Thursday 8 August 2013

Packing

Some of our stuff goes into storage tomorrow, so we can do up our flat. Realistically, we're not going to be able to sell quickly, so it's more of a long goodbye for six months than a long weekend away.

I think I'm fairly ruthless and pragmatic about these things; I've only kept what I think I'll need. Books, cookery books and kitchen gadgets, clothes and the wee man's baby gear has been packed away or stored fairly efficiently. 

Even so, there have been a few things that I couldn't help but look over, or read, before they went away. Novels, mainly. Not impressive ones, but historic chick lit and pulp sci fi that had survived previous purges and I had to remind myself why. But after, well, possibly too many minutes with each, I reminded myself of my Kindle and that it wasn't goodby forever, and put them in the box.

I can't bear to put away some things, though, even impractical ones. There aren't many. So far, they are:

My 2001 travel guide to the whole of Eastern Europe. It is massively out of date, even to the point that some countries it features have since split up. But then, it has maps, and city descriptions, and ever since I've bought it (which was for the most tame holiday I've had in my life; a package trip to Bulgaria), I've used it as an initial guide to plan some fantastic trips I will long remember. Within the last few weeks, I've flicked through it again, trying to figure out a child-friendly route around Poland...

My spice grinder. I've had it for about ten years too now. It came as a present, a food processor with a juicer attachment. I never used the juicer much and the blender jug was broken ages ago. I actually packed it and then pulled it out, because I need it to grind spices for everything from Indian curries to Hungarian sausages, and it would feel a bit miserable to do without them until whenever we move.

A selection of cookery books: A couple of Hairy Bikers, the canon Nigella Lawson, the Wahaca book - I went for recipes that had a wide range of different cuisines. I must not start collecting receipe books again before we move.

 My blue coat: I got it before the whole IVF thing kicked off. It's deeply unfashionable now. It was in the charity shop pile, but I pulled it out. Because I quite like it, if for nothing else.

What couldn't you live without?


2 comments:

  1. I need to do a purge, but just haven't been able to get myself in the mood to do it. There are some boxes that we haven't really touched since we moved here a year ago and I am thinking all of those things can go, but in reality, some of it is memory stuff and keep sakes.
    As for what I can't do without...no clue. I love my food processor (so easy and versatile), some books and some stuff that was my mom's. They couldn't be gotten rid of or hidden away.

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  2. yep, cookery books, a few favourite ones, including 'wild about brownies'. My kitchen knife.
    But I've moved places/countries in the past with just 20 kilo of luggage often enough to go long times without all of my clothes/shoes/musical instrument/kitchen stuff/ten extra pair of glasses.
    As long as I can make a pot of tea and light a candle I'm OK.
    (just wondering if this has anything to do with feeling rich when loads of my stuff is laying about the place?)(DP thinks I'm a sloven)(sorry, don't know the modern word for that ;-) ! )

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