Traveling Light

Lately, in two of the few bogs that I "follow" the writers have mentioned traveling light. And someone I know has been talking about it too.

In my travels, this is something that I have tried to do but have had a hard time doing. And in my life? I would say even more so. After all, this blog is called (URL'd) aclutteredlife because that is what I was thinking about, really pondering over, when I started it.

Just now, thinking about traveling light prompted me to try googling those words. Thus, I came upon a very interesting blog, find it if you care to. Here, I just want to say that this guy had definitely mastered the art of traveling light, in the literal sense. In his post, he video blogged and wrote about what he was taking with him on a trip he was about to go on (to Hawaii). His items included travel underwear, an extra absorbent towel, and several other items perfect for the well prepared traveler. I started to say "a bunch of stuff for traveling", however that of course was the point, that he didn't have a bunch of stuff.

Reflecting some on this subject of traveling light I started thinking about one of my experiences moving. When I moved back to Georgia from Hawaii, it was a hard time in my life and it was a difficult decision. I wanted to come back because both of my parents were dying. But, I wanted to stay in Hawaii, too.

So, life has a way of making your decisions for you in some ways. I was just so very conflicted, I got sick and crazy, and began having major trouble sleeping and thus working. So in the end I came "home" to rest, and to take care of my parents. Sort of contradictory things but coming home was definitely a respite from the chaos that staying in Hawaii had become. Anyhow, I won't go into that in any greater detail.

So I'll get to the point about traveling light. The decision finally made, okay, I'm leaving. Now I had to make decisions about what to take, throw away or give away. That was a bit of an ordeal in itself. I had lots of stuff crammed into my studio apartment. Help! I was freaking out. First, I needed boxes - that was difficult because I didn't own a car. And I needed help to take the stuff to donate and the stuff I was sending home. I had trouble finding anyone willing to help. All my "friends" were too busy. People at my church, were reluctant.

I was working on trying to go through my stuff for several months, even before I had decided definitely that I was going. But I had been making very slow progress and a total disaster of my place. To give you some idea of my pack rat ways, I found that I had bags with empty boxes in them, and boxes with empty bags, lots of stuff like that. During this time, I had the thought that I was hiding behind all this stuff. Hmmm...

Anyway, finally I did get some help me and she was wonderful, a Godsend, my "declutter angel". I wasn't even looking for the kind of help she gave me, in this case, but maybe it was meant to be. I called this person to ask if she would like some of my furniture. Long story short, she came over and started helping me go through my stuff. If I remember correctly, it took several days. While we were doing this, I kept telling her she could make a living doing it. You know, by being one of those people who help people declutter their lives. She just seemed to instinctively know what I should get rid of. I only disagreed with her about a few things.

Two things I remember disagree about - and I just wanted to donate them, not keep them - were a chair and some spice jars (the kind that you buy from the grocery store). She said no, they have to go! The chair, a desk chair, was a bit worse for the wear but it swiveled which I thought alone made it worthwhile. Having been a secretary, and having had one at work, I found that I really liked having a chair that would swivel. And the jars I thought were great because I was in the habit of buying herbs and spices from health food stores and found the jars very handy to reuse for that purpose. But my declutter angel insisted that they had to go in the trash and "Don't you dare dig them out". She was driving so they went in the trash, not to the Goodwill. Hehe, I had thoughts of trying to carry the chair on foot, and it wouldn't have been too hard to take the jars, but I didn't. This wonderful assistant was not a Christian, BTW.

Not only did she help me on that occasion, but she invited me to stay with her if I ever wanted to come back for a visit. This I did do about two years later. All that for a couple of pieces of furniture and a few household items, a toaster oven and dishes, I don't remember what else, but it was stuff that she could really use. She being one of those people with the knack for "traveling light" did not want much of my stuff. Come to think of it, earlier in her life she had lived for a year in Italy and traveled all over, maybe she learned something of the knack that way.

Some of my stuff that got given away didn't go to the Goodwill. I donated a bookshelf and a bunch of mostly Christian books, and a few other things, to a local missionary group. I'm not sure they wanted them, but at one point someone in the group had said someone could help me, so when I called back and said is someone coming or not, someone came. It was two guys who however were not too thrilled about the assignment. I was slightly offended. I thought surely someone there would appreciate my book collection. Maybe they had enough reading material, I don't know.

I remember one of the books was called "The Next Time I Fall in Love." On the title page inside the book, I had written in under the title, the subtitle "Shoot Me." LOL I have often wondered if anyone noticed, or anyone ever read any of the books.