The Purge

Day 130: Spring Cleaning

For a multitude of reasons our family is moving into a smaller home and attempting to simplify our life.  I have mentioned previously that I am not really a shopper so I don’t have an excess of clothes or accessories to donate.  The ominous task that has recently faced the hubs and myself as a couple is narrowing our gaming collection.

Tiny Living

02' Dave & Hubs on couch/bed/game station 

When we were first married and living in the San Fernando Valley (So.  Cal) we had the tiniest studio apartment you can imagine.  It was behind a house and was half of a converted garage that was actually constructed in the early 1970’s and had never been renovated.  It was a total sh*t hole but was also crazy affordable and is the primary reason I have hardly any student debt.  I describe this place because I remember the primary challenge when living there was where to store our video games and set up our gaming desktop.  We were broke college students without any credit or sense of style.  But we survived with the most basic of amenities, a place to play games, and each other.

As anyone with kids knows once you start breeding the amount of stuff you acquire is ridonkulas.  The toys, the rockers, the changing stations, the strollers, and the onsies.  Oh my goodness the lists provided by stores for first time parents contains so much stuff it will not even fit in a standard size family home.  Even amidst the clutter created as we have reared two little ones we have always had a desk in our home with ample space for a gaming desktop and places to store our myriad of video games.

And once we both had jobs and a 3-bedroom house the Warmachine miniatures, board games, and multiple systems overwhelmed our personal “style.”  For us basic design included organizing most rooms to accommodate each of our gaming habits.  Now that we are undergoing a process of transformation both the hubs and me we realize we need to reevaluate what kind of home we want to live in.

The Bedroom

I used to believe that a TV or computer should not live in a bedroom.  But once I removed media from my bedroom I just started searching the Internet on my phone and watching Netflix on my tablet (always in bed).  Because we primarily use the PS4 for adult games we have decided that the PS4 and our awesome 40-inch HD television should live in our master bedroom.  As a couple we want our room to be about us and we want to keep playing together  feng shui be damned.

 

The Living Room

For at least the last 8 years our living room has been a place for morning cartoons and twilight solo gaming sessions.  Unfortunately it has rarely been a place for coming together.  When considering our move the room that has gotten the most attention has been our future living room.  We decided we wanted a more industrial feel, lots of seating, tables the correct size for board games, and video games that are accessible to our to young kiddos.  As we started to sort out what should stay and what should go we realized almost every single PS3 and 360 game was rated M.  After much conversation we decided we needed more family friendly video games in our communal space.

I still own my treasured game cube and animal crossing from over a decade ago.  But in all honesty it has been over a decade since I have purchased a game or system from Nintendo.  After lots of research and conversations the hubs agreed eventually we would need to invest in a Nintendo Wii for our living room.  

Sacrifice

A Wii is outside of our price range as we are currently downsizing everything in our life.  But I could not have been more surprised that the day after this conversation that the hubs listed every single one of our 360 and PS3 games on eBay.  We have some lingering older gen Xbox and PS1 games but almost all the mature games are gone from our home.  For any of my readers that have been lifelong gamers you understand the gravity of this sacrifice. So many hours of the hubs life have gone into these plastic disks that I could not imagine him parting with them…but he did.

SOLD Xbox 360 Collection 

SOLD PS3 Collection 

No matter how small our previous dwellings I would have never have asked my partner to give up any of his games.  Now I am realizing I should probably get rid of my GameCube and Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds in solidarity but I will be honest it is so freaking hard.  And if getting rid of 4 or 5 things for me seems impossible imagine how difficult it was for him to sell his entire gaming library (sans PS4).

Daily gaming has been on hiatus this week because of painting our house and sick kiddos.  But everyday games remain a part of our recovery, a tool for our marriage, and a way to keep showing our love.  

**We still have a well-behaved, other system friendly, current with its updates Xbox 360 and PS3 that need new homes.