Countdown Panic

Today is December 4th.  We have plane tickets to move to Ecuador on January 4th.  For those of you not so keen on doing math, that is THIRTY ONE DAYS!  Oh sure, it can’t be that bad you say, that’s still plenty of time to pack up your belongings.  It probably would be if I was getting a storage unit.  Or if I was taking all my belongings down south.  But I am not.  I am getting rid of almost everything, aside from a few boxes of “really important” keepsakes and the things I am cramming into suitcases.  This means everything else has to go.  Surprisingly this is a really large and annoying task.  Anyone who has visited my house in the past several months has no doubt been invited (coerced?) to take home as much as  they would like.  I have been selling furniture to visiting teachers, making multiple trips to goodwill, and am even hosting a lovely “pay whatever you want” sale. [If you are interested in this please let me know and I will gladly give you the details…]

All of these things give me the illusion that things are under control.  On the day of the sale everything will magically go away, and everything that doesn’t will be promptly escorted to goodwill.  And then all that will be left at my house will be either going to Ecuador or going in the garbage.  But I have a secret: I don’t have any faith in this plan.  It is too close and I have done too little to prepare.  Also, how do you pack your life’s belongings into a few suitcases?  And, what’s more, why is it so hard to refine your keepsakes?  Why do I (and maybe some of you?) hold on to tiny scraps of paper someone wrote you a funny joke on 14 years ago, or a ticket of a play you saw one time?  Why can’t I just throw things into the garbage?  If anyone has an answer to these questions, or some nice things to tell me to calm my growing panic, I welcome it.  Otherwise I will be off watching Hoarders to convince myself to throw every last thing in the garbage.