well-dressed foolish ideas

Very nearly four years ago, I moved my 2 suitcases and 2 rather small boxes from a fully furnished in old-lady-antique-style place across town into my (then) rather empty and echo-y new apartment. Tall ceilings and wooden floors throughout, a bathtub and meager lightbulbs dangling from the ceiling were just about the only extras I had. Two days later, a mattress arrived, courtesy of some burly delivery guys who spoke less German than I did. The kitchen was a bit lacking, what with only a sink and a stove/oven. Sans curtains, the windows let in the November sunshine. Slowly and seemingly neverendingly, I bought things to fill the place up. A bed frame here, a closet there, a kitchen replete with cabinets and a fridge. What more could a girl want? Shelving and a mirror above the bathroom sink made it into the place along with some bookshelves and books to fill them up. Hanging lamps exchanged places with the dull single bulbs and a sofa set filled in the living room. A whole gaggle of horizontal surfaces marched their way in and promptly were covered with bric-a-brac and pictures. Photographs and pictures were hung on the bare white walls, albeit never quite at the perfect angle. Shoe shelves and a chest of drawers to stash my ever-increasing collection of wearables made themselves at home. I fully embraced my role as a consumer and all of these home things are more than testament to my ceaseless dedication to consumerism.

Since May, I've had every intention of whittling it all down to the barest of essentials. The minimum requirement for settling into a place after a hop across the pond, if you will. And since May, I've found every excuse to not actually get stuck in. Until this week, that is. A kick in the ass and a watch tapping spectator - a flight reservation! I can just hear the reservation tsk'ing at me. "Not much time, lady! Get a move on!" it says. Obediently, I've sorted everything into piles - Ship over, Pack in bags for plane, Get rid of in a seedy dark corner of the city without witnesses, Properly and nicely dispose of like a good person, Haven't yet decided which pile and needs more consideration, Is this even mine?, This belongs to soandso, Soandso might like this so I'll ask if they want it - and from the looks of things, it seems possible that over the course of the week I've lost track of which pile was intended as which when I started. Some things have made their way into boxes, some things have made their way into garbage bags, of which I can currently count three in sight in just one room, and some things are sat inside open suitcases - of which I have FIVE?! (Since when and for what purpose I have five suitcases is completely beyond me.)

How I've accumulated so much stuff is such a mystery to me, and how I'm going to get rid of all of the unwanteds before that reservation date is upon me is an even greater mystery. If only I had started this three months ago...