My stuff has been delivered and the great relief is that it's not all green.
Visiting the storage unit a few weeks ago I happened across an old makeup bag that had a coating of mould and I became sharply aware that I might be about to find out I had spent many thousand of pounds over the last few years storing things I was going to have to immediately throw in the bin.
And regardless, just like anyone who has ever put their things into storage temporarily I am thinking it would have been better, and significiantly cheaper, to donate it all to charity on the move-out from my last place and buying anew to suit the new place.
Beyond that going through it all and starting the unpack has been a weirdly psychological experience. It's not wholly comfortable unpacking a life you put into storage three years ago. A fairly literal confrontation with yourself, your own continuity.
But like a lizard feels shedding a skin - I assume, who really knows the feelings of lizards - while it's itchy and weird, it's also cathartic. It feels quite good to file plenty of my stuff under the 'chuck out' heading, even if it does make me think of the many pounds I spent on keeping it, and even if I worry I'm falling for the fallacy of the blank slate.
Anyway, this is how things are looking after a day of intensive unpacking. I mostly focused on unpacking books, as the things that there are a lot of and have a place to go.
I've got loads more still to shelve as I get more shelves together, but this takes care of a good amount, covering most of my children's books and fiction.
The books need further organising and a bit of thinning on these shelves, when I have somewhere else for overspill to go. But I'm feeling pretty happy with the broad strokes.
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