Backpack, Suitcase, House

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I liked the idea of squeezing everything I needed into two suitcases last year. Even then, I had plenty I didn't need, including about ten pounds of chocolate by the end. For a month this fall I loved the idea of squeezing everything I needed to live (apart from food) into a backpack. Home was on my back. But quite heavy.

Having survived out of two suitcases and subsequently a daypack, what has overwhelmed me in this official moving process is the amount of things I own and 'need.' In the past few weeks, I've been going though a lot of my things. Firstly, the things that I packed, well, hid, away at my parents house. The things that my 17 year old self believed were essential, but not essential enough to go to college, or really see the light of day for 10 years. It's funny to sift through these 'important' relics. Some are sentimental still, many more, completely pointless. But I am keeping in mind the things I'll find interesting in years to come. When another decade passes and I open that box, run the tassel from my high school graduation though my fingers, all those old memories will come flooding back again. And in that moment I'll be glad that I still have it. The problem lies in that between now and my next nostalgic sojourn, I don't particularly want to see the stuff. Nor do I want to furnish a place for it to live.
Now, since moving in, I've been going through the things that just a year ago I deemed to be 'essential.' Now, essential may be an overstatement, but some of it really is quite silly. It's funny the things that we acquire that hold meaning and I am by no means a hoarder, but some things just can't be given up. A few items I've rolled out of their protective newspaper and after 18 months of separation I gasp with the joy of having it again. And talk about silly. These are things like a ceramic model of the Colosseum, salt and pepper shakers in the shape of light bulbs, my tea kettle, and other little trinkets that I had all but forgotten.

So, though I can't help but be kind of horrified by the amount of things I have, it all just fits in the house, which makes me feel a lot better. It's crazy though to see the contents of a one room apartment expand like a molasses flood until it fills every nook and cranny of a much larger space. Still, I'm quite pleased with my little house and after being at work for two days, cannot wait to get back and have a nap on the couch.

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