Costa Rica Cost Of Living Update: 4 ounce jar of Parmesan cheese at the beach- $8
Even though I am moving from one furnished house to another, I found that things stick to me like static cling.
I thought I kept my life simple… if simple was defined by three suitcases of books, a partially functioning fax machine, and a junk drawer that has enough gadgets and doo-dads to install that waterless composting toilet my husband keeps raving about.
Moving is a great reminder that we all accumulate too many things, and happiness is usually aligned with owning less.
So now I’ll attempt to thin out my belongings and get back to why I moved here in the first place. But to the dismay of my husband, I’m keeping the ABBA CD. It’s not my fault he is incapable of appreciating aluminum foil-wrapped Swedish pop icons.
I recently moved and thought I had thinned out a lot of stuff before the big day. Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite enough, I could have thinned out a lot more.
It’s strange, no matter how much stuff you thought you got rid of, there is plenty more unaccounted for. And in the end, it all makes you feel so weighed down. Always best to travel light.
When I first moved here, I got rid of mostly everything. Somehow, along the way, I’ve acquired “stuff” again. It isn’t much, but when you move everything counts, even that ream of paper you just bought. Now that extra pair of flip flops just looks like clutter to me.
I do have the ABBA cd on my computer, but just in case it crashes, I don’t want to miss out on my dose of Dancing Queen. Oddly, for as much joy it brings me, it brings the opposite reaction to my husband. Don’t understand why, who wouldn’t love a group who wears aluminum foil for underwear?
No, no, nooooo! No way can you dump the ABBA CD! But… can’t you simply copy it to your computer/ipod?
That said. Welcome to My World. A most daunting world whereby (given my plan to move lock, stock ‘n barrel to Vietnam in 6 months) most bloody-well EVERYTHING must go.
And THIS from but a 1 BR apartment – already seriously trimmed down from a 3 BR/2bath home on Vashon Island a few years ago.
Ah but ’tis true – slimming down to but the bare minimum is ever so deliciously freeing. I remember when I sold most everything and put the rest into a small storage locker (on 2 different occasions) and was left with absolutely NO KEYS on my keychain (well o.k. save for the single key to the storage locker.)
Who knew? It was the absence of KEYS that freed me from the handcuffs of “stuff”!