TRAVELING THOUGHTS: ABOUT OWNING THINGS

I, Felicia, just came home from a month-long trip to North America and upon entering my room in dads appartment, I just felt like crying - not because that I hated to be home, or that I missed my overseas family (well, not only), but because the room looked like a bomb of things had exploaded inside of it.

There were things on the chair, things on the windowsill, things in heaps in the corner, and even if Jonathan had done a terrific job cleaning the floor, the room felt more like a storage unit than a place were we actually spend our life.

Have I always owned so many things, 

so much clothes? 

Do I need all of these things, like, really? 

Well, I knew the answer to the last question right away. There I stood, with all things I'd needed in four weeks, in just one suitcase. Of course I didn't needed any of the others things for my survival, but there in the doorway I suddenly realized I didn't needed any of it for my happiness either.

A perfect example of things you don't need but is oh so tempting to buy anyway. Pictures from our post on Baefong Lake in Zhangjiajie, China

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We are looking for an appartment now, something temporary, to store our minds and our bodies while saving up a new pile of cash for next trip. But I am so sick of living in the storage unit of all my previous unneccessary purchases.

Everything we needed fit in the tiniest space.
That kind of puts things, literally, in perspective.

On the train from Chiang Mai to Bangkok

It's really not that I'm a shopaholic.
Neither of us are, we think at least two times before we buy anything.
It's just that in a life, in a life when you stay at the same place, you're bound to stack up on things. You buy new clothes because you see something you want. You get a new perfume even though you already have one because you gotten tired of the smell. You collect stuff just for the sake of it.
We are like this, there is a feeling of satisfaction in knowing something is yours, only.

People living quite different lifes from ours on the streets of Hanoi, Vietnam

This year, we've seen people living on boats. We've seen people living under bridges,  we've seen whole families live in 20 square meters shacks by train stations.
It makes us realize that we live an extremely privileged life. But also that you don't really need any of the small things we buy every other day.

Houses on Tam Coc river, Vietnam

People living by the rails in Bangkok, Thailand 

When I think about all the traveling we could do if we hadn't bought frame or that Yankee candle, I get extremely regretful. It adds up to thousands of kronor that I could have created life memories of, instead of leaving on a shelf collecting dust.

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Trying to undo past mistakes, this will be the autumn of cleaning out our closet. Clothes are going, old toys are going, ornaments with no use are going. Selling, giving away, throwing. Everything goes?

We'll keep you updated.

Kisses

Felicia