How to use Australians (and move with Craigslist)

(The first of many moving tips to follow – read #2, #3, #4, #5 and #6)

29 days to possession

In all this excitement, I’ve forgotten our first hurdle: moving. Bothered? Nah. After a few months on an aggressive crap-culling streak, packing won’t be painful. Anything remaining in our few tiny closets has earned its place.

As with any young couple, we had duplicates of almost everything we owned (bizarrely exceeding ourselves with a total 3 copies of Return of the Naked Chef. Re-gift, anyone?).

Round 1

Cloned cookbooks notwithstanding, we were ruthless with the extras. We laid out all our kitchen stuff across the counters and table. It was a fearsome game – every cup had to have at least one matching friend or it was gone. Every utensil had to feature heavily in our recipe rotation. And so on. Who needs more than 2 can openers? Nobody.

Round 2

The seconds went in a waiting shoebox: a crazy mish-mash of free mugs, egg beaters, spatulas and pastry forks. Who uses a pastry fork? (Sorry Nana). The box’s contents constituted a pretty decent kitchen starter kit for any hungry student. So I sold it. I’m pretty mercenary like that. Stand still in my apartment long enough and I’ll sell you too.

Round 3

A grateful Australian took the box off our hands for $30 – yet further proof of a loyal give/take Commonwealth bond.

You can sell anything on Craigslist.

You can’t? Well, I can. Career highlights:

• A computer monitor that was heading for the trash
• A couch sold for more than it was currently priced in the store where I bought it. (Hey, I just said how much I’d paid).
• An ironing board that squeaked like crazy

What was your cheekiest craigslist sale?

Where you’d rather have the extra space and cash in your pocket than stare at [any item in your home], just free yourself and sell it. Life’s better with less stuff. These Craigslist-sprees – and many more – have put us in a good position now. There’s no sorting left to do. We’re ready to roll.

Now, Paolo, darling, which two Naked Chef books should we keep? I rather prefer copies 1 and 3.

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Full photo credit to PlayfulLibrarian via Flickr Creative Commons. Jamie Oliver cookbook via his own site.