When Will I Ever Learn?
Once upon a time, about three months ago while packing up to move to Shanghai, I realized I had too much stuff.
Being materialistic to an incredible degree, it was a quite new kind of day for me. It’s one of the things I thought I’d never admit, not even to myself. While trying desperately to stuff my entire 19 years of life into a 20 kilo suitcase, the amount of luggage you can bring onto an air plane without high extra fees, I finally understood what my dad has been trying too tell me for as long as I can remember: “You simply own WAY too much!”
I realized I the same thing once more after happily trying to forget it for two months, when moving from one room to another in the apartment I share. It took me over a day just to move my things, which I though I had full control over, from a room I hadn’t been staying in for more than a few months. I had already acquired more stuff than I could handle.
I had exactly the same problem even when going home from Shanghai for Christmas a few weeks after moving rooms, as I had when I left Norway. There was just too much things to bring. And I weren’t even planning on bringing much. I made a list of things I felt I absolutely couldn’t leave behind, and suddenly it was three A4 pages long! When I left, I “only” brought with me 13 kilos, after heavily slimming down what I thought I needed.
I just love my things, my books, clothes, shoes, CDs, make-up, dictionaries, art pieces, hair products, camera equipment and not to mention all my jewellery and junk. I’m the kind of person who brings 24 kilos, 4 kilos overweight, when just going on a two week holiday where you technically shouldn’t be needing more than 5.
It’s like what Carrie Bradshaw exclaims in the Sex and the City series: “I like my money right when I can see it – hanging in my closet.” Except I don’t mind it laying around the house either.
However, when I get back to Norway again in May, a lot of those things are going away on Ebay.