Today was D-Day. I was opening Pandora’s Box-literally a whole
shipping container of everything I own in the world. My belongings, my memories and my stuff that
has been stored for the last 2.5 years.
I have been racking my brains the last few days on what I exactly had in
the container and I wish I had of made a bit more of a comprehensive list as I
have no idea on what is in there. Most
of the big furniture I can remember, but how many boxes and what is in them is
a little hazy, I just know there was a lot and in there I will find 50 bottles
of vodka, 3 boxes of Elmo and 2 boxes of Tupperware everything else will be a
surprise. The shipping container people
did an inventory on the all the stuff loaded, but big beefy men moving boxes in
the heat of September ( I remember it was hot) I thin]k there care factor was
non-existent and add in a copy in triplicate as well, there really wasn’t much
for me to go on. So with some masking
tape in hand, a Nikko pen, a bottle of water and my IPod I drove the 20 minutes
to the depot to start what I was expecting to be a tough and emotional 3
days.
When I arrived at the depot, I parked
out the front and it was weird as I had butterflies in my tummy. You would think I was going for a job
interview, but I think it was more stress than anything else as I was only
given 3 days to clear out every single thing I own and either find a new home
for it, try and sell it or throw it away.
I was also expecting to meet ‘the cow’ that I have been dealing with for
the past 2 years, but lucky for both of us, she wasn’t working today and I
pushed a bell and a guy came to the counter.
Thankfully they knew I was coming, so they told me to wait a few minutes
as they got my container down for me and when it was ready they came back into
the office to get me, gave me a fluro safety vest I had to wear while I was out
there and the doors were opened. Now I
am not sure what I was thinking by not bringing someone with me to help move
the big stuff and I was super lucky that they guy who showed me to my container
was very nice and he said he wasn’t busy and that he could help me out till he
was needed back in the depot otherwise I am not sure I would have been able to
move everything on my own, and I would have tried and I probably would have
done myself some damage. So for the next
3 hours, we moved boxes out, to get to the large furniture items that were
spread throughout the container so when Tat (my new mate) had to go back to ‘proper’
work I would be able to amble my way through the stuff without needing any more
man power. After the first hour he went
and checked with his boss that he could help me and the boss said no worries
and that they would charge $50 bucks, which I grateful for-I needed the
help.
As the big items came out of the
container and I saw just how much stuff I had was overwhelming to say the least
and the last thing I wanted to do was have to move all the things out, to move
them all back in, to move it all to the other storage place to try and sell it
and then get it moved to the Elks for the pickup once I had sold it. This job was MASSIVE enough as it was, so as
my stuff came out I told Tat that he was more than welcome to anything that was
coming out. Take it; I was going to give
it all away anyway, so it may as well go to the guys that were helping me. So there became ‘piles’ of things as the
morning went on. There was Tats pile,
the throw away pile, the pile that was going to get collected tomorrow to the
new storage place, the pile where I was going to take back to the Elkins and
the last pile was a last minute addition as Sandy had text me during the
morning to say that I was more than welcome to bring stuff to her house for her
to try and sell at her garage sale on Saturday morning. So the piles grew, Tats more than anyone’s
and word had spread about me giving things away and we had visits from about 6
other guys that were all working on site.
So Tat got first dibs and then the stuff that he didn’t want was going
into the collection pile for tomorrow.
As Tat realized what was coming out, he decided to make life a little
easier and got an empty shipping container and set that up opposite my
container and we were able to move stuff for collection straight into that one,
so we didn’t have to double handle it all this afternoon to get it all back in
my container. That way, in the morning,
when the other storage people came, everything in the second container was to
go with them. What a great idea. By lunch time 80% of the furniture had been
given away. My mums stuff was still all
there but I now knew that it all had to go and that included her things as
well. It is a shame as there was a wing
chair of hers that I got reupholstered after her death, but it had to go and
Tat was more than happy to take that off my hands. The good thing was he was so thankful for all
the stuff he was getting and one of the other guys said that there aren’t many
people like me in the world and that I must be a very generous person.
So Tat took his stuff away on a trolley
at lunch time as he had to get back to work, but if I needed anything to come in
and grab any of the guys, they would be more than happy to help me and I in
turn told Tat to send the guys out and have a look and if they wanted anything it
was theirs. The container was now 90%
empty and I had stuff everywhere. The
throw pile was =starting to grow and I will have to get a skip organized for
Friday to come and take it all away for me.
By the end of the 3 days there would be too much for me to take to the
tip on my own. I got asked by all the
guys by the end of the day why I was getting rid of everything and when I told
them I was moving to Africa they were shocked and impressed all at the same
time. As my belongings started to get
carried away I was feeling okay about it all.
It all feels right, that this is what I should be doing and it really is
the final step to cleansing myself from Australia and making my move to Africa
more real.
So the afternoon wore on and this was a
lot more emotional for me as I was now getting into personal items. Diaries I had written when I was 14, 20+
squash trophies that I won through my junior squash career, my wedding dress,
wedding photos, my mums 1964 school certificates and her work certificates, my
report cards, my old sticker collection that I’ve had since I was 8 years old
and that is just the cream so far. What
would I do with them all? When was the
last time I looked at this stuff? I got
given some stern advice from Shelly that I had to be ‘Ruthless’ (Iike the Ruth-which
was my mums name) of the word, and yes she agreed that things may have
sentimental value, but when was the last time I looked at any of the stuff I
have hoarded over the last 20 years and with my move now to Africa why pay
money to keep the stuff that I will never really look at again. What use will my 10th birthday
cards be to me in Africa? I see her
point. So with that advice in mind, I
opened boxed-checked what was in there, worked out what pile it should go into
and then moved onto the next box. My DVD
collection of over 1100 was a tough give away and also the Wii was something I
had totally forgotten about.
Later in the afternoon I was happy with
the progress I had made and my mums dresser and cabinets got snatched up, so I
told him he had to make sure he would look after it as it had belonged to my
mum and it was more gear that I didn’t have to worry about. I also found boxes of travel knick knacks
collected from all my overseas trips dating back over 15 years. When I first started travelling I was buying
a lot of the small crappy stuff, so it was time to part with that and half of
it was throw out. I kept some things and
the rest I put into a box that I would take to Sandy’s. You never know what would sell as the saying
goes some-one’s trash is some-one else’s treasure, but I did draw the lone at
some tacky stuff and tossed it. I ended
up with a half packing box of things that will eventually make it to Africa,
but maybe not on this trip.
The time consuming things was I had to
unwrap a lot of things to see what was in there. The boxes were labeled pretty well, so I had
an idea on what would be in there. Some
boxes I gave a quick run over and then deemed where it should go. So I am sure that there will be things that I
didn’t even see that were thrown out, but what I don’t know won’t kill me
right. I did make a concerted effort to
check the entire bar marked boxes, as I knew I had over 50 bottles of vodka
lurking in them. I wasn’t going to be
giving any of that away and I backed up the car and started loading the alcohol
to take to Shelly and Shane’s. I thought
I had checked the bar boxes well but in the afternoon when I started to pack it
all in for the day some of the guys were looking through my ‘rubbish’ pile and found
new 1.25L bottles of Makers Mark and Bacardi.
I did feel bad but asked if I could have it back and they were given
without any qualms. I felt like an Indian giver to an extent as they were in
the ‘throw’ pile-but I couldn’t let those through, could I. I probably need to explain the ‘throw’ pile
was like a 2nd hand shop.
There wasn’t rubbish as such, there were glasses, pillows, bar items
like coasters, pictures, frames-it was all perfectly good stuff, but things I didn’t/couldn’t
use/need and had to go somewhere. My
squash racquets and bag got snapped up and my book cases (all 7 of them) also found
a home in the afternoon. At 3.30pm I
started to repack all the stuff back into the container, I was told I couldn’t leave
it out overnight and with sore feet that concluded my first day in the
container. I didn’t realize till I got
home at 4.30pm that I hadn’t eaten a thing all day and I really didn’t feel
like it either. I can’t tell you how
good it feels to finally have this process in place and even though tomorrow
will be harder as I have boxes and
albums of photos to go through, I rekon I am 40% done-which is amazing.
Day 2 dawned at 6am and I was on the
road at 6.20am. I stopped at Macca’s for
breakfast and arrived at the depot at 6.45am to try and get a start on the last
6 boxes before the other removalists arrived.
There were some boxes that I had just put in the ‘pick-up’ pile that I didn’t
really know what was in them, and I figured I could just open them in a month’s
time, after I had finished round one and had a bit of a break. The removalists were on time and as
everything was all packed and ready to go in the second container, as I was paying
them by the hour they were gone by 8am.
Awesome. Not empty handed I have
to say, they got given some bar posters, glasses and a few bits and bobs
including 2 signed racing photos from the bar.
Last of the big items was taken this morning from one of the depot
workers so I was left with a couch, a sun chair, 2 small bed side tables and a
small table. Not bad, not bad at
all. I worked like a dog for the rest of
the morning, going through more boxes than having to move boxes today. The biggest job today was going through 4 big
packing boxes full of photo albums.
There would have been 18 of them.
There was nothing with the actual albums and I could have emptied them
and sold the albums, but who could be bothered taking out thousands of photos
to make 3 bucks, but I did make a concerted effort to flip every single page
and take a few photos from each album, so I took the time to look through them
and took a few select ones to keep and the rest got thrown out. I’m talking personal photos, past holiday
snaps and photos that were pre-digital.
I also found the box that had all the negatives of all the photos and I
just threw them out as well.
I came across a box of mum’s things that
contained old newspapers, certificates and personal items. If I’m not keeping my own certificates then I
can’t really keep hers. I kept a few of
the framed ones which I took them out of the frame and some of her private
items and the rest joined my stuff on the ‘throw’ pile. I had a box of all my travel documents,
tickets, maps and merchandise that had been collected and saved from every
single trip I had done. I had over 30 travel
wallets (one for each trip) and with a quick peek into them they also joined
the rubbish pile. Speaking of which, the
rubbish pile was starting to grow. I
made a few phone calls about getting a skip delivered tomorrow-as it was my
last day and I was looking at a cost of around 300 bucks and it didn’t seem an
issue to get one tomorrow. The last big
things I needed to go through were 2 boxes of shoes, a box of bags, 3 boxes of
clothes and 2 boxes of sheets towels etc.
Day 2 was coming to a close, it was nearly 2pm and I was tired and my
feet were killing me, so with Tat coming round to see if I was okay, I offered
him the box of bags and shoes to him as his wife is a bit of a shoe and bag
lady-which he took. I didn’t look
through those boxes properly so Tat said if there is anything that looks
personal in the boxes he would bring them back tomorrow. Fine-I was over it by this stage. Then the sheets and towels and clothes I
would deliver tomorrow to Vinnie’s.
The find of the day was some 2AUD old
notes that I had kept from my banking days.
I had 7 notes in mint condition and they were in consecutive order. Maybe in 100 years they will hold some value
and I definitely kept them. I also had
5, 10 and 20AUD notes somewhere, but I didn’t find them in my unpacking and
checking, so I obviously missed them somewhere and have been delivered to the
Brisbane tip. Shelly will be helping me
tomorrow to move the last of the things to Sandy’s and to help fill the skip
and then I am finished. Done. I think I am now grateful that I only had 3
days as I had to be on a mission, I couldn’t dilly dally and walk down memory
lane too long and just get the job done without having to drag it out.
So I left with 2 small boxes of bits and
bobs I was going to keep, a box of photos and some more travel knick
knacks. I also kept some things for
Shelly, like the guillotine, name labeler, my Brisbane Lions framed poster and
such things and it was tough to not keep a lot of things for the
god-daughters. My plate collection was
one thing I did keep and I also kept my crystal collection which I will let the
god daughters have. I also saved the
Walt Disney DVD pack that I had bought years ago in Vietnam. It was a box set of every single Walt Disney
movie made currently up to Stuart Little 1 and 2. The girls will love that present. I also had more boxes of grog and when I got
home I unpacked the 10 boxes that I now had full of alcohol. I am trying to keep all the rubbish and my
gear clear here at the Elks. It is a massive
job and after they were all unpacked I had 55 bottles of vodka, random bottles
of various other spirits, some rather old bottles of cheap wine from 1998 (which
have been thrown out) and a few bottles of champagne which optimistically we
have put in the fridge to see if they are drinkable and to think I bought a
bottle of vodka duty free 5 days ago.
Needless to say the Elkin bar is now looking quite impressive-anyone
want a drink?
Day 3 of the container and I was in good
stead. After dropping the girls off at
school, we headed to the container to load both cars up with the stuff that we
were taking to Sandy’s to sell at her garage sale tomorrow morning which then
left me with 6 final boxes to come back for in the afternoon to drop at Vinnie’s. This is all I had left from a 3 bedroom house
full of stuff. The skip was delivered at
10am, the guy was super nice and as the pile was all ready to go, he helped us
load it all up, taking a few things for himself as we loaded it and an hour
later he was gone along with my ‘rubbish’ pile and it was hard to imagine what
it all looked like here only 2 days before.
I WAS FINISHED. I do have to give
myself a pat on the back. It was a
massive undertaking, something I had to do and now that it was all finished I
feel like a dead weight has been lifted from my shoulders. I will now have an extra 300AUD a month in
the bank and besides my friends now, I have no ties left here in
Australia. How sad and exciting all in
the same thought.
So I have a 3 week grace period till I get
the last of my belongings delivered to the Elkins on the 14th
December. I think most of it is Elmo’s,
Tupperware and more grog and all of that will I will be taking to Africa (not
the alcohol) and will be sent on once I have my feet on the ground over
there. It will be nice to have a small
break before tackling the last of it all but knowing that 97% is done is AWESOME and I can now enjoy my
last few weeks stress free and not having to worry about what I am going to do
with all my stuff as it is now all GONE.
I am one step closer to starting a new life and I have just totally
cleansed the old one and as sad as I felt yesterday when I was dealing more
with personal items –it is time to make new memories. I have 3 boxes from a whole shipping
container and this I am content with.
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