Editorial by Chris Kovatch

We have been in the process of packing for the past 6 to 8 weeks. My thought process was slow and steady wins the race. That makes sense, right? Wrong.

We moved into our soon to be former home in 2007. Our thought process was that it was going to be an investment property and we would relocate in a few years once our lives had settled down. Fast forward 10 years and we have lived in this home longer than all of our other homes combined during our 16 year marriage. It is amazing the amount of ‘stuff’ one accumulates in 10 years. I don’t come close to classifying our family as hoarders, but I will admit we do have a slight obsession with letting things go. Please note that I used the collective ‘we’; I have no issue getting rid of stuff, it is just that I am often out voted.

I am a fan of hanging onto to keepsakes from my children’s childhood. Art projects, favorite clothes, stuffed animals, and much more were packed away in boxes in our attic. But at some point do we reach a point of excess? It seems the boxes that I am removing from my house are neverending.

The age of Social Media has allowed us to document our lives like never before. When my children are older, they will be able to relive parts of their childhood with the click of a button, but there is something to be said about being able to hold something from your past. It has been an awesome experience to see my kids play with my toys from when I was a kid, or even wear some of my amazing 1980s-era attire.

With that being said, there is much in my attic, garage, and storage building that I simply don’t need and that could provide much needed items to someone in need. So for the past few weeks, we have begun to pare down our belongings that are being moved to the new house. Right now, we have filled a bedroom and still have stuff left to go through. Our intent is to start off with a ‘cleaner’ palette at our new house and the process has been quite interesting. Debates have ensued about whether or not to keep bicycles we don’t use or toys that are played with, but more importantly we have sat and reminisced about certain things. A shirt that belonged to Jackson that had an image of a cup of Hot Chocolate on it made an appearance. Jackson wore this shirt so much that it began to deteriorate and we had to hide it from him. He finally realized where it went. We transferred recordings from our camcorder to digital files and my younger kids got to meet Christi’s Dad thanks to technology.

I gripe quite a bit about accumulating stuff, and while I plan to do a better job at controlling what is kept, I want to ensure the things that matter are kept. We will share what we have been blessed with, but we will also ensure memories are kept for the future.

It has been my affirmation that this home will be our forever home, so lucky for me, the next time it will be emptied it will be up to my kids to get it done. Karma.