Three bags full

We have 2 nights left in Wales before jumping on our first plane to Colombo on Monday. Some of you will have felt that we left weeks ago given we actually left our house over 3 wks ago. It has been a bit of a gradual (or you could say drawn out) process. That was always going to be the case. That was the only way we felt all the moving parts could be managed. I am sure if we had packed up our life, work, house, belongings and bags for a year travelling on one day, and then got on a plane the next, we would’ve managed... just. By doing it in stages we have been able to enjoy some of the process of leaving and feel like we have had a life deep clean in the process…

As much as I fight having too many on my fridge or on the wall, sometimes, an inspirational quote just hits the spot and resonates with the right here and the right now. I have seen two such quotes this week which have pretty much exactly summed up how we are feeling at this point.

We have had some really wonderful times with friends both at work and at home as well as family and friends close and far over the last few weeks. You know who you are. We feel very privileged to have such awesome people in our lives and will miss you all but hope you will have us back in your lives again next year without too many objections.

We have always been fans of making memories and doing things that speak volumes in years to come when looking at photos or reminiscing… but… I never realised how many ‘things’ we have in our life. How. Much. Stuff.

In the last three weeks we have whittled our belongings from a whole houseful to 3 bags full. We are not hoarders and not minimalist. We are somewhere in between, perhaps towards the hoarder end of the spectrum if I was honest. From now on I am going to really try and keep ‘things’ to a minimum.

Our house is looking so lovely for the people renting it that I would like to try and keep it like that when we get back. ‘Yeah, good luck with that!’ was the response when I said this to a friend recently. It is, however, quite liberating to think we have what we have with us for the next year and that is it. Ok. If we have missed something major we can buy it on the road but actually I think we will start thinking a bit more about the ‘things’ that we buy and whether we really do need it.

So. The three bags full are packed. The rest has not made the cut. See you on the other side...