I came across a blog called The Path Less Pedaled and it got me thinking. It’s the blog of devoted cyclists Russ and Laura, who are paring down their lives to the items they can carry on their bicycles, and setting off across the country to look for other people living life in a unique way.

Before they can set off on their dream journey however, they first need to figure out what to do with all of their stuff.

They didn’t just want to throw everything away, they wanted to find homes for as many of their possessions as possible. Which meant figuring out who, exactly, could use things like 16 mix tapes and 12 pairs of men’s shoes, and how to get their items to those people.

Russ and Laura are creative people in their work-he’s a eco-friendly bicycling photographer, she’s an art jewelry maker-and I’m finding it fascinating to read about them. And it’s also making me look around my house and think, why exactly do I have all this STUFF?

Take, for example, Kaitlyn’s room. Every couple of weeks I start at one end and pull everything out from under her bed, reshelve the books, put the dollhouse furniture back in the dollhouse, pick up the pieces of chalk and the Fisher Price Little People and the ponytail holders, and for a day or two it’s perfect.

And then it goes back to being the room of a three year old girl who already owns too much stuff.

I take complete responsibility for the problem, because I’m the one who thinks oh, she likes Little People, and here’s some on sale at Target, I’ll buy her more! Even though she was perfectly happy playing with the ones she had and didn’t ask me to buy more.

I’m the one who for some reason thinks that if one is good, two is better. Just look at my cookbook shelf or my totebag collection for proof of that

On Russ and Laura’s blog is a photo from another blog of a couple moving from New York to Africa.  There are just a few small packing boxes in the photo. I also remember once reading a blog written by a Mom who was preparing to move with her husband and child to Australia, and they had to pay per pound for anything they shipped with them, so she was paring everything down to the bare minimum.

Just imagine, for a moment, trying to pare down your whole life to just a few boxes. Or, to have only the clothes that will fit in a small backpack on the side of a bike.  Imagine getting ready to move to another country and telling your kids they can only take one small box of books and toys.

Could you do it?

There must be a reason why I’m so attracted to blogs like The Path Less Pedaled, you know? Or the article I once read that I’ve never forgotten, about a woman who lived in Alaska and owned only one of each thing she needed. One fork, one knife, one spoon, one plate, one pencil, one pillowcase, etc. Even when I lived by myself in an apartment for one summer, I had more than one of each thing.

There are things I have that make me happy, that I use and enjoy. And there are things I have that I just…have.  I don’t have a clever ending to this post, I just wanted to write all this down so I could process the thoughts. Thoughts about stuff.

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