In a house:
• furniture
• dishes
• computers (multiple)
• clothes for all seasons
• 20 pairs of shoes (rain boots, hiking shoes, high heels, sneakers, walking sandals,
strappy sandals, etc. etc. etc.)
• photo albums
• backup hard drives
• gardening equipment
• empty cardboard boxes
• empty reusable bags
• empty yogurt containers
• broken things you think you'll fix eventually
• spare keys
• many bottles of nail polish
• a library's worth of books
• 10 million chargers and cords
• everything old that might be useful someday
• everything your grandmother ever gave you
• your spelling bee trophy from fourth grade
In a single room:
• furniture, less
• dishes, fewer
• computer (one)
• as many clothes as you can jam in the closet
• only your favorite shoes
• all the photo albums
• forget the backup hard drive and your yellow walkman that still plays tapes and the
stupid trophy
• no more gardening equipment; there is no more garden
• a few boxes and just enough empty yogurt containers to store leftover soup
• your favorite 7 shades of nail polish only
• your favorite 70 books only
• only the chargers and cords for electronic devices you actually still own
• nothing old that no longer serves a purpose
• nothing broken
• only your grandmother's best oil painting of the rooftops near the river, and the silk
scarves she loved, and the rolling pin her own grandmother gave her
In a single suitcase:
• 7 pairs of underwear, 2 bras, 1 pair of jeans, 1 pair of yoga pants, 1 skirt, 3 T-shirts,
1 cardigan, 1 rain parka
• hiking shoes and sandals
• 1 "best of" photo album
• no backup anything
• no spare anything
• forget the dishes, you'll find some when you get there
• 1 empty plastic bag
• 3 books, chosen because they have the most pages and the smallest print and will
keep you occupied for the longest amount of time
• your phone charger and your laptop only
• nothing old OR new
• the prettiest silk scarf
In a small backpack:
• underwear, cardigan, 2 shirts, jeans
• only the shoes on your feet
• only the lightest book, with the best photos stuck inside
• the laptop (can't live without)
• nothing empty
• keep the scarf
In a shoebox:
• forget the extra clothes
• the laptop won't fit no matter how you try it
• a thick mass market paperback
• the scarf
• the photos
Inside your own fist:
• can you figure out a way to get the scarf inside, like a magician, so not even a tiny
corner of the blue paisley silk pokes out?
