I Got Rid of Half My Wardrobe — and I’ve Never Felt Freer

The uplifting effects of giving away your possessions

Photo by Sarah Brown on Unsplash

I travel a lot — or to be more accurate, I move around a lot (I’m what many people would categorize a digital nomad). For shorter-term trips I’ve become a pro at packing light, but when I’ve actually lived somewhere for an extended period of time it’s been easier to start accumulating more clothes and belongings. I bring more to begin with, and then I pick up additional toiletries, clothes, and shoes as needed (or desired).

Now, I’ve never considered myself to be a clothes horse — when I watched Confessions of a Shopaholic I remember enjoying the story but struggling to understand the character’s motivation — but somehow I’d still managed to collect quite a large array of dresses, blouses, trousers, and even bathing suits (despite being in a cold, Northern European country) prior to a recent move. And, perhaps unsurprisingly, the night before my flight I found myself on my living room floor with my suitcases and belongings spread out around me, trying to figure out how I was possibly going to fit it all in without going over the airline’s size and weight regulations.

I had a couple of options. I could theoretically post some of my things to my new address in a box. Or, I could suck it up and pay the fee for going over my checked bag’s weight…