miguel de Allende. If you happen to be here or plan to visit before we leave for Europe in July, get in touch. Our e-mail address is seniornomadsineurope@gmail.com