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My arms ache. My legs ache. Two days spent walking up and down stairs with heavy boxes full of stuff. I have thrown so much away. I wish I’d done it years ago (not move - clear out). Apart from the fact it has made me very unpopular with my ex-neighbours because I have filled up, completely, one of the five big communal bins for the road.

The woman who washes up in the window opposite spent most of the day standing at said window smoking and casting withering glances in my direction each time I walked out with a new box of junk.

It’s actually been quite instructive, though: although I have thrown away so much bulk a lot of it was empty boxes. The space under the bed was packed with software boxes. Now that I’ve removed the discs and some of the manuals the same amount of software fits into two shoe boxes (or at least it would if I owned that many shoes).

And so the flat is almost empty. All the most useful bits have been moved, including my pans, which meant I had to try and work out how to do noodles in the kettle and microwave with moderate success. All that remains is the last few bits, plus the furniture, which will stay.

New people seem to have moved in next door there. The man evidently doesn’t have a key to his own place and doesn’t speak very good English. He also leaves his shoes out in the communal space, with socks stuffed in them. The staircase is drenched in the odour of his cheap after shave, which is only marginally better than the smell of smoke from the previous occupants.

It feels a little less like home now, though, when so much of my stuff has gone, which is a good thing. The sooner the place is entirely emptied out, and rented to someone else, the better. It will help with moving on.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 10th, 2004 at 11:44 pm and is filed under Journal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.