Why you need to throw away most of what you own
On packing up, yet again, to move countries once more
Dear Jasper,
It was our last week in Iceland and amid all the packing chaos, I feel very sad. This was our first family home, and the place you grew from a tiny two-week nugget into the one-year-old small human you are today.
I will miss the view over Mount Esja from our living room. I will miss the Christmas trees that tap against our windows when the wind howls. I will even miss the ugly satellites that loom large around the back (Julius thinks they will probably give us all cancer, but my extensive research on the topic has found no evidence to back this).
Logistically, this is a bit of a tricky move, in that half the stuff we have accumulated here has to go back to Essex to sit in your non-secular-godfather's garage (the man is a saint) and the other half all the way to Mauritius. It's expensive and annoying and it has me wondering, yet again, whether I shouldn't just throw most of my worldly belongings away.
I've moved countries many times now and always arrive at the same dilemma as I glare at all the boxes. On one hand, it is probably the case that all the things we really need and really use can fit into one, maybe two suitcases. Most of us wear the same ten items of clothing on rotation again and again, while the rest of our wardrobe sits untouched, in my case until I move again. There are undoubtedly things I carted from Essex to Iceland last year that I may as well have left in the box, ready to be carted back again.
But I still can't let go of it all! It's not so much that I'm attached to the things themselves, you understand. It's the dreams they represent.
For example:
Hiking boots
My father purchased these for me in Australia when I was about 17. I seem to remember they were sold to us as being of high quality. Since then, for shoes that have only been worn a maximum of three times, they sure have seen a lot of the world. The boots have been to Africa. The boots have been to Antarctica. Most recently, the boots have been to Iceland. But it's not the BOOTS I don't want to get rid of, it's the dream that one day I still might become a ‘hiking girl’. Surely it's still possible! I like nature! I like walking! My fiancé is a hiker! And I can’t be a hiking girl with no boots.
Skinny jeans
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