I’m preparing to move across the country with my partner in just a few weeks. Early in the process, we realized that using a moving company or PODS or UPS to move all our stuff–furniture, housewares, every book we’ve ever owned, etc.– was just not practical in our situation. We have a lot of things we really love, but it was time to do some serious downsizing.

I was pretty intimidated by this idea at first. I’ve put a lot of love into a lot of my things, some of which you’ve seen here on the blog, and it was hard to let go. But I’ve really come around to the idea that if I want to have the opportunity to do projects like re-upholstery and re-finishing and even re-decorating, I have to let go of past projects.

So far, the letting go process has been liberating. We’ve had great luck with Craigslist — I’m paying back the Craigslist karma from all the great finds I’ve had over the years, and hopefully building up some bargain-finding karma for the next place we move, too. It’s really great to see someone excited to use the things I’ve come to take for granted.

We’ve already said goodbye to our patio/porch furniture set, featured here; our wood-grain side chair, pictured here; and our mid-century dresser set, half of which is featured in this post. Those were tough, I really liked those pieces. But it seemed like the folks who bought them liked them a lot, too, which was so gratifying–especially on those re-upholstery project pieces!

Among the next round of things to go are our Danish dining table with its self-storing leaves and beautiful tapered legs, and a white-and-blue bookcase that I painted and that I’m a little bit in love with.

I’ll be sad to see them go, but also excited about the adventure that comes next, and the chance to start fresh in a new place sometime soon.