*POST YOUR DRAFTS* Movin' Along...

I found this old post in my drafts from December of 2011 when I was just fresh back in Minneapolis from my eight-month-trip-to-Central-and-South-America-then-two-months-with-my-parents-and-then-four-months-working-in-New-Orleans-and-Tucson-trip and I was trying to get my house rented out so I could work-all-summer-and-live-in-Larry-and-Chris'-basement-and-then-leave-for-my-two-months-in-Eastern-Europe-and-then-two-months-in-India-trip -- ANYWAY I regarded the draft as marginally interesting because it's about what life is like when you don't have anything but yet you have way too much, and I'm talking about stuff. Maybe you'll find it marginally interesting too -- thanks for your patience while I suffer from "severe writer's block" and "my life is a little boring right now".



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I'm living in Minneapolis again! It's so good to be "home", even if only temporarily.

I've been staying in the house that I own this month while I search and prepare for the next renters by doing little things like replacing furnace and fridge filters, adding lint traps to the washing machine drain pipe, replacing light bulbs, broken light switches and re-caulking the two bathtub/showers. The place is completely empty except for a borrowed air mattress that I've set up in my old bedroom with some bedding and a nightstand that I found in my little little storage corner in the basement:

This bed also serves as a couch, dining room table, and office desk.

I was so happy that I had saved this bedding.  Without it I would have been sleeping right on a plastic air mattress.  And with it I have a little bit of normalcy in this totally empty house.  

Other things I'm totally happy I saved:

• A couple bath towels and hand towels.
• A set of pots and pans.  
• An electric kettle.
• Four cereal bowls.
• Two tumbler style water glasses that are doing double duty as wine glasses.
• Two travel coffee mugs and a coffee cup.
• Miscellaneous mixing spoons, wooden utensils and a spatula.

I have enough to get by and a heck of a lot more.  

The little corner storage area is about four feet by six feet, and about eight feet high. I had filled it completely full and all the way to the ceiling with all of my worldly belongings that didn't fit in the backpack I brought with on my trip around the world. I called that really simplifying and downsizing. But when I got back, I was completely overwhelmed with the stuff in there. Looking at it made me feel claustrophobic and trapped. I thought, 'there's no way I could fit all of that into my car.' And I don't want to own more stuff than can fit in my car.  

It was pretty interesting to see what exactly I felt was worth saving in January 2010 when I last lived here. I found a laundry basket filled with hangers.  Dumb.

I found a roll of tin foil, boxes of zip lock bags, a pair of three-and-five pound weights. An office chair. Clearly some of the items in my storage area were only there because they didn't sell at the huge garage sale I had before I left. I spent the better part of a Saturday going through and getting rid of at least 40% of it. Seriously there was a lot of garbage in there. Garbage. It is so much easier parting with the ridiculous when returning to your "home" after two years of being completely "homeless". You just realize exactly what you do and do not need to live.

I took photos of the stuff I felt I could sell and put them on Craigslist. Within an hour I had sold an electric guitar I haven't played in ten years and three Rubbermaid tubs' worth of picture frames. I also sold my old compost bin. $355 went straight into my India savings account.