From the Editor’s Desk: Groundhog Day (Premium)

My life has turned into a real-life version of the movie Groundhog Day, where I’m repeating the same events over and over again and feel like I’ve lost any sense of control. The themes will be familiar if you’ve been reading along with these editorials and some of my article series this year. And so I apologize if this seems repetitive to you as well. Eventually, the room will stop spinning. At least I hope so.

This has been a big year for me, both personally and professionally. And when I look back on 2023, I suspect that what I will remember most clearly is selling our home and moving to an apartment, the massive decluttering effort that ensued as a result, becoming the owner of Thurrott.com, and the proactive steps I took to take control of my health.

The latter two are not milestones but rather ongoing concerns: There are always things to fix and improve with the site, no surprises there, and whatever I’m doing with regard to my weight and overall health is a long-term proposition with long-term implications. But thanks to some recent events, those first two items, both related, are giving me that sense of déjà vu. It’s all happening again.

When we moved to our current apartment, it was partially an experiment to see whether we could get by with just two bedrooms. And while we would have preferred more space, we ended up liking this apartment, the complex, and the people here, and the little town we moved to, much more than expected. We had to inform the place by the end of last week if we were going to renew our lease, and heading into September, we intended to do just that and then take it year-by-year.

But as is the case so often, life intervened. Sharon, the woman I refer to as my stepmother, and the mother of three of my sisters, has sadly developed some health issues and will now be moving in with one of these sisters who lives in the area. We bought our previous house from Sharon, at which point she bought and moved into a condo just one road over. And because my sisters intended to rent out that condo to help pay for Sharon’s increased medical costs, they asked us if we were interested.

All things being equal, I’d rather stay where I am. But they’re family and we want to help, and the logistics make sense: The condo is much bigger than this apartment and has that third bedroom, which would give me a formal office space again plus room for both kids when they visit, as will be the case over the holidays. And the cost is about the same as we’re paying now. And so we agreed. And just like that, we’re moving. Again.

The previous move happened quickly, too quickly, and despite our years of downsizing and decluttering work, we were struck by how much clutter we brought with us. The house we moved out of was about 3600 square feet, which is big, but there was also at least another 1,500 square feet of storage space between the basement and garage. And as I’ve often observed, moving roughly 5,0...