So last week as I was packing to go to Chicago I got to thinking about stuff. Not stuff in general, but actual volumes of stuff. When I traveled a lot I had packing down to a science. How to bring the least amount of stuff with me and still have all of the options I needed. A suit jacket over a nice blouse and skirt is good for the meetings during the day, switched to different shoes and ditching the jacket or changing the skirt for jeans and out you go for the evening. Jewelry was limited down to a pair of earrings in my head and if there was a formal event at the end of the conference a dressier pair tucked in the makeup bag. Makeup was limited to one set of neutral colors for eye-shadow with maybe one extra color tucked in for the final night. I could pack for a week with a single carry-on. And have room for my presentation materials. Always travel in something you could go directly to an event in just in case your flight was delayed. Pro.
Some of that has faded but I still tend to pack light when I travel. Which made me start thinking that maybe I have more stuff in my day to day living than I really need. If I could exist for 5 days on the road with only gray eye shadow do I really need green, brown, purple and all of the highlight colors as well? If I could live with just an outfit choice a day do I really need more than 7 outfits in my closet at any point in time? How about the shoes? I wore one pair and packed another and we all know even after the great broken foot purge of 2013 I still have a lot more than 2 pairs in the closet.
How much is enough?
Then we walked for miles and miles in the humidity and my sweaty feet on my leather soles gave me blisters on the bottoms of my feet. So switch out to the other shoes and we walked for miles and miles and the snug comfy shoes that are great here in Portland became torture devices as my pinky toes blistered up. What I needed was my tennis shoes. Not the ones I work out in but the ones that are just a touch too big so I could wear my cushioned socks. Both of which were back in Oregon. So maybe I couldn't really get rid of those.
And then when we got back in Oregon I was reminded that we have days like today. The high is supposed to be in the 80s by the end of the day so that means a skirt and a light blouse. But it wasn't quite 60 when we left this morning for haircuts and the clouds were so thick it was misting so that means jeans and even a light sweater and I can change later when it warms up. And since it's not really humid here I don't have to worry about sweaty feet sliding around in my shoes so I can go back to my sandals, but the silver ones since I am wearing a gray shrug this morning, maybe the tan ones would work later if I change but for now the silver. And no earrings this morning until after I get my haircut. But earrings later.
So maybe a little more than bare bones is enough.
And I really do want to get a new pair of good walking/hiking shoes that are a little stiffer than what I used to wear but not full out waffle stompers. And I still don't have much of a transition wardrobe, I have beefed up my summer selections but I don't have a lot of fall to winter things. And actually it's been so long since I shopped for sweaters that I should probably add a few more winter things as well.
So maybe a little bit more.
And with my new short hair I really would like a few more selections in the jewelry department. Maybe a collection of semi-precious stones for studs for the second hole and some more gold and silver hoops for the first? Or some other pretty dangly shiny things? Especially with as short as Sara went this morning I just feel like a pretty earring would add a nice touch.
So maybe a little more than just a little bit more.
And so it goes. I add stuff to the pile, then I take stuff away when I realize how big the pile has gotten.
We are thinking about moving in a few years and I've already started the pre-move purge. We have a lot of just things and if we do head to the city we are going to be cutting our square footage at least in half so the just things will have to go. Now if we move up to the hills they won't. So maybe I should wait until we find a place before I purge too much.
And as all of this stuff fills up the house it fills up my head too. But what to do about it all? How little can you get down to before you panic and add a lot of new stuff? I know I have purge issues. I tend to go in cycles where everything gets tossed out and I end up regretting it, thus the cooling off period between it going in the garage and actually going to Goodwill. And I also have weird sentimental connections with certain things, I have WAY TOO MUCH Christmas stuff, for instance. But I'm not sure the really austere life style would work for me. It's too tied to being poor in my head. I know that there are things I own that I don't need, don't even use, but there is a comfort for me in owning them that ties back to that. To knowing at a point in time I couldn't own them.
I know this about myself and I've learned to accept it. That owning a movie or a CD or a hardcover book (though I have started the switch to e-books) is as much about what that represents to me as it is about the actual thing itself. I guess knowing I have the choice between three different polka dotted skirts falls in to the same category.
How much is enough?
I'm not really sure, but I see a few experiments in my future....
No comments:
Post a Comment