discovery #27

i am actually excited about moving again (for the 3rd time in 2 years!?!)

david and i were laughing the other night about being newlyweds, who are downsizing. usually you live in a modest house first, and slowly upgrade. not us! we rented our first house so we could hold our wedding there. it was a perfect space: good size living room with lots of windows for the ceremony, and a huge backyard for the party. we really loved living there—our first home together as a married couple—until the day we found out our landlord was foreclosing. it was a very stressful few months, scurrying to find a comparable rental in the neighborhood we had come to cherish.

we lost david’s huge studio space, which was a converted garage and spanned the width of the house. but the new house had newly refinished wood floors, an even nicer yard, and…a wonderfully stable and respectable landlord. we’ve been here a year, and planned to stay another, but the commute and high rent is killing us. we knew we could find something cheaper…and without the constant lawn mowing!!

it was a big decision—we’ve toyed with it for a while—sad to lose our respective studios and the storage of the garage and attic for david’s art. but when we found a 2 bedroom/2 bath (an extra bathroom!?!?) for $300 less than we’re paying now, with a 7 minute commute to work…we were sold. we’ll share the studio space in our 2nd bedroom, put the computer in our room, and rent a storage unit for all the big art pieces. but the part i’m most excited about? simplification.

i have been thinking about this concept a lot lately. i look at all the crap i’ve accumulated in the 5 years since my last purge and cannot believe how it multiplies. when i left chicago in 2004, i pretty much left everything. i packed up a few outfits, all my books and memories, and put it into a rented suv. everything else went to my friends, goodwill, or the trash. it was freeing.

and i want that feeling again.