throwing things away

so, i'm in the process of moving. it's been about 6 years, and i've gone from being 24 to almost 30.

a lot has changed.

things that were once shiny and new are now obsolete and broken.

i find myself pulling boxes out of the closet, and throwing away 90% of what's in them. printouts from when i used to have a job (i work for myself now), drivers ed stuff (i ride a bike now), an endless stream of old PC parts (i use a macbook now). hundreds of CD-Rs (who needs a cd when you can download anything in a couple minutes?), college papers (i graduated 10 years ago), letters from old girlfriends (they're long gone)...

it's good. less stuff to pack, right? i'll never need any of it again, i'm sure...

but, as i'm ripping up the paper, making sure no personal details are left intact, i feel a bit strange.

like i'm throwing away the past.

remembering, one last time... and then forgetting, forever, things that used to have meaning.

#boc

i'm a fucking pack rat. I WANNA BE ON HOARDERS

i have a lot of shit, enough to fill a small house though i live in shared quarters. i just find lots of stuff i can't give up, so good for you(!)

anyone need a copy of dos 3.2... on a floppy?

yeah i need that actually i found civ 1 on two 5 inch floppies

my parents still have our old 486 in the basement, too. it's got a drive that'll read it and all.

  On 3/29/2012 at 4:00 AM, chaosmachine said:

 

anyone need a copy of dos 3.2... on a floppy?

Although it feel weird to throw things away it feel good to become just that much less materialistic. In your case, I feel like this is a great situation in which you can ponder the future instead of dwindling in the past.

Where are you moving to? Gatineau?

  On 3/29/2012 at 6:18 AM, Enter a new display name said:

Where are you moving to? Gatineau?

pretty close, i'll have a nice view of it out my window.

  On 3/29/2012 at 3:20 AM, chaosmachine said:

but, as i'm ripping up the paper, making sure no personal details are left intact, i feel a bit strange.

 

like i'm throwing away the past.

 

remembering, one last time... and then forgetting, forever, things that used to have meaning.

Ahem...

So yeah, cleansing...purging...you never really done it before?

I just threw out a bunch of CDs a couple of days ago. The Richard D. James Album? Away with that shit!

Being sentimental over that shit is pointless. I threw out so much stuff when I left home and I never regretted it. It's great to have less clutter!

I've got a four-tiered cabinet full of all my stuff. Books are deceptively heavy so I'll try to sell (or just give away) a lot when I move again. Old DVDs and CDs too. Just throw that shit away. I've got terrabyte hard-drives.

I like to keep certain things for their aesthetic value (big visually exciting books, vinyl I'll never open and old gadgets that I foolishly spent too much money on but might take apart one day).

I'm reasonably sure that aside from a TV and snowboard (which I should probably get rid of too) I could fit all my belongings into a small car.

  On 3/29/2012 at 3:20 AM, chaosmachine said:

remembering, one last time... and then forgetting, forever, things that used to have meaning.

(spoiler alert)

http://youtu.be/ZTzA_xesrL8

  On 3/29/2012 at 3:20 AM, chaosmachine said:

college papers (i graduated 10 years ago), letters from old girlfriends (they're long gone)...

would never throw away those

  On 3/29/2012 at 5:45 PM, gmanyo said:

  On 3/29/2012 at 3:20 AM, chaosmachine said:

remembering, one last time... and then forgetting, forever, things that used to have meaning.

 

(spoiler alert)

http://youtu.be/ZTzA_xesrL8

Such a great movie. The CS-80 is the shit. Best synth ever.

And I agree with eugene, I'd keep the papers.

Yo, can I have that dos? I need a copy.

I have a couple boxes full of shit I'm going to put out on the street. People like digging through random boxes here.

I'd like to be able to just up and leave if I need to. All this clutter makes me feel bound to my apt.

The most important thing in throwing things away or getting rid of things is not to think about them after they're gone - a bit like people in a way. The more you think of those things, the more you'll convince yourself you shouldn't have thrown them away and "needed" them.

Purging your past can be liberating and fun, but you have to keep looking forward for it to work.

I'm moving out in about 16 days, tossed out shit ton of computer parts, bills, statements, (although, I'm keeping my picture of my first capture of me being at a traffic camera light (failure to stop at a red light, yellow to red goes quick in that one section).

I cannot toss or trade in my: dvd collection, video game, consoles and pc games/programs.

What's interesting is how companies are moving us towards a society where we have more virtual items than physical ones... will 'cloud cleaning' be the new future purging of your past?

This topic is so existentialist. Love it. Your OP is written well. Brings out lots of emotion.

Make sure you rip any important discs before you toss 'em. Do you have any other cool stuff to take pictures of? I'm kind of interested in this.