First In Last Out

May 27, 2026 ·

The screen I usually type on has been detached from the table I usually write at. It's in my truck packed ready to go. Well, sometimes I type these things on my phone but I mean the usual set up. I really like what I've set up for writing and it's evident in my actual usage of it. But the screen is gone. My mattress and couch are ready to be picked up. I have discarded much of my stuff. It was a lot sifting through years and decades worth of stuff. I took the hard route this time and actually filtered things out, as opposed the usual way of moving in which everything is put in boxes and taken as-is without examination of what's actually needed. There is so much that I had, as I suspect everyone does, in the maybe I will eventually need this thing some day in the distant future pile. I let go of it all. In the 2010s when I moved I was into minimalism somewhat, now much less so. But what's similar is my recognition of emotional toll things can have that weigh you down. I think an examined set of things are okay, even good, to have. So emotions aren't to be gotten rid of or escaped, it's the examination and filtration piece that takes more emotional work than physical. But it's also physically tiring this whole moving thing. I am beat moving things 3 floors down days on end.

There are other considerations besides emotional value and literal dollar value of things, like how crazy they are to move being an obvious one. Or in which order are they to be packed. Or how much one really, actually uses them versus the thought of being the person that uses said thing. Also the disassembly and assembly of things; bed, tables, chairs, curtains; and inspection of expiry dates and old paperwork, past big purchase receipts and warranty documents, high-end packaging of things like headphones and routers and tablets. I've been comparing this look into one's own past with stage fright, because it puts the spotlight on your own self and on some level it's an embarrassing thing to witness. All your choices right there in front of you. Your expressions and being out there for people to judge, worst of all your own judgement. But this process is like flossing your teeth, too, in that it hurts the most to start and just keeps getting better.

So I feel great and nourished on many levels, to have a deep clean up of my sentiments and things I own. There are these simple rules they teach you in accounting or inventory management; FIFO, LIFO...God knows what else. They basically stand for first in, first out, or last in, first out and so on, basically the rule by which inventory of a factory or warehouse is to be replenished or replaced. In fast food places they teach you to load the latest bags of chips and cola at the back, same with the grocery store; that type of thing. And I was thinking if there is a simple rule for moving one's things like that. Probably the clearest one is that the internet router gets pulled last, and it's the first to go into the new place. WiFi rules everything around me?