Packing Light

It started with a simple sentence when reminiscing with my husband about moving into our first apartment many years ago.

“You brought a toothbrush and clothes,” Scott said.

He wasn’t entirely wrong. There were no furniture or electronic contributions from me. No matching pan sets or cute shower curtains. However, he did forget to mention the quesadilla maker, which we still use regularly — thank you very much.

I thought back to my first experience with a roommate — my sweet college roommate and best friend, Kerry, from Catonsville, Maryland.

The organized planner that she is, Kerry called me ahead of move-in day. She excitedly said how she had a rug and TV to bring. The thought that we needed those things never even crossed my mind. I didn’t have a TV in my room growing up. I assumed I’d go to the common area to watch my favorite television shows. My husband thinks I’m such a weirdo for that thought. I stand strong that I would still do it, if I had to. Probably make a new friend in the process.

Again, I pretty much brought only clothes and a toothbrush, plus lots and lots of photos, a hand-me-down green quilt and the freshman essential shower caddy to my dorm room.

Fast-forward to several years later and a recent move to our hopefully forever home, and I haven’t changed much. I have more mementos of yearbooks, picture frames and swim team ribbons than beneficial adulting items.

My husband remains the person who saves everything. He’s like a Boy Scout. Bins and bins of first aid items, a panini maker, holiday decorations for everything from Halloween to Easter. Don’t even get me started with the 12 large bins of Christmas decorations.

Our daughter, Charlotte, constantly asks whose holiday decorations are whose. Aside from some of my childhood Christmas ornaments, “they’re always Daddy’s,” my husband and I say in unison.

Now in our forever home, I have a new mindset. Yes, I have had a history of bringing nothing to move. However, maybe a minimalist style isn’t so bad. Isn’t that what Marie Kondo has been telling us all along?

Lauren Burke Meyer is a Severna Park native who was inspired to write Lauren’s Law as a humorous play on the well-known Murphy’s Law adage: “anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.”