From the Editor’s Desk: Always More to Do (Premium)

I’m a world-class procrastinator, and I’ve come to understand a few things about this trait over the years, and how it’s related to other coping mechanisms I employ and to my “doom pile” habits. These things are all interrelated (and ADHD-related, I’m sure), a way to move forward by ignoring problems that in many cases seem insurmountable, an “out of sight, out of mind” thing. I’m sure it’s all very normal, or at least common.

But in confronting some overdue physical and digital decluttering over the past month and a half, an effort that will likely continue for at least a few more weeks, I was reminded of the downsides of my behaviors, and also quite happy about the successes I finally had in this area.

And then I learned that we’re going to move again. And soon. Much sooner than expected. And this was an unhappy reminder of the underlying futility of it all. This was something I had trouble dealing with when we sold and moved out of our house earlier this year: Despite all the decluttering and organizing work I’d done over many, many years, we still had a house full of crap, somehow, and it wasn’t going to all fit in our small apartment. How on earth could this be true?

I can’t explain it. But now that we’re moving again, I am again consumed with dread because we’ve made so little progress getting rid of much of that crap. And that is largely because much of it is in two on-site storage cages which, granted, are inexpensive. Out of sight, out of mind, right?

There are excuses. Even in a best-case scenario, moving is awful. And moving like we did---quickly, and with very little help---was exhausting and perhaps we deserved or needed some downtime. But moving for people like me is perhaps doubly problematic because it lays bare the foibles of my habits. It’s not possible to organize things by hiding them when you move. You have to actually move them. All of them. What was out of sight is now fully in sight, and is thus very much not out of mind. And no one likes facing their failings.

All things being equal, I would have stayed where we are. Though it’s a bit small, with only two bedrooms, this apartment is reasonably inexpensive and unexpectedly quiet (we’ve literally never had a single issue), and I like the people around us quite a bit. I’ve grown to love this little town, and we’ve established friendly little interactions with the locals each day. And we have a favorite new restaurant that we can walk to. This place is not perfect---every time we drive anywhere, it’s 8 to 10 minutes further away, for example, and we really do need a third bedroom---but it’s nice. And I would have stuck with what works. Which, when you think about it, might be its own form of procrastination.

But our hand was forced because Sharon, the woman I often refer to as my stepmother---she sold us our previous home 6 years ago---has unfortunately suffered a series of health setbacks and will be movi...