"Too Much Stuff" Club

This past week has been a busy one for PM and I. While others were enjoying their long weekend relaxing, we were busy getting ready for the movers to come today. We thought of ourselves as people who don't have much stuff. Well, when you pile it all together in the corner of your apartment and watch the piles grow from a corner to a wall to half our apartment, we started to rethink that with the help of several apartment maintenance employees who weren't shy about holding back their thoughts about how much stuff we have. I felt the need to try and defend myself for why we had that much stuff. I explained we would be gone for two years. I explained about our consumables (shampoo, lotion, laundry soap, toothpaste, etc for two years), but I was still faced with heads shaking about how much stuff we had. 

I looked at those piles a little differently after those conversations. Where did this all come from? A year ago, we were both were able to place all of our earthly possessions into two 50 lbs suitcases each. And now, our apartment looks like this! What happened? Then I thought, well, we did get married, so there are quite a few wedding presents here. And we do have a large amount of consumables. I glance back at the piles, maybe we went overboard trying to estimate just how much shampoo and face wash we really do need for two years? It was all just a guess. Last night when turning off the lights at bedtime, I looked at those piles one more time, turned off the lights and thought, "There is nothing more I can do. I guess I will just cross my fingers and hope when the movers come in the morning it all works out alright."

This morning the piles were still there. I had kinda hoped they would disappear in the middle of the night. I know most of our stuff is useful and we definitely want it, but when you see it all piled up in one spot, there has to be a way to live with less stuff. I just happened to log onto the foreign service spouses Facebook group, and a lady had just posted about feeling embarrassed when she packs out due to the vast amounts of stuff. I guess we are now card carrying members of the "too much stuff" club.

HHE: We are allotted 7,200 lbs. This stuff will travel by boat and take around 3 months to arrive in China.

UAB: We got 450 lbs here and used it all (I had to pull more out of HHE to meet the weight limit). This stuff will travel by airplane and hopefully will get there a week or two after we arrive.

The movers show up and as I bring them to our apartment, they ask me if we have a lot of stuff. I tell them I didn't think we did, but when it's all piled together, it looks like it and I've heard comments agreeing with that. I open the door to our apartment and point to our piles. The movers take one look at these massive, heaps of stuff and ask, "Where is the rest of it." I tell them that's it. They shake their heads and say, "No. No. You have maybe 1,500 lbs of stuff. This will be easy." So I guess our membership in the "too much stuff" club had been revoked. I promise to cut up our cards immediately. Although, 1,500 lbs still seems like a lot of stuff. Maybe we better keep our cards on standby. 

Three hours later, PM and I are left with four 50 lbs suitcases, a clean apartment, and the hope that all our stuff survives its journey to the other side of the world. Bon voyage stuff! See you in China!

Nothing left but a few scraps on the floor.