Moving from one apartment/house to another is one of those tasks that seems to always take more effort than planned.  Still, in between two final exams, I managed to pack up most of my things, so that when I finished this afternoon, I could drive down from my grandmother’s place and start hauling bags and boxes.  I kept things pretty minimal throughout my stay at ‘the Arbor’ (the university apartment building in the Bronx, where I’ve been since October), but between the kitchenware, computer paraphernalia, books, papers and clothing, I pretty well filled up the car.  The whole process took around two hours.  Thank goodness there was no furniture.

I’ve always thought that it would be nice to live in a way that if you needed to, you could pack all your belongings into two suitcases and be ready to hit the road on an hour’s notice.   Not that I necessarily want to move frequently mind you, but the freedom to do so would be quite welcome.  In practice, that’s proven just about impossible.  I did live that way in Paris for 5 months, but I depended on my hosts for a good deal.  The difficulty in general though is that living minimally requires sacrifices that in the medium and long-term are not so fun.  A small computer screen.  No cooking at home.  Very few photographs or mementos.  Etc.

Now all my things are packed in my grandmother’s attic, save for the few I’ll need this summer.  I’ll probably have to make my next move at the end of the summer.  Hopefully that one will be relatively painless as well.