I think that I've lived in more places (I mean to say apartments/houses) than most people my age. Since I left home at the age of 21, it's been six. If you include my living spaces before that (my parents lived separately; they both moved around a fair bit and I was with my father on weekends/summers), you can add seven or eight more to the list.
One thing that never fails to surprise me is that, when I move from one place to the next, I always have more stuff than I thought I did. You think it's going to be one car-load, maybe two. Then it's four. Things just tend to fill up boxes faster than you expect them to. One blanket and a couple of pillows; that's a box right there. A few books and a blender; there's the next box. Add to that your computer desk and modest CD collection, and the borrowed van is full already.
But the older I got, the fewer things I wished to accompany me to the next apartment. Every time I moved, I moved fewer things and gave up more. Before Korea, I threw out tons of old stuff, furniture, clothes, etc. But I also boxed up a bunch of things that, at the time, I thought were indispensible, and left them in my Grandmother's basement. That was 14 months ago, and now I can barely remember what it was that I boxed up or why I thought those things were so important.
And my grandmother, in her patient wisdom, predicted this would happen the day I asked to use her storage space. "Your aunt left 10 boxes of things in the basement when she moved to Toronto. She said it was all necessary and now she doesn't want any of it. I just want you to remember that!"
And then there are the books. I must have eight boxes of them down there, and I never knew which ones or how many to drag around with me when I moved about. I don't even know why I kept them at all; I rarely re-read the ones I've read, and about half I've never read more than a few pages of... and may never finish. I think when I go home, it'll be time to clean house... I'm going to try my best to pass along most of my old books to the used store on Fort st., and send most of my kitchen stuff to the goodwill. The piano books will have to stay with me.
And I think it will be time to say goodbye to the desktop computer. What's the point? All they do that laptops don't is play games and music louder and better. I don't need that.
The reason all this is in my mind is because I'm right now in the process of downsizing everything I have in Korea into one travel backpack, for Europe/India come January. Mailing things home is for the most part more expensive than the value of the things I'd like to mail. It's frustrating and painful, trying to plan this sort of trip from a foreign country, especially having lived here for more than a year, and not coming back before returning home to Canada. I cannot leave anything behind that isn't to be trashed or given away.
One thing that never fails to surprise me is that, when I move from one place to the next, I always have more stuff than I thought I did. You think it's going to be one car-load, maybe two. Then it's four. Things just tend to fill up boxes faster than you expect them to. One blanket and a couple of pillows; that's a box right there. A few books and a blender; there's the next box. Add to that your computer desk and modest CD collection, and the borrowed van is full already.
But the older I got, the fewer things I wished to accompany me to the next apartment. Every time I moved, I moved fewer things and gave up more. Before Korea, I threw out tons of old stuff, furniture, clothes, etc. But I also boxed up a bunch of things that, at the time, I thought were indispensible, and left them in my Grandmother's basement. That was 14 months ago, and now I can barely remember what it was that I boxed up or why I thought those things were so important.
And my grandmother, in her patient wisdom, predicted this would happen the day I asked to use her storage space. "Your aunt left 10 boxes of things in the basement when she moved to Toronto. She said it was all necessary and now she doesn't want any of it. I just want you to remember that!"
And then there are the books. I must have eight boxes of them down there, and I never knew which ones or how many to drag around with me when I moved about. I don't even know why I kept them at all; I rarely re-read the ones I've read, and about half I've never read more than a few pages of... and may never finish. I think when I go home, it'll be time to clean house... I'm going to try my best to pass along most of my old books to the used store on Fort st., and send most of my kitchen stuff to the goodwill. The piano books will have to stay with me.
And I think it will be time to say goodbye to the desktop computer. What's the point? All they do that laptops don't is play games and music louder and better. I don't need that.
The reason all this is in my mind is because I'm right now in the process of downsizing everything I have in Korea into one travel backpack, for Europe/India come January. Mailing things home is for the most part more expensive than the value of the things I'd like to mail. It's frustrating and painful, trying to plan this sort of trip from a foreign country, especially having lived here for more than a year, and not coming back before returning home to Canada. I cannot leave anything behind that isn't to be trashed or given away.
Comments
But man, your situation IS pretty intense, since you won't be dropping anything off in Canada first!