Stuff...

And what to do with it

17/09/2011 - 17/09/2011

21 days left in the Netherlands...

4 more days of work...

1 house full of stuff, almost all of which I can't take with me...

A lot of people have been asking me to keep them posted on how my big trip abroad was going, so I decided to start this travel blog. Of course, I'm not quite gone yet, but to get into the spirit of things I decided to write at least one post before leaving you all.

The last year I've steadily been working towards leaving. First telling people what my plans were (reactions ranged from "Wow, that's so cool!", to "Doesn't that scare you?" and finally "Doesn't that scare your mom?!?"). Looking into what I might do with my house (thanks Erik and Marthe that you're going to take care of it (and more importantly, taking care of the mortgage! :-) )). Getting shots (why do I pay people to stick needles in my arm!?). And now I'm at the final stage: What am I going to take with me? And perhaps more importantly, what am I going to be leaving behind?

What am I going to take with me? How can you possibly bring everything you need for 9 months in a single backpack? Clothes for when it's warm, clothes for when it's cold? A game for when I'm bored? I'll need some plasters and painkillers and whatnot in case I get ill? I'd like to bring an instrument, but 3 kilo's of saxophone is just too much... Do I really need a pair of walking boots that weigh 1.2 kilo's?

But when thinking about this, I realized, there is so much stuff that I won't even consider taking with me! The hundreds of books I have, my work suits, my plants, my cutlery and plates... How come I can suddenly do without this? And do I really need it when I'm not traveling? Of course things are different when traveling; I won't be working so I don't need a suit and if I want to cook somewhere I expect them to have their own pans. But those books I might never read again? And do I really need 30 different shirts? I could of course just cart everything off to the attic and be done with it, but I could also give or throw away quite a bit of it. Uncluttering my old life before embarking on a new one?

21 more days to think about it...

Posted by b.d.reinink 17/09/2011 07:59 Archived in Netherlands