Shopping in my Closet

The past 10 months have been a non-stop opportunity to re-evaluate my relationship to possessions. Of course, we all know it is much easier to get new stuff than get rid of stuff, but I had no idea how hard it was going to be not to accumulate new possessions. I am traveling light and have done a good job not to get new 'stuff'. Three months in Europe and all I bought was one scarf. But now that I am regrouping it is a greater struggle not to get attached to the things from the storage locker.

We arrived back in Arizona a few days ago and are spending a month here before heading to South America for the winter. The first thing we did was visit our storage space. When we sold our home we sold or gave away most of our furniture and possessions, but we are storing some living room furniture, bedroom furniture, and our clothes. 

This is literally everything we own 

Franklin warned me that the storage lockers were packed tight floor to ceiling and I probably would not be able to find my camera. It is sad but true. It is cheaper to buy another camera than hire movers to all this stuff around. But I do want a camera for our next year of travel. The thrill of iPhone photography has worn off and I need more zoom than the phone offers. I like my old camera and have extra batteries and a charger so it makes sense- at least to me- to buy the identical 5 year old camera. 

Even without having access to most of the items we are storing,  I did find some treasures as I went shopping in my closet. First of all, everything is exactly my size and my taste which makes this much better than shopping in a store. I have not ventured yet into the wardrobe boxes that hold most of my clothes, (partially because one is 6 or more feet in the air) nor gotten into my bureau. I just found some misplaced items but each one delights me. Two or three new dancing outfits, a cashmere sweater, a denim jacket, some dancing shoes, a shawl, my bicycle. Every find is a thrill. It is just my taste! I don't see anything I don't love because I gave away everything I didn't love last year. 

When I say misplaced items what I mean is this. Our house sold the first day on the market and we had only 10 days to move out. I had already been selling things online for a year so some of the furniture was already gone but during those last 10 days I gave away three truckloads of furniture. And while I don’t remember it clearly,  at the very end someone must have been just throwing random stuff into boxes. Anyway, I could access a couple of boxes with mismatched stuff which are kind of fun to look through. but make no sense. A bicycle helmet, a sweater, a purse, old letters. Combinations like that. 

Scottsdale looks wonderful to us too. What a beautiful town! Indeed I have fallen in love with it again, particularly after it elected a Democrat senator for the first time since 1988. 

Anyway, the living out of our car portion of our travels is over for a while. We head out soon on a cruise to South America. We're not sure where we are going or how long we'll be gone but plan to continue our usual Portland/Canada/Portland life late next spring. I'll be blogging again, as I usually do when I travel. Talk to you again soon.