Why do I still own things from when I was 14?

Why why why? I read that one of the traditions of the Chinese new year is cleaning, cleaning away last year's bad luck and making room for this year's good luck. It's an idea most people should take. Going through storage bins is making me realize that the ownership of stuff is a strange idea. I'm by no means on the verge of hoarding, but to still have two boxes of things from when I was a kid only reminds me that I was sort of a strange kid. I'm allowing myself one fairly small box of treasures to hold on to. It includes some old pictures, my late grandpa's handkerchiefs, and something silly from a childhood friend. I can't rationalize keeping anything bigger. In the back of my mind that box was there all these years, waiting to be sorted through, but it's important to remember that items aren't memories. All of this is an enormous task to take on by myself, with My Sweet Pea being a maniac, while the husband is working... I can't wait until its done!

Ack!!!

     We have lived in our current house for almost 4 years. It is an old house, built in 1947. Three nice sized bedrooms that range from large to office sized, and one tiny bathroom. This living room is considerably smaller than the one I had in our previous apartment. The kitchen is old, but functional... in reality, who couldn't use more counter and storage space? If you've never had to seriously ponder the amount of stuff one family collects in the time span of four years, you are pretty lucky.
     My husband wants to take a new career path, a completely different, starting with no experience, much lower paying career change. Okay so, he's wanted to do it for a long time but is now sort of being thrown into it considering that his current place of employment is closing. Sucky economy. However, looking at it from a positive point of view, he will probably be extremely happy finding something much less stressful.
   Both of these ideas come together in the fact that less money = less money to pay things, like mortgages, rising electricity bills, paper towels, and all those things we enjoy having around here.  We should look at this situation as being extremely lucky people. When we were first married, we turned a large enclosure added on to his parents house into a studio apartment of sorts. It worked out pretty well for us then.  Now considering going back there with 5 years of possessions and an 18 month old seems completely insane right?  It is, it really is. His parents are sweet people who are looking forward to having their granddaughter around. I keep telling myself that it's temporary, and it won't be absolutely terrible. We will have the "studio" area for a living/dining area, and a bedroom. The worst part will be getting rid of 85% of everything we own. Mostly because I'm not even sure what to do with any of it. I'm thinking about donating it to our Relay for Life Rummage sale at the end of February. I should turn my misfortune into something that could really help others shouldn't I? I have great friends who I am hoping to have renting my house for at least the next year, unless we decide instead to sell.  After reading articles and blogs online it really isn't an uncommon subject in this day and age. The economy really has been that bad. There are a lot of people way more worse off than us. We should consider ourselves lucky lucky lucky to have this opportunity to regroup and save and start again in the future. So after allowing myself one whole day to cry and be totally silly about the whole thing, I'm only going to look at this as us being completely lucky from now on. My Sweet Pea will have a fenced in backyard to play in and a roof over her head with several people who love her. I would give anything to live with my grandma that's for sure. Sometimes when it seems like life is being crappy, it really is showing you that life is good, just in a different way than you thought.
    Now to decorate and design my "pied-à-terre" if you will. I need some serious space saving design ideas.