Yesterday I spent all day de-cluttering stuff that I have collected over the years. Some of the stuff is 20 years old from when I started my nurse training. I found letters from old friends, photos, assignments, jewellery..... so many things of which I was forced to throw away in a bid to prepare for the move to Oz. I don't know why, cos most of the stuff I didn't even know I had, but I feel quite traumatised by yesterdays events. I feel as though part of my life has been erased.....and I feel very sad today.

Did anyone else feel like this?

Jackie x

Yes......and yes.

I felt the opposite. It was like I could have a real good clean out of stuff that I have kept for no other reason than to sit in a box in the loft.

Of course there were some stuff I kept, like the letter my Mum left me for after she died and the letter she wrote to be read out at her funeral. I've even kept her glasses!!

But the rest was just stuff that I've never bothered with, so it was good to finally move on. Also I was very suprised to find that I'm not in the slightest materialistic.

Nah, it's like having a colonic................

I hate throwing stuff away....cos you never know when you might need it.

I found my first cheque book that I had when I left school. And payslips from when I first started nursing and earned £400 per month ( still don't earn much more than that now though!

Tis truly sad.

:scared: Sorry but nothing compares to a colonic!!!!!!!!!!!!

I found birthday cards from 10 years ago and one that my mum had written in. I kept that one!

Yes, I found about 3 old ones, so I've kept them all. The things that my Mum gave me or left for me are coming with us no matter what.

Without a doubt this is the hardest part so far. After two years of filling in forms, being medically checked, waiting etc.

We move in less than a month now, and the amount of things we have binned, old books, toys, old schoolwork, clothes. The list goes on. It frightening to think that we had managed to gather so much stuff; and we still have a lot to sell/chuck.

It definately feel a bit like being robbed of a past, but maybe, just maybe it will be for the best, a clean slate and space and freedom to live it all again.

I guess in 10 years from now we will have another loft full of clothes that dont fit, school work that will never be looked at again, and general household junk.

Sorry your feeling blue about this, hope you feel better soon

I've never been one to accumulate anything, have never felt sentimental about anything at all, and sometimes i think this is weird Now and again if someone comes to my house say for example from work whom i don't know that well, they will look round and say , 'when are you moving', coz i have always kept things to the bare minimum (no imagination probably). I think its because i have never really settled (although been in my house 11 years), and knew one day i would be in for a big move

yes, I ended up getting 2 20ft containers!
the next time I move I'll be a bit more ruthless

No doubt I'll get over it........with the help of some retail therapy on Friday as its pay day!

We are halfway there with the de-cluttering as last year we cleared the loft ready for a conversion that MG Rover went bust and things changed.....its given us the oppotunity to migrate for one!!

Were you planning to migrate before they went bust or did you decide to do it afterwards?

jackie

Yes, not due to emotional stuff we ditched, as there was little, but there were useful things that we just dumped at the charity shop in the end. Some of that, I really wanted to bring - a huge bag of Kooshie nappies that had done all three children and they were still in brilliant condition. I really wanted them to go to a good home and now I haven't got a clue what's happened to them.

My rational mind, 5 weeks on, is saying it's just 'stuff' and it doesn't matter, but my emotional bit is regretting that I am not married to a more organised man who'd taken some time off work before we emigrated. He took three days. Dreadful way to do it, imo. You need weeks to finish up your life in a country, not a few days.