Hello Friends,

If you’ve been following my blog for the last few weeks, you’ll know that Edie is off to Tashkent for a year.  As I write this, her plane is about to take off from Heathrow.

This is her case for the year.

She has had to pack for winter and summer.  The case contains a thick winter coat and snowboots, a couple of pairs of shorts and her work clothes.  She had to think very carefully when choosing what to take so that she could put together a number of outfits from a limited number of clothes.

When she went on her year abroad as part of her degree course, she took a lot of books and was over on her baggage allowance.  This time she has taken an e-reader and her case weighed 18 kg.

This has got me thinking that we could all manage with less stuff, and the exercise of living out of a suitcase for a year is an interesting one. It involves shopping consciously and deciding what is essential and what you can do without.

After we got back from holiday last year, I made a list of what I didn’t wear or use.  This year I left these things out of the suitcase and found I took a lot less stuff.  This year, there were one or two things which didn’t get worn, so I will try and cut down again next year.

I think this would be an interesting exercise to apply to other areas of the home and decide what I really need.

Have you ever had the experience of living with a pared down amount of stuff?  How did you get on?

Until next time, Tawney x