Baggage

I move a lot. By a lot, I mean that I can remember living in 18 different houses in the last 17 years, and apparently there were quite a few more in those early years before my memory decided to differentiate properly between my bedroom in house A and my bedroom in house B. That'll be shifted up to 20 pretty soon, as in a little over a week I'm moving back to Scotland  into a summer let before moving yet again into the flat I'll live out my undergrad education in.

As you can imagine, I've become pretty good at packing over the years.  Even so, the concept of moving 700 miles by train (four trains, to be exact) is somewhat alarming. Especially since I'll be travelling alone without anyone to offload excess baggage on. A medium suitcase, a 65l rucksack and a handbag are all the space I have to fit everything into. Plenty, right? Now, bear in mind that although my room was furnished, living in Belgium for 10 months I still needed bedding, storage spaces, a bin, a kettle, and all of those bits and pieces that make up the "necessities" of life. Suddenly that space seems tiny.

I may be able to squeeze all sorts of things into packing boxes and moving trucks, but fitting all of these necessities, plus my clothes and mountain of study materials, in a suitcase and rucksack seems kind of impossible.While looking into selling the lamp/kettle/bin/etc. I found myself musing on what the "necessities" of life really are in material terms. Think about it - how long do we hold onto things we never use, clothes we never wear, and other supposedly "sentimental" items?

Will that cinema ticket or concert stub really mean that much a few years down the line? Okay, today it is a reminder of a wonderful date or night out with friends, but 5 or 10 years down the line I doubt you'll pick it up and instantly remember that great night. Or if you do, it's more than likely that you'd remember it anyway without that little scrap of paper. Not that some things aren't truly sentimental and really do have value and importance as physical reminders and souvenirs of the important times and people in your life - I have some things I've kept for years (my first teddy bear comes to mind). More often than not though when I go back and look through the box I keep all that stuff in I find it's lost its shine.

One benefit of my near-constant moving is having the opportunity to sort through everything at least once a year. I may have a storage space back in Scotland for all the things I couldn't bring to Belgium (books, kitchen equipment and bedding mostly, with a table thrown in for good measure), but if I hadn't had a thorough clear-out before storing everything I'd be returning to a pile of useless things and faint reminders of good times that live on in full technicolour in my memory. Instead, I'll return to a collection of things that are genuinely necessary for my preferred standard of living.

Life would be a lot less cluttered if we all went through our baggage and asked ourselves "do I really need that?" Otherwise, we'll just find ourselves dragging it around in the years to come.