My Life in 50lbs or less

Joe and I will cross the Atlantic on November 1st. Due to his repeated business travel across to Europe and back, he has some kind of special status with United, and we will each be able to check 2 bags for free (in theory anyway). Each of these bags may only weigh 50 pounds at maximum, or we will be charged an overweight baggage fee.

Smart people know how much their suitcase weighs before they arrive at the airport, and are not surprised by the red number on the scale. They have planned accordingly, and they will not have to pay the airline another fee. If you plan accordingly, there is no reason for a bag to be overweight.

Right now, I am in the planning phase. Carefully packing, and repacking my suitcase to make sure I am below that magic number. Yesterday, I packed up 1 of my suitcases, and it weighed about 45 pounds. Yay! Underweight! However, I found myself wondering if I really needed all of the things in my suitcase, which led to unpacking and evaluating my choices this morning.

[Sidebar] Due to the German visa system, we are returning to the States for Christmas and will be resuming our European living experience sometime in 2012 when all of the paperwork is good to go. As such, this will be a quick 6 week sojourn in the Regensburg serviced apartments.

I will not be gainfully employed like my husband and will be responsible for occupying myself for 8 hours a day: I need to pack my entertainment. For me this includes what I like to call "Susie-homemaker crafts", such as sewing and knitting, both of which regularly engage my attention. For me, this means accounting for the weight of the sewing machine in my suitcase. It weighs 20lbs. The suitcase itself weighs 10 lbs. Leaving me with just 20 lbs. for clothes, shoes, toiletries, etc.

In my 1st suitcase I have clothes, fabric, sewing notions, beads, some books, and some shampoo. Today I unpacked it and reviewed my choices. I managed to eliminate 11 lbs. and 11.8 oz. from my suitcase. When packing, we tend to just toss everything in. For instance, I knew I wanted to make some jewelry while I was in Europe, so I packed my bead boxes. Today I examined my bead boxes and realize that I didn't need to bring ALL of my beads, only the ones I intend to use, and for which I have a definite plan. Using this theory, I managed to bring my bead weight from 4lbs down to 2lbs. This may seem negligible, but that is 2lbs I can re-disperse elsewhere.

The main points for packing intelligently:

• Think about what you are taking, and put the heaviest things in your carry-on bags, because these are not weighed by the airline; examples include shoes and books.
• Weigh your baggage before you go to save time.
• Pack things that have multiple uses, example do not bring a shirt that you can only wear with a single pair of pants. This is impractical.
• Wear the bulky clothes you will want with you on the trip; they won't take up space or contribute to your weight allowance.

Moving Detritus

The boxes of non-essentials are packed. This was not difficult. You don't miss the things you don't use on a regular basis, so you feel like you are ahead of the game when you look at your box pile. You think reassuring thoughts, "I've totally got this!" or "We really don't have much packing left". This is your brain lying to you. You have tons of things left to pack, and dozens more decisions to make on the items that go into the box.

I find myself staring at an old backpack of mine. It's an LLBean messenger bag that barely got any use. I realized that it was much to large to carry on one shoulder without pain, so I stopped using it at all. It was in almost new condition. And had my initials on it, KRM. Wait. Those are not my initials anymore. So why have I kept it this long? Who knows. But it stuck around until just now, when I packed it up to donate to the thrift store.

Clothes were actually among the easier items to pack up. Have I worn this in the last 6 months? Do I plan to wear it in the coming months in Europe? Will I want to wear it 1 YEAR from now when we return? If the answer to these questions is no, then it goes in the donate bag.

Those strappy stilettos I bought to wear to a party and promptly kicked off after an hour, and then never wore again? Donate. The rotating spice rack that was too large for my counter? Donate. The tea/soup mugs that were unwieldy? Donate. That part is easy. Saves room in a box and de-clutters my future.

But what about those things that aren't so easy to sort and separate into useful and useless? What do I do with the tiny boxes of pencil lead? Sure, I haven't depleted a pencil of it's included lead since sophomore year of high school when taking algebra II and chemistry, but what if I need it? What if I have to tape something up? The scotch tape stays out. I am paralyzed with indecision over what to do with the ten chapsticks I lost while we lived here and have now found since we have no furniture for it to hide under. I know I will lose chapstick again in the future, but I also know I don't want to carry around 3 tropical glitter tubes.

I call items like these moving detritus.

This debris, plus my absolute essentials are now what I am contending with. If I toss it in a box, I know that it will stay in that box for AT LEAST a year, possibly longer because I am sure that when we get into our new stateside place, I will be just as confused over how to treat it; useless or useful. Therefore, it will wait in the box while I try to make up my mind, taking up space.

I think the point of moving is to pare down the stuff you have acquired. Everyone has things that just sit around with no purpose whatsoever. And when you move, you have the opportunity to get rid of this stuff. It helps you, and it helps whoever is moving your stuff, because they will have less to carry.

Items stuck in the state of indecision will be either tossed in a box or tossed in the trash, and it will depend on the mood I am in at the time.