Packing Up My Life

It's a curious thing, looking through one's life possessions and sorting them into piles of take, save, and throw. There is a constant stream of things leaving our house, and yet there are still corners not yet touched. Another trailer load to the auction, a porch sale, a few more bags to the thrift store...slowly, yet surely, we will get this done.

I have many conflicting emotions about what I should be doing with my things in particular. Over the past few years, especially since I moved into my 'suite' of rooms in the attic, I have assembled quite a collection of furniture, dishes, books, souvenirs from other countries, and interesting vintage items. I have a nice, cozy little living area - almost a full apartment really - and I hate to give it up.

Part of me loves the thought of having only two suitcases to my name - all possessions packed neatly into two rolling bags. If it doesn't fit, it can't stay. That part of me wants to take everything I currently have, pare it down to two bags, and just walk away from the rest.

The other part of me (perhaps the more sensible, perhaps the more sentimental) wants to pack everything away. At this moment, I have no idea where I will be in a year (do any of us really?). My brother and I are saying that we are going to Botswana for a year, after which we will reassess and decide whether to come back or to stay longer. If we do come back in a year, or even in five years, I will be glad that I saved all these things. I will be glad to have furniture and dishes, my familiar books and souvenirs, all ready to unpack and furnish a new place to live.

But what if I never come back? What if I do all this packing away in vain? What if I spend so much time, money, and energy in carefully saving my possessions, only for someone else to have to clean them out and throw them away at a later date?

See what I mean? It's all very conflicting and confusing. So I try to compromise. I pare down, throw a lot of stuff away, sell a lot of stuff off, and then the rest I store. I've been collecting a menagerie of plastic storage totes for several months now, so as I have the time, I fill them, inventory them, label them, and put them in the basement, in my corner of the storage space.

I get so happy in seeing stuff packed off and taken away. It's a freeing feeling, really. But I also get extremely happy when I see my little corner of storage in the basement, all neatly packed, inventoried, and labeled by numbers.

I may not know where I will be this time next year, but I do know this... it's going to be an exciting ride!