How do I pack my whole world?

Hi! How’s it going? This month we are packing, unpacking and packing again, as for the first time we move with our sansar (संसार, world). I’ve never been so anxious before, not even for my exams! I’ve been torn between choices, what to keep vs what not to keep. To be or not to be resourceful. To be or not to be cost conscious.

I didn’t realize we had so much stuff in my house. Not a lot of is disposable, a lot of it was bought with durability in mind. I’ve sold and donated a lot of my stuff. I’ve recycled plenty. Yet, I have a lot of stuff left. When I decided to create two different piles, one for stuff that I ‘really’ need and one that I could do away with, I understood that I had bought some things that sufficed a short term need. Once the need was taken care of, things just took space and did nothing more than that.

I came to the conclusion that a part of me was in frenzy. As a kid I always wanted to have a bigger bhatukali (a playing house). So when we started creating our new sansar, I had to make my childhood dream come true. I’m not sure if the frenzy ever goes. Does it?

My mom’s a hoarder and so is my aunt, although they were saving for the future. Watching them I told myself that I wouldn’t do that because I did not want myself to be consumed by materials. But, here I am with a big pile of stuff that I thought I’d always need but don’t really need it.

So, what do I do now? Here are a few things I’m going to try when I’ve finally moved. With a lot of help from my husband, I’m going to take the pile I need to my new home. This gives me a fresh start to apply what I learnt. I’m going to keep my sansar short and sweet, assuming I’m going to move again even though we don’t want to, this way I don’t over buy. I will find clever ways to suffice my short term needs than to buy more stuff. Can you think of something else for us?

One of the challenges I faced was to convince my husband that we don’t need bubble wrap. Since we are shipping two boxes, I decided to bubble wrap one and not the other. Risky business, but I hope I will get to prove to him that there are more resourceful ways to do that.

Here are one tip for when you move. When you move cross country, look out for differences in laws when it comes to shipping goods across border. For example, while shipping your car or driving it yourself, make sure you understand the import and export requirements. We found out it was better for us to sell our car than to take it with us. What a shame, we loved our car and we bought it thinking we could keep it forever. Might help you decide whether to buy new car or to may be lease or reuse an older one.

How do we become a more responsible home maker? How do we optimize the need for resources? What do you do? What are your challenges? I’m just glad that some of our stuff found a second home.