2 shrinking

I accidentally packed the draft of this newsletter up, and spent a frantic few minutes looking and hoping it wasn’t packed too deeply.

Two years ago we moved to Wellington entirely contained within our 2001 Honda Logo. Not much was certain back then, but we were clear on one thing - we’re not moving like that again.

Well, we’re doing it again. A combination of expediency and economy has us fitting our whole life back into the hatchback, albeit with some greater priority given to leg room. This is good preparation, in a way; caravans are not known for being spacious.

We’ve had to make some tough calls. None of the furniture comes with us. Collection of jars? Given away. Multiple reams of second hand paper? Won’t fit. Those board games can go in smaller boxes. We don’t need this many plates.

January sees many homes cleaned out, and op shops overwhelmed with whatever didn’t make the cut. So, when people like us turn up with a carload of precious-but-not-enough-to-keep items, more often than not we are turned away. We found better luck if we just drop a bag off here, a box there. But it’s a little bit wounding to have the treasured goods you are reluctantly parting with rejected by an op shop.

Of course, some things we own for no rational reason. I haven’t played my cornet for at least a year. Erin has a non trivial amount of craft resources. These make no small demand on our space. But we won’t be getting rid of them. As we go into the most definitive act of home-making in our lives, these things are the seeds of our character in our new home. Many people don’t have this privilege. In Australia, around 2,000 homes have burned down. People have gotten out of the fires with little more than their lives. For what we have we are grateful. We will adjust to life with little, but we will still have so much,

At least, enough to fit into the car.

The title of next week’s newsletter will be Travelling.