What Do I Need Most?

“Who am I and what do I need most?” This is what I’ve been thinking about recently. And the context has been changing rapidly over the past few weeks.

Do I need a house?

A week ago, I moved into a new space. I decided I didn’t want to own a home anymore, and I didn’t want to live in Florida anymore. So in a fairly short period of time, I decided to move back to my hometown of Richmond, and found an apartment to live in until I have a clearer idea of what I want to do next.

Do I need all the stuff?

I did a moderate amount of decluttering, and was fully aware that some of the things I took with me might not fit into the new place. I didn’t have the time to go through everything thoroughly. It felt better to me to take some items and decide about them later. So I did.

Do I need help?

• The idea of packing everything up and figuring out what to do with the items that needed to be rehomed was daunting. So I found a great service that helps with that. It made that last week much calmer than it would have been.
• My Florida daughter and her family came over several times to help decide what they might use and to help organize my very cluttered garage into take, donate, leave for new owners, and throw away areas.
• Driving a freaked out cat 800 miles didn’t sound like fun either. I had friends sending us positive vibes the whole way.
• On moving day, and many days since, my Richmond daughter has come over to help put things in order.

I have been so VERY grateful for all the support. This would have been challenging without it.

What do I need now?

The storage spaces are generous in my apartment, but smaller than (and configured differently from) my house. Everything had a place in my house (other than in the garage!) There are very few areas where I can directly unpack contents in this new space. I need the time to figure out how much stuff will fit and what the best locations are.

Part of this thought process is determining what my lifestyle will actually look like now and who I am choosing to become. Will I really need the serving pieces for dinner parties of 10-12 people? That was my past, but is it my future? There is more rehoming of items to be done but I don’t know which ones yet.

What I really need now is time to settle into the space and slowly chip away at areas once it’s clear to me how I will use them and what I need to support that. It’s a much slower approach than I have taken in past moves. It’s inconvenient to not have what I’m looking for readily available. Each night I go hunting for the right pan to cook that dinner. But I feel like this is the approach I need to take at this point in time.

Do I have all the answers?

Not at all. And that’s okay. Is it sometimes disorienting? Absolutely! Yet I am embracing curiosity about how this is unfolding and confident that this will all turn out remarkably well. Because I’m listening to what I need and giving myself permission to act on that.

If you have transitions going on that are stressing you out, I can help transform that distress into an energy that is more supportive of what you need. Book a call to find out more.