When the gas explosion experience happened, I told my manager who was visiting Brazil that every move is like a giving birth. It’s painful, it’s beautiful, and mothers tend to forget the pain quickly. 🙂
Yesterday we received our shipment from the US that he left 8 years ago when we decided to move to Manila. The half container had things that I mostly forgot we stored. We lived our life happily not missing them for 8 years so I wonder why do we even need them. haha…
The crew was super efficient and unloaded and unpacked quickly. They left 3pm, leaving me and husband to do rediscover our life back then. I told him: it’s like opening pandora box, to find “hopefully” happy memories. He said: it’s more like a clock machine. SOOO TRUE!
I didn’t stop until 8pm to unbox, store, emotionally processing what we found, exhausted by end of the day, and full of emotions. I was surprised how familiar I found those things and memories. We found Sofia’s art work when she was 4 years old. We found her cast when she fractured her leg when she was 18 months. I found travel books of places I visited over a decade ago. I found books that I read when I was teens. I found old pics and letters when I left China in 1994. And much more.
I also found my old kitchen bowls, tapper wares, utensils, mason jars. I realized that we had ridiculous amounts of glassware, serveware. It tells me that life in the US was abundant not because we were richer, but because we had a lot of space and we loved hosting.
We have unpacked 90% of items. I still have many books of books to unpack, not sure what to do with books that I won’t read again nor plan to pass them to the girls. I also need to sort out winter clothes and re-arrange storage solutions.
Things remind me the version of me in the past. Books remind me where I have been, physically and mentally. Pics remind me of people that were once important to me.
Yet, all these remind me of past that I won’t be able to ever go back. It’s bittersweet, nostalgic, and requires gentle grieving.
Our New Journey 
Oh wow!! This would be kinda crazy to do and also fun. Although, like you say, it now creates a bit of a headache to figure out what to do with all the stuff you don’t want! We have a store called Half-Priced Books where you can donate used books (and they’ll even pay you a little for some of the good ones), or we can donate them to places like Goodwill, St. Vinny’s, etc. I don’t know if they have options like that there- and I suppose those books are not in Portuguese! So… that’s tricky. We have a bunch of stuff in our basement storage room that I need to get rid of and it’s sort of just piling up because I don’t really know what to do with some of it. A lot of things are still good, or technically I could try and sell online or something. But it’s just a lot of work and hassle, so, I don’t do it… but then it just sits there. Also, I agree with you though that if you haven’t had things for 8 years and you haven’t replaced them, you probably don’t really need them!! (Maybe with a house now though you’ll be able to start hosting more again and can use those serving pieces)
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I know, but once I see them, it’s hard to let them go, or harder. But they should go, those books in my teens. I’m certain I don’t want my girls to read them.
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Wow, what an emotional thing! So much nostalgia and so many memories. It’s so funny what you say about not having things and not missing them for eight years. We lived in the same house for 23 years and while I was packing up to move, I found a box that still had packing tape sealing it. It had been sitting in storage for 23 years! I ended up donating everything that was in it, obviously we didn’t need it!
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I will find ways to donate the books for sure. I found a full box on baby books!
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It must have been quite a trip down memory lane. I often have a box where I put things that I want to get rid of, but am not yet ready to let go of. I find if I put the thing in the box and then after some time get rid of the box without opening it again, I don’t think twice. But if I open the box and take the thing out, I feel attached again. But it is so funny the things that we think we want to hold on to physically and emotionally – when my in laws died, it was so hard to decide what to keep and what to toss. I am reminded of something the Minimalists say, “The stuff isn’t your parent’s legacy, you are.” That is to say, hold on to the memories, but not the things. These days, when I accumulate things, I think, “Do I really want my kids to have to deal with this when I die?” And usually the answer is “no”.
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That’s a great way to make “hard decisions” 🙂 thanks for sharing.
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It would be interesting to see all these items you haven’t seen in such a long time. It is hard to get rid of books. If you can sell them to a used store, that is great, but most goodwill types of places here don’t really want books. I’ve donated a lot to the library for their used books sales but I have to time it right. This is why I no longer buy physical books for myself and only buy them for the boys.
How fun to see the artwork though!!
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